First up; last weekend…
After a stuff-up with last week’s issue of MMBCC News, congratulations go to Damian Grundy for finishing second at Round 4 of the Vic XC Series at Red Hill last weekend. Bruce finished 4th.
Now, onto this week. A lot can change in just a few days; this is The tale of two Ryders
Dirt Crits Gravity - Ryder finished first
By Kate Stonnill
The last Dirt Crits of 2024 saw 22 entrants for two timed runs at Rifle Butts Reserve.
Ryder Chadd took the win by just two seconds from Rueben Bateup. Rueben won the Bateup Cup by four seconds ahead of Dad Ant.
Fourth was Shannon Rademaker (even though there was some controversy over the last corner) with Adam Baker and Luke Vivash equal fifth.
Speaking of Adam, he said a few words of farewell to all.
The club thanks Adam for all his trail work and support of the club and riders and we wish Ariel, Finn and Adam all the best on their 2025 adventure in the Yarra Valley. Speaking personally, I will miss his mathematical genius with results.
Sienna Vivash won the Women’s race albeit after a crash in second run, even crossed the line with a bit of “bark” off.
Equal second shared between Nicole Hoebergen and visiting Danish rider, Anne Bruhn Andreasen.
Thanks to Adam for setting a tricky but enjoyable course.
Here are the results.
Dirt Crits will be back on Tue 21 Jan with a cross-country race at Rifle Butts MTB Park.
Merinda Way road race - Ryder finished last
By Bruce Halket
Seventeen riders were on the start line on Stoneleigh Road last Thursday night for the last Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club handicap road race of 2024.
Despite starting right outside the cemetery, there wasn’t too much thought given to the location being some kind of omen. In fact, after two and a half laps (about 24km) around the Merinda Way Loop, we should have increased our fitness enough to prevent us from going into a hole in the ground anytime soon.
First away was the Limit Group of Tony Morris, followed by six more groups until the Scratch Group of Andy Garrett, Bruce Halket and last week’s winner, Ryder Chadd, started 19 minutes later.
The first group to look threatening was Adam Baker and Dave Bock. They’d started off 9.30 (right in the middle) and had caught both Morris and Micala Jacobs and looked strong going into the second lap.
Steve Curnow, Ian Conrick, Craig Wilson and Allan Gerrans, who’d started off 8 minutes had other ideas. At about two-thirds distance they caught Baker and Bocky and looked strong. Baker managed to hang on, Bocky didn’t.
But then Scratch started to get involved.
Andy Garrett is an absolute beast on the flat. He doesn’t really enjoy hills all that much; and he goes around corners with all the agility of an ocean liner, only more so! So with Chadd helping where he could, especially on the first lap, and Halket doing what he could on the hills, Garrett tore through the other groups. The Block group (Damian Grundy, Steve Brown and Ant Bateup) was caught near Quarry Lane and the 3.30 group (Mick Pearce, Steve Duke and Rueben Bateup) was caught near the cemetery.
With just a couple of km to go, Garrett accelerated to catch the leaders. When he tired a little, Halket had a go. He caught Baker and Wilson.
When Grundy caught the tiring Halket, Garrett blasted past again to overtake Curnow and Conrick and take the win and Fastest Time.
Halket took second (Where were you Adrian? You owe me an article!) just ahead of Conrick, Grundy, the Steves Duke and Curnow, Rueben Bateup, Baker, Wilson and Brown took another top ten finish.
Ryder got dropped on the second lap, showing there’s a big step up from Block to Scratch. At one stage he even thought he might even die, but he didn’t. The cemetery can wait. Plus he did the right thing and rolled in with his Mum, Micala, even letting her over the line ahead of him.
Many thanks to all the marshals and officials for a safe, well-run race.
Here are the results and thanks to Tony Copland for his pics.
Road racing now takes a few weeks off - we’ll be back on Thursday 16 January for a race on Howes Creek Road, finishing on the dreaded O’Hanlon’s Hill.
In the meantime, the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club wishes all of Mansfield’s road users a safe and Merry Christmas - except for the young bloke in the big 4WD who hassled a group of local cyclists near Spring Creek Road on Saturday morning; I hope Santa brings you three demerit points!