Mt Buller Road and Mountain Bike Social Rides – MTB update
An 8am round of lattes at Mirimbah Store prior to a shuttle up to the heady delights of Mt Buller – is there any better way to finish the summer season of mountain biking? After some brief discussions on route options and some group photos, upwards of 25 hooping and hollering mountain bikers headed up One Tree Hill and down Gang Gangs where the first crash of the day was claimed by Foley Lachal!! All smiles though at the skills park and time for people to head off on their chosen route to Mirimbah Park for lunch.
Routes ranged from the fast and flowing delights of Cornhill followed by the descent of the Delatite River Trail, to those who headed out to Mt Stirling to complete the gruelling but awesome 10k loop of Stonefly before taking the River Spur Trail down the mountain. As everyone arrived back at Mirimbah there was plenty of sweat, smatterings of mud (and blood), but most of all lots of grinning – what a great morning of riding!! Special mention should go to the following participants though:
Jason Parker for making it to the bottom in time for lunch despite 3 punctures including front and rear at the same time!!
Katie Moore for the most impressive stack of the day, even if no one saw it – when you get up and have to look for your bike you know it has been a big one!
And finally to Tina McDonnell for beating the likes of Shannon, Tom, Laurie, Cam, Foley and Frank down the River Spur Trail – you’ll be a marked woman at the first dirt crits event!!
All the excitement was followed by a great effort to cook all of the great bbq food supplied by Mirimbah Store – a big thanks to all those who to a shift with an apron and tongs! And what a spread they put on – it was clear that the mornings activities had brought on some serious appetites. It was a welcome opportunity to mingle with the road side of the club especially given that everyone had travelled to Mirimbah by pedal power!
After lunch was the job of presentations for the summer series dirt crits – and it still felt like summer sitting in the sun in Mirimbah Park!! Before the overall series winner prize was handed out, the following awards were given out:
The Mums Who Ride Award went to Paula McMunn, Kate Empey and Kerren McNamara for coming to dirt crits every week with there kids and racing too!!
The Mr Consistent Award went to Jason Parker for his ability to set his speed at the outset of each race and maintain that same speed the whole way through!
The Stepping Up Award went to Jem Davies for starting late in the series and quickly stepping up from the kids race category up to the Adults D grade where he performed very well taking a number of race wins
The Red Cordial Award for the person with the most amount of energy went to Foley Lachal who for example raced in dirt crits the day after completing the 100k Otway Odyssey!
A special award was given to Tom MacMunn for his considerable efforts over the last few years in administering and improving the Dirt Crit Series. Thanks again Tom for all your efforts!
So on to the big prize of Series winner, the top ten were as follows with Dave Bock taking out the honours after a great effort – excellent riding Dave!
1 Dave Bock
2 Kian Lerch-McKinnon
3 Tom MacMunn
4 Jason Parker
5 Paul MacNamara
6 Foley Lachal
7 Chad Meek
8 Paula MacMunn
9 Cameron Lachal
10 Nicholas Howland
Well done to everyone and great to see yet more young riders coming through the ranks.
A big thank you to everyone who turned up on Sunday and to all those who have helped out throughout the Summer Series. Lookking forward to seeing everyone back in action for the Autumn Series starting on Sunday 22nd April – see you there!
Other images can be found on the Pictures page of the web site.
_________________________________________________________________________