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Dirt Crits is back, baby!
The second half of the Dirt Crits season starts Tuesday 23 January with a cross country (XC) round.
Then it’ll alternate between Gravity and XC every week. All races are now on the MMBCC Events Calendar.
(Dirt Critters is still a few weeks away from a re-start. We have to wait till Luke gets back from playing around in Japanese powder snow. Probably Tuesday 6 February but that’ll be confirming as soon as possible.)
Results from the weekend…
Round 3 of the Victorian DownHIll Series was held at Mt Beauty with some great results by MMBCC members.
Matthew Empey: Elite Men, 15th.
Ant Bateup: Masters Men, 3rd.
Rueben Bateup: U15 Men, 3rd. (14 seconds faster than Dad!)
LIttle video from Nathan Dabbs of Matt Empey in practice
Winning in the wind
By Adrian Dowd
The temperature was perfect and the sun came out from behind the clouds for the first MMBCC road race of 2024 along Whitfield Road.
The swapping of marshals at the last minute was like trying to predict the buffeting of the swirling southerly. And the windy conditions wouldn’t suit so many solo riders which was inevitable with numbers down to only ten.
First off was John Eisner followed shortly after by Tim Hall and Adrian Dowd at four minutes; Damian Grundy and Mick Pearce five minutes after that. Ruby Dobson, Darren Bakker and Bruce Halket were another minute back with Jake Lay and Andrew Garret a further three minutes back; a total of 13 minutes between Limit and Scratch.
Hall was the first to be dropped near Barwite Road and Dowd caught Eisner near the tomato farm.
Further back, Grundy and Pearce worked well together; but Dobson and Halket dropped Bakker early (a victim of too many km in training) but he did manage to get onto the back of Scratch for a bit.
On the way back to town the southerly wind was relentless, making it really hard for those riding alone.
Except Jake Lay.
Dowd held the lead up until Kareen Court when Lay went past solo like a freight train and turned up Mt Battery Road to a well-deserved win; and Fastest Time!
Adrian held onto second, closely followed by Halket and Dobson. Then came Pearce, Grundy, Garrett, Bakker, Hall and Eisner.
Many thanks to our Marshals, Commissaire and Handicapper for a safe and well-organised race.
Here are the results and below are Tony Copland’s pics.
Next week we’re racing on Whitfield Road again but on a new course - turning around at Long Lane, then out and back along Barwite Road.
Hayden Fletcher
Hayden might have been living in Brisbane for the last three years but he’s still racing on a Mansfield Mt Buller CC membership, still winning and now, setting a new track record at Park Orchards.
Have a look at this great little video of his new record on Facebook that his dad Paul sent through.
Gravel bike for sale
Cam Dobson's sister-in-law is selling her 2020 Giant Revolt Advanced carbon gravel bike. Size small, it’s in excellent condition. Recent new continental gravel king 38mm tyres. Pickup Croydon 3136 area.
Click on this link to go to the Gumtree listing.
Upcoming…
Northern Cycling are hosting a 64km Masters Handicap at Seymour on Sunday 28 January. Entires are via Entry Boss, registration opens at 9am, racing starts at 10am.
Seymour Broadford CC host Twilight road races just about every Tuesday evening and Saturday afternoon over summer. Entries are via Team App (the one we used to use too.)