Heat, dust and MarchA�flies that numbered in their 1000’s wereA�not enough toA�deter the 170 riders who attended the first National round of the season at Mount Buller. Looking at the weather report leading up to the race indicated we could potentially be in for another wet race, fortunately it didn’t end up that way. However, unfortunately there were devastating bush firesA�burning across the Eastern States, the smoke from these made their way to Buller by Saturday giving a very eerie feeling.
The first practice sessions of the raceA�revealed that after a long summer the track had really turned dusty and big holes started appearingA�on the track. Furthermore, with so many riders trying to practice at once the dust was kicked up into the airA�it would take some time to dissipate, this meant riders had to deal with low visibility as they made their way down the track.
Seeding on SaturdayA�was a reasonably standard affair, for the full report check it out here. Sunday morning brought group B practice and racing, along with it came more track deterioration.
A short practice session for group A on SundayA�before racing gave riders a chance to see how blown out the track had gotten since yesterday. Smart riders anticipated holes and berms that would becomeA�non-existent by racing and had back up lines,A�others just get doing what they had been doing all weekend and hoped it would work. With practice over it was time for riders to have a quick break before getting their race face on and wait for their time to throw down a run. Spectators made their way down the track, some sweet talked the lifties to get a ride on the chair but they were accommodating and by the end of the day the chairlift was a free for all!
Under 19 females kicked off the proceedings and it was always going to come down to a shoot out between Tegan Molloy and Danielle Beecroft with both riding well. In the end it was Tegan who took the victory by 4.54 seconds, we think this battle is going to continue all season…
Next on course were the Under 19 Males, always a super competitive category because it wasA�the first round we saw some new contenders stepping up from Under 17’sA�and others move up to Elite. In the end though experience paid off, the top three were all Australian representatives at the World Champs last year in Leogang. After getting a screw through his tyre in seeding, which put him right down towards the bottom of the results, Dean Lucas set off very early in the piece for his race run. He came down with a flying time of 3.29.66, in the end Dean sat in the hot seat right up until the last rider, Thomas Crimmins, came down the track and relegated him to second by justA�under two seconds. Luke Ellison put his overseas experience to good use to take home third, again just like the females, we expect the competition to be tight all year in this category.
This wrap upped the junior classes for the weekend, as the temperature continued to rise the focus now turned to the Elite riders.
Under 19 Female
1. Tegan Molloy 4.09.65
2. Danielle Beecroft 4.14.19 + 4.54
3. Elle Wale 5.33.05 + 1.18.86
Under 19 Male
1. Thommas Crimmins 3.27.91
2. Dean Lucas 3.29.66 + 1.75
3.A�Luke Ellison 3.30.39 + 2.48
4. Aiden Varley 3.32.52 + 4.61
5. Ben HillA�3.34.01 + 6.10
As per Juniors, it was the females who started off the proceedings in Elite, there was a large amount of interest in this race as it marked Caroline Buchanan’s return to mountain biking after recently focusing exclusively on BMX. However, it wasn’t just Caroline who was capable of taking the win though. It was Caroline in the hot seat though as the two fastest riders in seeding hit the course, World Cup regular Claire Buchar came down first and you could see it was going to be close, she wentA�into second by just 0.72 seconds! Fastest seeder, Lisa Mathison, had issues during her run and ended upA�in third place with a time considerably slower thanA�her seeding time.
Then it was time for ‘the big show’ a solid field of 40 riders were entered in Elite Men and featured a mix of seasoned veterans and up and coming riders, many who were racing Elite for the first time. Third placed seeder Jack Moir, aboard his brand new Yeti, crashed and finished in 15th, one place ahead of him was fourth placed seeder, Rhys Atkinson, who had an off the track excursion during his race run. Henry Blake who has stepped up from Under 19’s, finished an impressive 12th and was definitely hitting some of the roughest corners on the track smoother than any other rider. Moving up a few positions and the top ten was rounded out by the veteran and all round nice guy Jared Rando, 9th was Joey Vejvoda, another rider who has stepped up from Under 19’s and has gained some new sponsors along the way. One place ahead of Joey was the always stylish David McMillan, David won practice in our books hands down.
Seventh position went to a veteran of the game, Ricky Boyer, sandwiching Ricky and his team mate Graeme Mudd was relatively unknown rider Brendan Moon in sixth. Another veteran and former JuniorA�World Champion Ben Cory finished fourth four seconds off the winner. Moving on to the top three and the real international heavy hitters featured from here onwards. Connor Fearon finished in third just 0.40 behind second placed Chris Kovarik, an awesome effort for his first Elite race. It was good to see Chris do well and he will be a threat to the overall series. In first place, aboard his new whip, was Sam Hill 1.66 seconds ahead of Chris. A classic Sam moment when handed the Subaru leaders jersey, he askedA�”do I get a Subaru?”.
Elite Female
1. Caroline Buchanan 4.06.42
2. Claire Buchar 4.07.14 + 0.72
3. Lisa Mathison 4.16.32 + 9.90
Elite Male
1. Sam Hill 3.22.02
2. Chris Kovarik 3.23.68 + 1.66
3. Connor Fearon 3.24.08 + 2.06
4. Ben Cory 3.26.31 + 4.29
5. Graeme Mudd 3.27.66 + 5.64
It was interesting to note Sam’s winning time was slower than his seeding time indicating the track had deteriorated quite a lot. That isA�the first National round completed but we have more coverage to bring you and we head back toA�Mount BullerA�for the VicDH race this weekend, stay tuned!