The classic race venue, Thredbo, had a few tweaks applied for the race, many involved getting more air which isn’t a bad thing as Connor Surgeon shows! Image: MBN Photography
Here in Australia we are really starting to see an explosion of these one off events, which combine a few different race styles, a range of non bike riding related activities (we know right?!) and relatively good prize money! The Thredbo Cannonball Festival had all of this, with names like the Hannahs, Brosnan, Moir, Eaton, Crimmins,A�Boyer, McMillan, Cory, Lucas, Molloy andA�Beecroft all on hand to get some of the $13,000 in prize money this was always going to beA� big event!
There were a large number of pros on hand, here Troy Brosnan throws down a bit of style. Image: David Blucher
The track for the main downhill race received some tweaks before the weekend and also used more of the high speed fire road near the top of the track, one of the biggest challenges though would be the weather wit snow covering the top of the hill!
Sean Martin near the top of the track, you can see the snow behind him, fortunately by race time it wasn’t as much of an issue as it could have been! Image: MBN Photography.
Apart from the downhill race there was also a flow race on the single tracks lining Kosciuszko, a pump track challenge as well as a whip competition so plenty to see and do. Add to this the Potbelleez and DJ Nino Brown on hand in the village to keep the tunes flowing and you have set the scene for a pretty epic event! In fact all the riders we asked were raving about the event so let’s hope we see more and more of these events all year around.
You can do better whips then your mate?! Finally a chance to prove it with the whip comp.
Troy Brosnan took out the opening event which was the pump track challenge. David McMillan and Luke Ellison were the two winners in the whip off competition, Ben Cory won the Flow racing showing all the youngens he still has ‘it’ whatever it is!
David ‘The Whip Doctor’ McMillan shows us why he took the watermelons ($100s) for the whip competition! Image: David Blucher
For the big event seeding revealed who would be in the mix, Troy Brosnan topped the time sheet 2 seconds ahead of Mic Hannah with ‘local’ Andrew Crimmins in third. For the women Tracey Hannah had a formidable 12 second advantage over second placed Tegan Molloy but with racing anything is possible!
Tegan Molloy second in qualifying. Image: MBN PhotographyNothing like chairlifts to smash out the runs! Image: MBN Photography
Moving on to finals and Tegan Molloy brought the gap down to under 10 seconds but Tracey showed her experience by taking a strong victory, Tegan second and Danielle Beecroft was in third.
Tracy Hannah, a resounding winner by nearly 10 seconds in Pro Women. Image: David Bluchar
The Pro Men’s class was always going to be a hard one to call such was the depth of the field! Mic Hannah brought home 5th saying he had a good run but simply left too much in the tank, Josh Button showed us he still remembers how to ride despite taking the season off from international competition with 4th, local Thomas Crimmins took out 3rd. We definitely saw a competition of what a lot of people already knew, Australia has another real Junior World Champs contender in Andrew Crimmins, the young rider from Bredbo beat out Troy Brosnan to first place by just over 2 seconds! Troy said he was simply beaten byA�a faster rider, exciting times for Australian downhilling! Well done Andrew, enjoy the $5000!
Second place for Troy Brosnan. Image: David Bluchar.On a new bike Andrew Crimmins managed to show his skill and took out the numero uno position, what a great result, look out for more from Andrew as we have a chat with him soon. Image: David Blucher.
Thredbo put on a great event and we can’t wait to head back for the next one!
Images: David Buchar and MBN Photography (facebook.com/MBN-Photography)
Bright MTB Festival – one of the biggest events of the year! With a huge amount of disciplines there was something for everyone.
The second round of the Alpine Gravity Enduro Series saw us arriving in the picturesque Bright, not only for the enduro, but for the Bright MTB Festival. This saw a slopestyle event, cross country, downhill and enduro races all held over the course of the weekend!
Steep and loose, just what riders wanted and living up to the reputation that Bright has for being one of the premier race destinations in Australia.
For the enduro the weather was on our side with warm sunshine beaming down. On initial inspection the track lived up to its reputation from last year and from the start gate it was steep and loose with plenty of fun turns. After a few riders the track started to get loose and the dust started to fly! Riders were flowing down the track with smiles from ear to ear on everything from 29er hardtails to full-fledged DH bikes. When one bike was shining the other would lose out and the track became equally fair to everyone.
Caption options A) Bulldozing down the track! B) The grade was awesome! C) Everyone brought out their best machinery for the weekend. There you go pick your story!The sun was out and shining, well for most of the weekend anyway!
As the first run rolled around there were so many riders the times fell slightly behind, but everything continued to keep up and run smoothly. As rider after rider pounded the corners the looseness escalated quickly, with many being caught out by dust piles looking like berms, and front wheel washing out.
Front wheel washouts and flat outs wiped the smile off the faces of many riders but only temporarily of course!Rider after rider hit the track churning it up but that’s pretty standard and you get use to that with the Australian climate and soil conditions!Check out the crowd and the stoke clearly evident on Lucy Crundwell’s face! Doesn’t it make you smile?!Staying with the Crundwell clan but this time Ben pinning it and duly rewarded with 5th for his efforts!More stoke! Love that crowd.
The second runs began seamlessly and riders again flowed down the track but soon the clouds rolled in. By the time Elite Women were racing there was a sizable thunderstorm making its way over the race, many women finishing claimed to be hailed on either at the top of the track or mid-way down! As the storm escalated and the lightning grew closer and closer, the decision was made to cancel the Elite Mena��s second run due to dangers with the lightning and storms. This meant a hectic mass downhill start for all the boys resulting in plenty of fun being had down the track, it did however mean the first runs standings were the final results. Chris Panozzo took the victory with a healthy margin of overA�9 seconds in what was a pretty stacked field.A�What times riders would have done in their second run we will never know but we still got a result and fun was had, which is the main thing!
Elite Women:
1. Carrie McLachlan 8.30.22
2. Genevieve McKewA�8.34.10
3. Ronja Hill-Wright 8.38.36
4. Jpo Wall 8.44.25
5. Alyssa Lyons 8.52.44
Elite Men:
1. Chris Panozzo A�6.55.52
2. Jack Tattersall 7.04.58
3, Kaine Cannan 7.05.58
4. Jon Odams 7.08.09
5. Ben Crundwell 7.10.73
Watch that pedal! The fine line between an awesome run and telling all your mates in the car park ‘if only I had/hadn’t…’Bright MTB Festival done and dusted for another year, we will be back next year! Before then though we will be back to Bright over summer for some more racing!
Dual slalom, is it just like two person downhill racing?!
Downhill mountain biking (and to a large degree mountain biking in general) is so much more than just the act of riding, it encompasses so many other areas. We attended a private race, on a sunny weekend day, that just was all about riding, mates, tunes, food, drinks, outdoors and good times. All things that come with downhill anywhere, this day just saw everyone racing bikes dual slalom style, there were World Champions, World Cup riders, Elite racers, punters and us! It didn’t matter about your skill, in the end no one is sure who even won but that’s okay! Surely downhill encompasses so much more than just riding, no doubt you can relate to a great day like this, enjoy.
Small wheels, normal wheels, big wheels, so long as there were wheels it didn’t matter!Shuttles for the day! For some reason there didn’t seem to be a shortage of volunteer drivers!Getting tight on the markers on the way down!
Flat corner fury!A bit more dorifto!There was even drifting when there were no other riders around! All part of the ‘just ride’ vibe that was there all day!DIY helmets… The next big thing?!Energy supplies – Australian style!
Welcome to Indonesia! Fitting in with the local dress.
We told you about one of the most epic races of the year earlier with our article on the 2013 Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge but now let’s hear from one of the invited riders, David McMillan, here he gives us the low down on a crazy week;
You get to go to some pretty crazy places when your racing a bike and Bali is one of the last places I thought I’d be doing it. I got an unexpected call about a week before asking if I wanted to come to Bali and compete in a one off race called the Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge, of course I couldn’t say no. Specialized and FJC Clothing hooked it up and I was on my way a few days later with a bike, board shorts and a few t-shirts.
Stepping off the plane I was instantly hit with a massive heat wave, it was crazy hot all week. We stayed in a place called Swan Keremas Villa which is apparently a pretty epic surf spot. I don’t think I’ll ever stay in somewhere so nice again for a race week haha.
Press conference times! We have been to World Cups less organized than this!
The track was built by Gary from Trail Scapes. It had an awesome view looking over the ocean and had a bit of everything. Loose, slippery, dusty, rocky, technical are a few words to sum it up.
Practice rolled round after a few days of hanging out by the pool getting our tan on. I felt a bit rough on my bike having not riden it since Loegang World Cup. I found the track quite challenging with a lot of off camber parts and narrow shelves. After a few practice runs I got my head around it and had lots of fun with the other riders.
Dave getting his eye in and his wheelie on!
The fans in Indonesia are crazy! Always wanting your photo and autograph. We had an autograph signing and the line went for ever. They just love it and make the atmosphere really cool.
The fans just lapped it up! Loving having some of their hero’s riding their home tracks.Crowds lined the track going crazy for all the riders!
I qualified in 6th place just behind the big guns and knew I could have improved my run. Eric, The Lord of Bali hooked us up with a scooter for one night which was pretty fun, we ended up driving it to the track on race day fitting in with all the locals.
Race day was the hottest day for sure, constantly sweating and trying to cool down was hard. We had 2 practice runs then went up and watched some of the local riders try for gold in their categories. My team mate Jackson Davis won the junior category putting together a decent run holding it wide open on the bottom loose section.
Race run for me was not ideal being very messy with a small bobble near the bottom. The winner was the last man on the hill making for exciting racing with Troy taking the win by half a second.
Not the perfect race run but still smashing it as always!Last rider down the hill and Troy took out the race.
We had a pretty loose night out afterward with all the Drogan (drongo-bogan) Australians and other racers. The whole experience was so cool And I can’t wait till next year to come do it again! Thanks to everyone who made it possible! Special thanks to Specialized and FJC clothing.
The Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge is becoming one of the premier events in Australasia/Asia and for good reason too!
Here we are back at that time of the year again, the 2013 Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge. This is the race that everyone in the region looks forward to. As usual we wanted to up the ante again to keep things interesting and make a new challenge every year for the riders. After moving around every year, finally this year United Bike and the people of Bukit Tengah Klungkung join together to build us a permanent downhill track. Thanks to Eric and Komang who managed to convinced the chief of the village and all the villagers.
A permanent track has been built in the area as Kazuki Shimizu shows us on his way down.
Garry Patterson from Trailscapes Australia was chosen to do the building together with me and Eric. It was my 1st time to open up a new hill and scout for possible lines. Helped by the local diggers it’s not as hard as we thought. The hardest thing is actually getting your idea across the digging crew as Bali have their own language and dialek. We are lucky enough that Garry can operate machinery too…. which makes life easier for us. We are able to speed up the building and finished everything just in time. The track is located on a hill that is right next to the ocean. The view is just breath taking. I really enjoy spending time building the track no matter how hot it is…. the view will cool you down!
That view… All the way down to the beaches of Bali!
When the track was open 2 weeks before the race, most of the local riders were stunned and we received a lot of phone calls saying how good the view was and how gnarly the track is. We hit our goal once again. Everyone was struggling but enjoying the track at the same time. The loose soil, rocks, and so many off cambers sections made everyone think how to ride and what line to choose. Some sections are quite steep, so much so that some riders choose to sit it out and rather watch then race! The aim when building the track is to be able to get the Oceania Champs or World Cup race to Indonesia in the future. Track length is about 1.5km for Elite and 1.7km for the B line.
Troy Brosnan is a crowd favorite everywhere he goes but in Indonesia they went mad for him!
Troy Brosnan, Adam Ahmed, Yuki Kushima, Jackson Davis and Adrian Aakre are the usual big name suspects for this event. This year included in the mix were Wyn Masters and David McMillan. They were excited when they saw the track. Nothing like the previous years, where most of the riders would say, it’s like an XC track or that it was too easy so they didna��t need to practice that much. This time they all asked for more practice time right away!
The track was tough and riders asked for more practice to come to terms with it before racing it!
Come Friday for the official practice the track was open in the morning until lunch time, for all Masters category, Women open and Veteran. The track was so loose and we have few riders injured on their first run, nothing really serious and everyone was still able to walked away from their crashes.
David McMillan had his first Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge experience and loved it! Expect to hear more as we go behind the scene with Dave soon…
This year we got new faces joining the race, Wyn Masters, David McMillan, Takuya Aoki, Kazuki Shimizu, Tracey Hannah, Fabien Cousinie and Guillaume Cauvin. It seems the event attracts more riders every year.
The crowd was going crazy at the event, Wyn Masters showing everyone how it is done!
When we opened the track for the fast boys to practice, the spectators were pretty loud in some technical sections. The pros made everything looks easy. Whipping the hip jumps, scrubbing the doubles and making the technical drop easy…. I was blown away by their riding too. It feels like we have a World Cup race, watching how these guys do runs after runs. The scorching heat of Bali sun doesn’t stop people from coming out and watching, by the end of the day you see their faces and arms were burnt but they got had smiles on their faces. Garry and I went up to see how bad the track condition was after all the riders skidding around it all day. Surprisingly the track held up very well and the only thing we needed to fix was just the racing line and few of the safety nets, apart from that it was all is in good condition.
Rain overnight still wasn’t enough to keep the dust down but after all everyone had to race in the same conditions!
The rain fell pretty hard on Friday night butA�sadly not hard enough to make the track less dusty the next day. A few riders put in few runs in the morning practice and said that the track was better than yesterday. WithA�better grip on track, we would expect the riders to push some more to put in a good time. We were also expecting some gnarly crashes at the famous section called “Kill Bill” full of rocks with couple of technical lines to choose. The fastest line attracted a few good riders to try, some made it and some ended up in the ambulance with a broken arm, collar bone and big cuts from the rocks.
Some sections of the track were really make or break, get it wrong and it was game over, Jackson Davis threading the needle.
The steep rock section towards the finish line also claimed a few riders. Yuki Kushima walked away from the most spectacular crash of the event I would say. He was coming in fast and the rear give away high sided him from 3/4 of the way straight to the flat bottom. It’s almost like you fall from the 2nd floor. You feel the ground shaking as he hits the dirt. You should be able to find the video on instagram or may be youtube now. Took him a while to gather himself and finish his seeding run. The Ninja is one tough kid.
Seeding results top 5 for Men Elite
1. Troy Brosnan 2.16.886
2. Kazuki Shimizu 2.19.765
3. Wyn Masters 2.20.336
4. Guillaume Cauvin 2.21.107
5. Fabien Cousinie 2.21.287
Finals day and you could feel the intensity as riders are putting their game face on. The price money of $10.000 USD in total for the Men Elite is up for grab. Troy Brosnan has been having bad luck in his final run a few times at this event and would really want to put an end to it. Afos Katana had a technical problem on his seeding run and will be starting first. Pornomo from UBK team was the fastest local rider and is a regular on the podium every year. Our fastest rider Popo Ariosejati was injured so he had to sit it out this time. He was there to cheer on his team mate and all Indonesian riders while promoting the new brand line up by United Bike, The Patrol Mountain.
This shot just gives you an idea of how steep some of the sections on the track really were.
Tracey Hannah took an easy win in the Women Open, with no threat from her competition. She won by almost 38 seconds from the 2nd place. She decided to enter the Elite Mens race as well.Men Expert, Ismail Nurdin from UBK was 9 seconds faster than the fields on seeding. He crashed near the finish and managed to grab 2nd overall. Master Expert category also a good one to watch as most of the riders use to be in the Elite in their prime time. Setyawan Hoho won the seeding by almost 4 seconds and he said he played it safe for final. That nearly give Paul De Klerk from West Australia the win, Paul was 0.003 back. Really close hahaha…..
Jackson Davis sorted out the issues he had during seeding and took the win come finals.
In Junior, Adrian Aakre took the seeding from last year’s winner Jackson Davis as he crashed at the top section. Not in final though, Jackson put his head down and put down the time of 2.26.354 a good 2.3 seconds off Adrian in 2nd place and top 10 in Elite. Local boy Abien also better his time and took 3rd with 9.1 seconds back.
Yuki Kushima charging one of the rock sections on the track.
Finally the category that everyone is waiting for, Elite final run…First rider left the starting gate is Afos Katana, he did a run that put him up on the hot seat for a long time. The 2.18.935 was seemed to be hard to beat as we see riders after riders fail to dethroned him from that seat. Dave the Drogan McMillan (we will explain Drogan in another article coming soona��) had a crash, Wyn Masters came into the finish with one of his knee pad falling off to his shin, Tracey Hannah put a shamed to some of the boys when she delivers a 2.29.376 that puts her in 12th overall. Fabien Cousinie was closed but almost a second off Afos’s time. Kazuki Shimizu, runner up at the Asian Championships this year finally beat the time with 2.18.796 almost 200th of a second quicker. His time didn’t last for long as Guillaume Cauvin came in with 2.17.217. All eyes on the last man down, Troy Brosnan. I think everyone was holding their breath as it felt quite long until we saw him coming out of the woods. Soon enough we saw him dropping into Sonjon section and into the Suksma rock with good speed. He hit the last chute and pedalled right away. Then it felt like a moment of silence for ages, before the crowd erupted as the MC announced Troy’s time of 2.16.322, faster than his seeding run too. I think all of his fans are happy to see Troy back in his winning form again.
Troy Brosnan took the win and the dollars, boy didn’t the crowd just love it too!
It was another great weekend and we hope everyone had a blast too. Healing vibes to all the injured riders. On behalf of the organizer Orange Sports Communication and all of our partners and Sponsors United Bike, Patrol Mountain, Specialized, Shimano, FJC, Castle, Kabuto, TLD, Maxxis, Pro, Park Tools, Daihatsu, Funn, Formula Bike, McDonalds and Surya Husada Hospital. Also the Government of Bali Province, we would like to thank everyone who came down to race or just spectating. You helped us make this event another one to remember. See you at the next Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge
The third and final round of the Gravity Enduro South Australia (GESA) series was held at Fox Creek up in the Adelaide Hills, a favorite destination for riders of all disciplines. Hard to believe that the series is drawing to a close already, it seems like only yesterday we were at the inaugural event at Craigburn farm.
Fox had some of the biggest climbs of any of the events yet but this also translated to some of the longest and fastest downhills, earn your turn as they say! Still the dreaded climbing was made easier by the fact you could cruise up, chatting with mates (unless you have one of those mates who is super competitive about everything and they had to turn the up into a race too a�� everyone knows someone like that right?!). Despite initially being slated as a five stage race in the end three stages were used to determine the victors. This included the new Green Smoothie trail which was built by IMBA and is an absolute blast to ride!
Elite Men:
1. Andy ClarkeA�13.05
2. Brad McDonnell 13.39
3. Alex Waddicor 13.54
Elite Women:
1. Anna Puckridge 16.37
2. Bria Smith 17.15
3. Nicole Jefferies 20.21
Under 19 Men:
1. Cam Ryan 13.08
2. Curtis Dowdell 13.44
3. Darcy Grooby 14.19
Good racing across the classes, Cam Ryan won Under 19 but would have placed 2nd in Elite.A�With 90 or so competitors and it was well run and good end to a successful first season, see you next year!
