Fox Creek Long was host of Round 4 of the Inside Line South Australian State Series. It did involve sideways action of the good kind!
Fox Creek in the Adelaide Hills, that is where round 4 of the Inside Line South Australian State Series took place, a cold A�and wet lead up to the weekend turned into a weekend of clear skies (it was still cold!). Track wise it was ‘Long’ that was used and was riding as well as it usually does. A few Victorian riders made the trip over for the weekend and took on what the course had to offer, quiet successfully we might add with the Vicos taking home a few gold medals!
Back to Fox Creek we went.Stunning… (ly cold?! It is an outdoors sports though so no complaining!)At least the sun was out!There was lots of sideways action on display!The crowd loves the sideways action of course!Infact it makes the whole event feel a little better when there is a crowd cheering on the riders.If you have seen the video footage floating around then you would understand why the most out there whip of the weekend went to James Chambers.
We want to talk about the females who rode on the weekend, always great to see and something we want to see more of! Sport women was hotly contended with Casey the Ballarat MUD rat taking the win over Sue-ann who usually braaps a BMX.
Elite women was won by Philippa, whose light setup proved a fast roller on the tacky Fox Long track. Moira desperately flogging more speed out of the “Beast of Glory”, to take second place from Laura Kelly, who retired early due to Master Kellys untimely hospital visit.
Moira and her ‘Beast of Glory’ riding into second place in Elite women.
This rounds reporter on all things that involve the fairer sex, Curbsidechucky coming through the waterfall section and the jumps following it.
As for the men’s racing it was the Victorian import, Darcy Coutts, who took the under 17’s A�win by around 4 seconds – impressive work! As for the elite men it was Conor Clancy taking his maiden elite win. For all the results head to the Inside Line website and see them there.
Darcy Coutts popping off the waterfall and on his way to victory in the Under 17’s men category.
Conor Clancy snagged his first Elite win, a well earned result!
Hanging out with your mates at the races, good times indeed!
Ian ‘The Buffalo’ Jones getting rowdy in practice, what is out frame here is the tree he hit! Ouch – but he was okay folks!In fact it was the Buffalo’s second podium in as many races (even after having to do a rerun for not breaking the start beam properly).Superstar mechanic Aaron Peltarri was kicking around the pits before he heads back overseas to help fellow Inside Line club member Troy Brosnan win some world cups!
Getting an adjustment wasn’t just limited to the bikes themselves!Whoops! New Eject pedals maybe?Style for miles!
Happy days!
The next race heads to Eagle Mountain Bike Park. Thanks to Curbsidechucky for the women’s race report information!
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Old faithful Willunga… It seems like we are reporting on a downhill race here every second month or so! We aren’t but fortunately everyone seems to like it. We headed about an hour south of Adelaide for round 3 of the South Australian state series and were met with a fun course and reasonably good weather.
Ah those views! Not that the riders got to take them in as they were riding, at least the local residents could!There is always a good turn out for the local races and riders seem to enjoy themselves whatever they are riding!
The track this round had a few slight changes, mainly in the way that it was bunted. Feedback from riders was that initially the bunting changes weren’t favoured but after a few runs and riders had things dialled then it was actually quite fun!
You can actually see the majority of the track from near the bottom as it winds up the hill.Sorry Steve but the puppy appears to be more popular!The pits were loaded with boys and there toys! (there were some females racing too which was great to see!)
In regards to racing, there were a few crashes but the main challenge for riders seemed to be punctures! This definitely resonated true through the elite men’s class with Matt Taylor, Simon Buzacott, Cam Ryan and Ngari Jenkins all getting final run flats!A�That’s part of racing though… The Elite Men’s winner, Curtis Dowdell, kept his good form up and it looks like he will A�be making a serious charge for the overall title. All the results from the weekend can be found here;A�http://www.insideline.com.au/index.php/results/2015-race-results/race-3-willunga-2015
Crashes and flats were the order of the weekend!Things were serious in the pits…. at least by the looks of this photo they were!Out on track tucking was the name of the game for the lower half of the course.The middle section of the course was where the drifting was to be had…… And the top part of the course was the rocky sections!It really was quite wild watching riders through the middle sections.Ian ‘Buffalo’ Jones snagged second the weekend after recently stepping up to the 650B world.Sion Buzacott throws some horns.607 on the plate, 7 on the gate…It almost rained, a few sprinkles came down after finals fortunately that was the extent of the rain!Conor Clancy comes into the final arena at warp speed!The camber and wide open turns near the top had people going sideways!Elite men’s winner Curtis Dowdell charging the rocks.Those views!The Adelaide Independent Racing guys run a type ship and lift the profile of the sport here in South Australia.Andy Murnane has been racing for what seems forever, he still has speed though!Considering there has been a bit of rain recently the track was quite dusty in sections!Just you and your bike…Lurking in the trees.Skills!Keeping it low for the dough…Race weekends seem to blur past sometimes.A few changes in the track kept riders on their toes.The Elite Men’s podium.These races are always good for riding with your mates.
After the racing most people went home for round 2, the World Cup in Austria. Our coverage from that race will be up soon! Meanwhile we will have some more photos from Willunga to show you so check back soon.
Images: Downhill247 and RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
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A good turn out enjoyed the beautiful weather and track improvements.
Hard to believe Round 2 of the South Australian State Series has been run and won! Time flies when you’re having fun… It was to Eagle Mountain Bike Park, host of multiple state and national rounds over the year, for round 2. The track had received a few changes for this race, most notable was the new finish area, riders were now taking a much straighter line into the final hip jump and therefore much more speed. We saw a few riders get unstuck come finals in the corner after the jump, Conor Clancy was one who was on a flyer before he decided to introduce his head to the ground. Another common comment (there’s a tongue twister for you) was that the way the track had been bunted really helped the flow so kudos to the tireless trail pixies who did that!
The new finish section meant riders were coming into this hip jump hot!A few interstaters who have been hanging around the fine state of South Australia rocked up to show us they are no slouches on a bike!There were a lot of the boys in blue out over the weekend, a popular choice!The riders really have to concentrate at Eagle, the track is very unforgiving.Foot out flat out!Henry Blake charging.‘I believe I can fly…’ Kaneophoto sending it!There were a few flash rigs getting around the pits over the weekend.In fact there were quite a few new rides on display!
Eagle on an enduro bike, a scary thought for some but no sweat for Simon Buzacott!That tongue placement!Remy Morton boosting! He will shortly be heading overseas to continue with the world cup series, good luck Remy!The top part of the track was relatively fast as always.There was a good spectator turn out, noise always helps!Jackson Davis absolutely sent the final step down, the crowd loved it!I wonder what Connor Fearon was thinking? ‘To take a selfie or not?!’The middle section of the track was relatively unchanged.Possibly the only image of Cameron Ryan ever taken with his front air in the air but not turning down!13 on the plate, unlucky for some but only if you’re superstitious!Riders sent this slight gap and then were hard on the brakes for the following corner.Sussing lines, these council workers, sorry race team were hard to miss in their fluro kit!Varying amounts of facial hair, all giving the thumbs up for the weekend!Getting nice and personal!Conor Clancy before he met the ground!Red goes faster right….Remy Morton rides ridiculously fast for his age!Taking the win with pure World Cup speed Connor Fearon was always the one to beat.The style was on show and the sun out! Good times.My arms went this way and my legs went this way… RFphotographics explains!Ian ‘Buffalo’ Jones, another rider on a shiny new steed this weekend.A very successful comeback for Curtis Dowdell this weekend.Plenty of support!Pow pow! Locked and loaded, let’s hope Connor Fearon can get the same result in Fort William! Pull the trigger…
See you at the next race!
Images: Downhill247 and RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
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It wasn’t only the UCI World Cups that kicked off over the weekend! With almost as much hype, interest and fanfare the South Australian State Series run by Insideline started at Fox Creek. The track is an old favourite of the club and brings a smile to the face of many a rider!
They say a picture says a 100 words, lucky RFPhotographics was there to capture them, enjoy the images below:
Lucas Pitt winding through the trees.Jackson Davis is visiting from Melbourne and came out to race.The track used ‘Patto’s Curse’ has some reasonable sized jumps on it including this one at the bottom.Simon Buzacott got back from Crankworx Rotorua and no doubt has been riding some gnarly trails so the small bike wouldn’t have fazed him.The 2015 season looks like it will be an interesting one with fresh faces at the top of the podium. Conor Clancy being one of those.Yeeewww party shirt!Cameron Ryan took the win at round 1.It is always great to see the girls come out and race.A lot of people used smaller travel bikes, often these suit the conditions better.Photo G Matt Bird on the other side of the lens!
Conditions were dry and dusty.Sending it sideways!
To see all the times and results head over to insideline.com.au
Images: RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
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Here we go with part 2 of our coverage from the Inside Line South Australian State Championships. It was a big weekend as it was the weekend where the club celebrated its 20th anniversary. Racing back then involved riders hurtling down the fire road and using stopwatches as timing, for part of the 20 year celebrations riders were invited to bring out their old bike and blast down the fire road again! This all took place after the formal racing was done for the day.
Old school riders and rigs!What a beast! Scored off Gumtree with owners manuals and all, talk about find of the century!Ben Anderson put the bike to good use and took home the ‘win’.There were some classic rides getting around the pits.It was good to see them getting used though!
There are a few more pictures from the weekend’s racing action we thought we would share with you, these feature more modern rides!
Just hanging…Troy Brosnan having a dab.
Sucking in the air!The views from the top of the track certainly were impressive!The last big corner lined riders up for the finishing jump.Various riders were showing various amounts of style over this final jump. Cam Ryan showing plenty!
Downhill is an individual sport and racers are always looking to get into the right head zone before they fire out of the start gate.
That wraps up another successful 2014 South Australian season bring on 2015!
Images in this article from RFPhotographics like them on FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics and from stock images (Henry Blake).
Willunga is a beautiful part of the state and it wasn’t even too windy!
The South Australian State Championships were held over the weekend at Willunga, a location about an hour south of the Adelaide CBD. State Champs is always a big race but this time it also coincided with the 20 year celebrations of Inside Line as a club! That is A�a huge achievement, considering how young the sport is for Inside Line to reach 20 years would make it one of the oldest clubs in Australia let alone the world! We will touch on this and the celebrations a bit more in part 2 but for now we will focus on the racing!
There was a new track on offer at Willunga. It was essentially an entirely new track to the west of the older tracks. Yes, it was dusty thanks for asking!There was a lot of interested people come Saturday morning who were keen to see what Ben Anderson had built for the week.The top part of the track was what had people talking, riders pedalled into a few wide open corners before they reached this rocky chute! If they succesfully managed to negotiate they would be greeted by a tight left hand turn before the track got steep again. After this steep section there was a series of rock drops before the course opened up into some wide open (and grassy corners) before a few jumps lead riders to the finish!
Almost….But not quite! The overall consensus was that the new track was a welcome change and whislt it had it’s challenging sections it was good fun. So that’s a big tick to the course builders!Conditions over the weekend were good! There was a little bit of wind on Sunday afternoon but it didn’t deter the crowds.There were a lot of brakes that got a good work out over the weekend!In fact we think there was a good mix of technical sections and high speed on the track.World Cup (and Championships) speed! Troy Brosnan was on hand to defend his title and was the obvious favourite!Troy was sporting some pretty cool modifications, the joys of being one of the best in the world!Suns out guns out! Connor Fearon was on hand but he was relegated to spectating injuries as he is still recovering from his crash in Norway.However after a solid season there were a few local riders looking to push Troy all the way, in fact riding across all classes was good with some of the younger riders going faster than we thought!
Heading into seeding and it was two old hands topping the men’s time sheets, James Chambers in Under 19s and Troy Brosnan in Elite. For the Women it was Cami Miller taking the number 1 spot, the track was wearing in quickly though so finals was going to be interesting. The remaining classes all had their race runs and it was good to see a variety of old faces come back to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the club. Some of the stories told were quite amusing,including how timing was done by stopwatch with riders setting off at predetermined intervals down the track!
Ian ‘Buffalo’ Jones had a good weekend overall despite a small mishap in seeding.We will focus on some of the other racing classes and action in part 2 of the report so check back for that!Under 19s were flying, it was Drew Gartery who took the win just ahead of James Chambers! Darcy Grooby crashed and finished the order, this race had it all!And the emotion of winning was there! With a very happy support crew on hand to witness it.In Elite Phillipa Rostan took the win over Cami Miller followed by Moira Love and Laura Kelly. Moving into Elite Men and it was Connor Clancy in 5th, Angus Maddern 4th, in third was Cam Ryan who always has fun, it paid off for him here! Second was Ngari Jenkins who always does well on this track!Rather unsurprisingly it was a flying Troy Brosnan who took the win by some 2 seconds.Podium celebrations were in full force!Overall a very fitting weekend of racing for the clubs 20th anniversary!Thanks to sponsors there was a range of give aways all series which meant there were lots of happy campers.All the winners!That’s a wrap for the season, we still have another report to come.
That wraps up part 1 of this event coverage, tune back for part 2 where we will include a variety of pictures from other classes and some of the other events that happened on the weekend!
Images in this article from RFPhotographics like them on FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics and from stock images (Henry Blake).
