VDHS Archives -

Troy Brosnan looks down track through one of the first berms.

Welcome to Round 3 of the VDHS, hosted by Narbethong, a track that’s probably been around longer than you have. Not too far away from our last round at Granton, Narbethong promised to be a great track with plenty of good times to be had by everyone! The sun was shining and the track was slick, but as riders began descending the hill the sheen disappeared of the dewy ground the the magic sticky dirt came out to play.

Fabian Bill looking focussed aboard the new steed.

Matt McCorkell dips into the same first part of the track.

All the riders were enjoying their time on track, with plenty of smiles at the finish line. Everyone was reporting the track was amazing fun, with the high speed sections pushing them as to how much they want to be wide eyed and let the brakes go. The track consisted of plenty of roots, small tree stump booters and drops, along with some solid, confidence inspiring berms.

Harry Ewings throws in some style through the woods.

Angus Jackson pushes through the sun drenched fern forest.

As the sun set on Saturday there were smiles all round, with the track getting a thumbs up from all. Sunday rolled in with another cracking day, Practice started, and then rather quickly closed due to an injury down track that requried an ambulance, this in turn caused a sizable delay which meant event organisers took the step of cancelling seeding for all categories, this meant that practice would run a little longer to allow everyone to get a bit more track time, this would of worked fantastic if there wasn’t another injury soon afterwards, the track wasn’t entirely closed, it was left open on a yellow caution, however many riders on track opted to push and section the track as they rode down, this reduced the risk of missing further shuttles due to the ambulance being on track.

Ben Hill appears in a scene that could easily come from Life Cycles.

After the rider was cleared and the track re-opened to finish practice it all came to an end with plenty of the riders feeling a little odd with all the extra energy usually reserved for a qualifying run still in the tank. This meant for close racing, but Troy Brosnan was a step above the rest; putting in a sizable 10 second margin o his closest competitor. At the end of the day the podiums looked like this:

Trent Piribauer struggles with a nasty surprise that caught him off guard.

Elite Men:
1 Troy Brosnan
2 Liam Panozzo
3 Dean Lucas
4 Jesse Beare
5 Joel Panozzo

Elite Women:
1 Sarah Booth
2 Tegan Molloy
3 Carrie McLachlan
4 Anna Pauly
5 Ellie Wale

Grant Weighton peaks over the crest at speed.

Dean Lucas hangs loose the finals drops into the jumpy section.

Through the drops, always calm and collected!

Kyle Coutts pushes past a massive tree, quite a cool feature!

The rocky shuttle road took its toll on the shuttle vehicles, with many tires deciding they'd rather not stay inflated. — The rocky shuttle road took its toll on the shuttle vehicles, with many tires deciding they’d rather not stay inflated.

Theres always a smile from this man, Jesse Beare pushes up track after the rider injury.

Dean Lucas pushes hard through one of the longest berms on track.

Clint White shows us some of the skills he acquired from running CWR.

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Welcome to VicDH Round 2! Angus Jackson makes his way through the low cloud, which settled on the top sections of the track.

Welcome to Granton, the location of the second round of the VDHS. Nestled in some Australian bushland the track was partially destroyed by bushfires in 2009. The conditions for the weekend seemed less than optimal with a forecast predicting rain all weekend, and upon arrival it was evident that, for Saturday at least the weather man was spot on.

Dion Thomas looked to be dominating in the wet; right at home in Saturday's horrendous conditions. — Dion Thomas looked to be dominating in the wet; right at home in Saturday’s horrendous conditions.

Jesse Beare pushes down the track, with his game face on.

The air was damp, the track was saturated and very slippy! As riders began to make their way down the track the clay beneath the top soil started to rear its head, making clogged tires grip even less!

It didn't really matter whether you had spikes or not, this mud was going to stick to and clog everything. — It didn’t really matter whether you had spikes or not, this mud was going to stick to and clog everything.

Louis Armitage pushes hard into the berm with full confidence in the traction of his tires.

That didnt stop the smiles through the mud caked faces though! Saturday practice was full of carnage with riders sliding off line and off track from top to bottom.

Jackson Davis puts the power down mid-powerslide on the slippery berm.

Ian Jones shows everyone how it's done, flowing over the drop. — Ian Jones shows everyone how it’s done, flowing over the drop.

The concept of practicing became more like an active game of avoidance with riders sprawled out everywhere. The sun did eventually show its head Saturday, but only momentarily, but the fleeting sunlight did aid in the drying of the track and improving the conditions. Although, saying that itA�may of slowed the tracks running time down by making it very sticky.

Something learnt from world cups? Or just something a little bit ghetto?

Ben Crundwell gets some heckling from Nato on his way over the larger jump at the business end of the Granton. Fun times for all!

Sunday arrived and suprisingly so did some sunshine, the rain appeared to of moved on and the track was in great condition, riders began flowing down track in a much more consitant ride and the weather conditions now made it favourable to ride.

Max Kreuzer navigates some slippery roots that caught many riders out. Sunday brought only some relief.

Lachlan Gibson shows off some style over one of the bigger kickers.

More and more of the bigger lines were being hit and soon enough all the top riders were taking enormous slabs of time off the previous days efforts with riders coming past noticably quicker. By the time qualifying began the track had almost dried out enough that there were areas of loose top soil forming.

Fabian Bill throws in some steeze on his last practice run!

Jackson Davis gets loose on what is a deceptively slippery corner.

Matt Kelly came through the top rocks, very quick with a solid line choice on Sunday morning.

With Qualifying wrapped up Trent Piribaer took the top quali spot. With racing beginning the only change to the track was the amount of riding happening on it, there was no rain and no altering of conditions making for fair racing and tight times. At the end of the day Dean Lucas walked away with honour’s in Elite Men and Sarah Booth took the top spot in Elite Women.

Round 2 winner Dean Lucas boosts a part of the track that many struggled with, leaving no doubt in his title of Australia's Junior Mountain Biker of the Year. — Round 2 winner Dean Lucas boosts a part of the track that many struggled with, leaving no doubt in his title of Australia’s Junior Mountain Biker of the Year.

Elite Men’s Podium
1 Dean Lucas
2 Jesse Beare
3 Oli Zwar
4 Trent Piribauer
5 Joel Panozzo

That wraps up round 2, plenty more action on it’s way soon though!

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Tag: VDHS

VDHS Round 3 – Narby

VicDH – Round 2 – Granton