Round 1 of the Victorian downhill series saw us in Shepparton and the view was great!
3-6-3-0 represent! Round one of the Victorian downhill series saw us hit up Shepparton (3630)A�- well actually we went to Mount Major which is about 30 minutes from Shepparton but close enough. It was round one so everyone was keen to get back to racing, it was hard to pick some people as there were new kits and bikes getting around.
Rocks were the name of the game, after 5 or so bikes lost their rear derailleurs to this rock the marshals came out swinging!
The track was rocky as usual, Shepparton actually held the Oceania Championships’ a few years ago so we will give you a quick brief of the course; the top goes across the ridge before riders had to negotiate several rock gardens as the course started to turn across the face of the hill, a few more rock gardens before some wide open flat corners and some big jumps into the finish, did we mention there were a lot of rocks?
We lost track of the number of mechanicals we saw riders having, either losing derailleurs or the air from their tyres/tubes!All the rocks made for some awesome riding though with whole rocks flying as riders came charging through!The rocks did catch some (a lot) of people out though! Hopefully everyone recovers quickly and we see you at round 2!Talking about rocks, this rock got dislodged in a rock garden midway down the track but it didn’t stop rolling and made it’s way almost all the way down the hill, dangerous for sure but not what you would expect to see coming towards you, it was more likely to be a bike/rider!The weather was interesting over the weekend, to say the least. Saturday saw hot and sunny conditions leaving a lot of people sunburnt! Sunday morning was much the same but just after qualifying a storm blew in coating the track with water and turning the ground wet on top but dry underneath making racing interesting.As per usual transport ran well and everyone was happy doing runs, yeeww!Overall numbers were probably down a little as riders are a little bit more picky as to which races they do these days but the pit set up was still impressive and there were a lot of smiles on riders faces.
QualifyingA�saw the usual suspects up near the tops of the time sheets, names like Lucas, Piribauer and Swann for Elite Men, Molloy and Wale for Elite Women and Morrison andA�Varley for the Under 19s. With racing though nothing is guaranteed, especially when you factor in the number of mechanicals and the prevailing weather conditions…
Fresh from racing World Cups, Dean Lucas was the hands down favourite and donned the number one plate. Photo extraordinaire, Jase Stevens, does his thing in the background!13, unlucky for some…
And sure enough… As qualifying finished the weather changed, wind and water hit the mount and threw uncertainty into everyone’s minds!
All morning we watched the weather closing in, hanging ominously above us.When it came it left the top part of the soil wet but underneath it was wet, good luck guessing what to do with conditions like that!The weather didn’t seem to worry some riders who just kept on blasting!
Racing, the most important part of the day! Much like practice all weekend there would be mechanicals and crashes, most of the big names kept away from this though. The Women was taken out by Tegan Molloy in emphatic fashion, she is really on a role lately. Under 19’s was unusual in that the fastest qualifier Callum Morrison, came down first, followed by the second fastest qualifier, etc. Different from the usual but something we don’t think is going to happen at the next round. In the end Aiden Varley took the win by over a second and a half from Ben Hill andA�third was Hayden Stead.
Tegan Molloy is on a role and took the victory here by close to 15 seconds!Riley Horsman holding it wide open in Under 19’sBen Hill took second place.Callum Morrsion ended up in fifth place.
Elite Men, the business end of the day and looked like all that would stop Dean Lucas was a crash or mechanical, fortunately for Dean he stomped the win by six seconds, second was Tom Wyatt and third Richard Kreuzer. The Elite Men dealt with the conditions unfazed and showed everyone how it was done.
No surprises really, Dean Lucas takes out round 1!Not everyone had the run they wanted though…!If it wasn’t a mechanical chances are it was a crash that meant riders had less than ideal race runs!Matt Swann had a less then perfect run and ended up down the time sheet, expect him to be back next race though!Trent Piribauer on his way to 4th.Riders were going Mach 1 in the rock gardens!Ina Jones on his way down, look closely….And you will see his derailleur with a mind of its own! Fortunately this was during qualifying!
Overall a great first round and we still have so much more to show you! Tune back soon…
