News from the Nationals
First, in cross country racing, Ruby Dobson has twice been crowned Under 17 Australian Champion!
On Friday in the short track XC (XCC), despite coming off on the same corner twice, she still won by two minutes! Results here.
Then on Saturday in the Olympic distance race (XCO) she started as well as she finished, winning by 8 minutes! Results here.
Also on Saturday, in qualifying for the Downhill, Elise Empey qualified fastest and Bella Green fifth in the Junior Women Downhill plus Maddie Smith qualified fastest in Under 17 Women. GO Girls!
On Sunday, downhill finals day, Elise Empey won gold in the Junior Womens Downhill with a time good enough for second in Elite Women! Great work Elise.
And Maddie Smith won Bronze in the Under 17 Women.
Special mentions to Bella Green for a great ride for fifth in Junior Women and Zac Empey for 39th in the highly competitive Under 17 Men, improving 7 places. Here are the Downhill results.
A big hearty congratulations to all competitors and to their families for all their support… it’s a really proud result for the MMBCC.
Dirt Critters
We don’t hear enough from our Junior mountain bikers on Tuesday afternoons at Riflebutts, but thankfully, that changes this week.
Chain gang. Raced Critters and then Bogans. 1st Paxton Smith, 2nd Max O’Brien, 3rd Alastair Ross.
Trailblazers. Raced twice around Joyride. 1st Reuben Bateup, 2nd Ben Ross, 3rd Charlie Mountain.
Many thanks to Nicole Ross.
Dirt Crits
By Damian Grundy
On a perfect early autumnal eve a group of hardy off road bicyclists gathered to prove once and for all, who is the greatest amongst us.
Most expected a gravity-fed plummet to greatness. All were shocked to hear gravity was failing and cross country was to decide their fates.
Mr David Bock prevailed in a master class of grit and determination.
Young Charlie Hall was second and Luke Vivash was third.
Honourable mentions to the others: Daniel Hall, Daniel Friday, Charlie Dobson and one other who's name has been redacted.
Road Race
By Dave Moore
16 well-seasoned racers made it to the start of Thursday’s race on the Buller Road. The average age of the riders would have been in the mid to late forties (at least). It would be great to see some of our younger riders race again in the last few weeks of the season, or if not, next season.
The conditions were perfect for racing on the 22km out and back on Buller Road – turning just after Hearns Road. The aim for this course is to not get caught before the turn if at all possible as large groups often form ending up with a bunch sprint as it is notoriously difficult to drop any riders on the fast downhill return journey.
The riders were split into seven groups with Dave Bock starting first by himself, great to see Dave back after a long lay off due to injury. Many of the subsequent groups either lost a rider before the start or split up on the drag out to the turn – making the task of staying away that bit harder.
By the turn the remnants of a few groups had formed a new group of five containing Di Condie, Dave Jagger, Janine Appleton, Damian Grundy (also returning after an extended lay off), and Steve Duke. They were being chased hard by a another group of five that had formed when Chris Miller and Dave Moore caught Mauro Brega, Darren Bakker and Tom Macmunn on the way out.
True to form one supergroup of 10 formed near Pollards Road with only Steve Curnow and Tim Hall hanging on at the front of the race – would they stay away and contest the win between themselves? Despite their best efforts the answer would be no – a strong ride nonetheless.
Chris Miller and Dave Moore attempted to split the group on the race back to town with only very limited success. Chris Miller did the longest turn of the night approaching the finish with all attempts to get off the front ignored by all other racers.
So a sprint finish it would be – and what a sprint it was! There was significant discussion afterwards regarding rules of sprinting and a strong reminder that the number one responsibility of all riders is to ensure a safe race above trying to win at all costs. Either way Dave Moore managed to show a clean pair of heels to Tom Macmunn and was heard saying that it was the biggest achievement of his cycling “career” and that he would be dining out on it for years to come – especially when in Tom’s company!
Damian Grundy took an excellent third after his injury time out and the top five was rounded out by Chris Miller and Darren Bakker.
Thanks to all the volunteers how make the racing possible each week and thank you to all our fellow road users for their patience and consideration during the race.
See you next week for next weeks race.
Here are the results and thanks again to Tony Copland for the pics.
Join the MMBCC WhatsApp group
Want to keep up with what’s happening in and around the MMBCC - all the rumours, gossip and goings-on?
In this week’s news, it has been revealed that Dave Moore is not Irish, or Scottish, and he’s much older than he looks!
He’s actually Bulgarian, his real name is Dafo Moronov and he was a Soviet-era secret agent based in the northern suburbs of Sofia. In the early 70’s he was transferred to Britain to spy on best-selling author John le Carre and was the author’s inspiration for the novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Dave!
To find out more, join the club’s WhatsApp group by sending an SMS with your name and number to the group Admin, Will Calvert-Jones, on 0400 144 366.
Finally…
Interesting to note that with GreenEDGE’s new name, Team Bike Exchange, the UCI’s new three letter code for the team this year is BEX. For those old enough to remember BEX, it might be just what they need after an underwhelming start to the season.
“A cup of tea, a BEX and a good lie down” or “For quick relief from headache and pain - take BEX!”