“Few articles ever used by man have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle”
US Census Bureau Report, 1900.
Club kit still available.
The Ventou portal for club kit is open for one more week! Email Bruce for the password, then click this link to go to the Ventou website to order your kit.
So far it’s known there have been speed suits, jerseys, bibs and at least one mountain bike jersey ordered.
Only one week to go…
Dirt Critters News
The Vivash family had an incredible experience at Thredbo last week, competing in the Australian MTB Interschools, alongside 1200 other competitors (across all divisions).
Both kids competed in all 4 events - Miles was 15th in Norco All Mountain, 20th in Fox Flow Motion Cup and 12th in the Oakley Cannonball Downhill. Impressive results for a Grade 2 student competing against Grade 3 and 4s.
Sienna, also in Division 5, took out podium finishes in all events - 1st in the Fox Flow Motion cup, and in what was her favourite event, 1st in the Cannonball Downhill beating her competitors by a whopping 1min 45 sec.
They both backed it up with 1st place wins at the Alpine Cycling Club Gravity race in Albury on Saturday.
Go Team Vivash!
the Long Lap Extravaganza
By Damian Grundy
First of all a very special thanks to the trail marking crew! The course used at least 95% of the available trails in the park. The long lap was 6.4km in length and the short lap 2.4km. It’s a demanding course with several very technical and physically demanding sections.
On the night the fast guys were tackling two long laps, the intermediate riders were on one long and one short and the least experienced got to tackle just one long lap.
There was a good turn out of 14 competitors - check out the results here. As usual with the Irish handicaps the start was time staggered.
At the end it was Mr-All-Terrain-Cycles Shannon Rademaker trundling into the finish in first place. Rylan Fox finished second 57 seconds later and David Bock was third 38 seconds after Rylan. The average speeds were down for everyone on the night, a testament to the toughness of the course.
Congratulations to all competitors and a special thanks to Adam Baker for taking care of the timing.
Second in the third last
By Janine Appleton
For the third last race of the season and a week before hosting the three stage Mansfield Hotel Tour, the Cycling Club started at the Nutrien, Buller Road and raced the Barwite Loop in an anticlockwise direction. With five riders from Seymour and most of the regulars attending, the precious points in the local championship would be hotly contested.
Dave Bock was first to roll out with a tail wind, followed by Ian Conrick and myself two and a half minutes later.
Knowing the next group of Tim Hall, Adrain Dowd, Craig Wilson and Adam Baker were only 90 seconds behind, I was determined to get to the top of Coombes Hill at my pace. Ian was quick to regret the massive ride to Whitfield and back earlier in the week when he encouraged me to leave him on Graves Road.
Adrian Dowd was too strong for his group and caught me a few kilometres onto Barwite Road, where the head wind was causing all the riders to go into a higher level of hurt. The three, first-time Mansfield event riders of Ryan Schultz, Ian Baker and Bret Bender were caught by Darren Bakker, Steve Duke, Mick Pearce and Dave Moore and the Mansfield crew took no hangers on.
It wasn't until 1.5 km to go on Mansfield Whitfield Road, near Dead Horse Lane, that the now combined group of Jake Lay, Talia Appleton, Bruce Halket, Chris Miller, James Hender and Michael Thomson thought they had a chance at a place. It was a tight squeeze around the corner into Mt Battery road, where full gas was applied for the uphill finish.
Adrian Dowd was able to pull away easily from my poor, sprint-finish legs. The handicapper was applauded tonight as 3rd place, Michael Thompson was only another 8 seconds behind me, with a mixed group of 9 riders finishing in the next 30 seconds, with Jake Lay taking out fastest time.
Thanks to the Mansfield Hotel for the appetisers for everyone and their weekly special $25 prize - going to Jenni Sparnon this week for making herself available to marshal, at very short notice, despite never participating in races.
Here are the detailed results and many thanks again to Tony Copland for his images.
Just a reminder to all vehicles on the road on this coming weekend - we have a few hundred competitors visiting for the Mansfield Tour, with Stage one on Saturday morning around Stoneleigh road and Merinda Way,
Stage two on Saturday afternoon on Mansfield Whitfield Road, Barwite road and Old Tolmie road; and Stage 3 on Sunday morning on Mt Buller road finishing at the top of Mt Buller. Please be patient with all the cyclists and official cars over the weekend. We would like to continue to receive the wonderful feedback we always get - a safe, well-organised event run by super friendly, community volunteers.
prize revealed
Exciting news! A new prize will be awarded to the winners of each of the Summer-long competitions run by the MMBCC; both the Summer Road Race Series and Dirt Crits.
With many thanks to an anonymous benefactor, the winner of each series will now receive a new Giro time trial helmet, just like that one in the images below.*
Second place gets two helmets!
*Possibly not. This should really have been published on the first of April.