A Nice Night for Nicknames
By Dario Cipollini (Mario’s chubby little brother)
A perfect temperature and windy conditions greeted the 13 racers on the start line at Lords Ground.
First off was John Eisner all by himself at 14.30, he was in for a hard ride but was looking fit. Next was Ian Conrick and David Jagger at 10.30 followed by Micheal Pearce and Steve Curnow at 7.30. Next was Team Smooth: Steve Duke, Ant Bateup, Tim Ross and Darren Bakker at 4 minutes. Then the next to go was team Power of Chris Miller, Bruce Halket, Steve Brown and Dave Moore at 3.30. The lonely Scratch rider was Josh ‘the Freak’ Hopwood.
This is what scratch rider Josh ‘the Freak Hopwood looks like riding solo.
All riders were doing it tough into the head wind on the way out, especially Eisner, who was doing a great job staying out in front of the other groups until after the turn around.
Meanwhile Team Smooth were motoring along; they caught Curnow and Pearce just before the turnaround and could see Jagger and Ian ‘the Hitman’ Conrick just behind Eisner who’d already rounded the corner.
After the turn for home Team Smooth lit it up with the tail wind but could see Team Power with all their riders and Josh had nearly bridged to them. Team Power sent Steve ‘the Beast’ Brown to the front to engage warp speed to try and bridge the gap to Team Smooth.
Meanwhile Team Smooth had picked up the rest of the field and were leading the race; Mick ‘the Hardman’ Pearce was still hanging in and swapping a few turns on his home track.
Team Smooth powering their way towards the finish line.
Team Power had been caught by Josh and were starting to think they could feature in the finish. Could Team Smooth hold off the rampaging chasers?
Five hundred metres the finish Team Smooth were still by themselves. That’s when Tim ‘the Tank Engine’ Ross went to the front and kicked in the turbo with the others barely hanging on to his wheel.
With 200m to go Ant ‘the Young Bull’ Bateup went to the front and wound it up even more, overtaking Tim with Darren ‘Fat Boy’ Bakker and Steve ‘Speedy Gonzales’ Duke in tow.
With a hundred to go Bakker kicked but couldn’t gap the Young Bull; it was a drag race side by side with Bakker winning by the slimmest of margins. They were followed by Duke and Ross.
Miller and Hopwood came in just 7 seconds behind followed closely by the rest of the riders.
Thank you to the officials and volunteers for an awesome race and to the Mansfield Hotel for their generous sponsorship. Thanks to Tony Copland for sharing his viewpoint from his camera lens.
Next week we’re racing on Whitfield Road, turning around at Long Lane and finishing on Graves Road - a ‘fun’ course which will give everyone a chance - even those without a nickname.
Dirt Crits Returns
Dirt Crits will start again this Tuesday 8th Feb, and it will be an event from the pain cave. Let’s see what we can devise for the first race back. Let’s see who has been doing sneaky kilometers over the break.
Upcoming Events
We have a large contingent of competitors travelling to Maydena, Tasmania for the Auscycling Mountain Bike National Championships commencing on the 14th of February. The week-long event will take place at Maydena Bike Park north of Hobart. It will be the largest number of competitors from MMBCC ever to attend a national title event. Our strong team of riders includes:
Ruby Dobson – XCO, XCC
Bella Green – Downhill
Selina Green – Downhill
Sam Mosley – Downhill
Zac Empey – Downhill
Elise Empey – Downhill
Matt Empey – Downhill
It is exciting for the club, and I can’t wait to see how they all perform.
Victorian State Championships - XCO
The Victorian State Championship (XCO) was announced Tuesday last week with a long run into the Saturday race for training and preparation! While it was tacked onto an existing Vic Championship Series event it was not one that the Dobsons intended to get to…. the race was located at the Red Hill MTB Park in Dormana on the Mornington Peninsula and supported by the Red Hill Riders Club.
Beautiful morning and a fantastic course with a long climb from the start straight into a flowing single-track course with a mix of technical (rooty) and constructed single track culminating in a rough, rocky descent. Course length for U19s through to Masters AB was a bit over 7 km with a lap time between 25 and 35 minutes depending on what vitamins you take.
Limited field of women starting in Ruby’s wave. She was one of two U19s with another 7 Elites on the field. Ruby had a great start, hit the climb in front, and kept going from there. She had widened the lead by the time she got to the top of the descent.
I recall this bit of the track from our recce lap earlier in the day. There is a huge difference in your descent experience based on the line you pick. This is a particular issue as the turn into this section is fast with a barbed wire fence on your left and a paved section of track with an abrupt drop off. Tricky.
Ruby hit the corner running hot, took the line along the fence and the worst hit of the drop and came off the side of the bike. The small red battery that operates the rear derailleur objected to the situation and decided to disappear into the scrub.
Ten minutes later…. The battery reappears and Ruby’s back on her bike. Longest first lap ever and an insurmountable gap to make up on the Elites. This wasn’t helped by ongoing changing issues (bent hanger), but she still managed good lap times.
Not the race that Ruby planned for but nevertheless still first over the line for U19 and valuable lessons learnt before Maydena. Also, no stitches… yay!
