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…
Check out the compression! The g-out was highly entertaining….
At the recent South Australian State Champs the final chute into the finish line saw riders entering with quite a lot of speed, needless to say there was a lot of suspension compression going on! Check it out, enjoy;
With another season done it was time for the State Champs, for the last few years it has been at Eagle, this year it was Willunga that held the race.
The final Inside Line race for South Australia in 2013 was the State Champs held over the October long weekend to the south of Adelaide at Willunga. Here everyone was vying to take home the state champion jersey, a cool prize and one that everyone liked.
The track had seen a visit from the trail fairies, they brought their bulldozer to make a few changes which was good of them!
The trail was different from the State race earlier in the year held here but onA�one ridge over, the top section was made up of technical features, such as rock gardens, g-outs and big jumps while the bottom section was flat turns before the finishing chute.
There were a lot of flats over the weekend, one rider apparently even copping 5 in a row! The reason, little ninja rocks hiding everywhere!Different styles were displayed all weekend long!Overall the track was fast and riders just blurred past.Transport ran well over the weekend, the ride up can sometimes be as crazy as the ride down due to the access road!
The weather was good, the wind did cause a few crashes on some of the jumps as riders got thrown around, best recovery thoughts to all that crashed!
Ouch! He walked away though, literally crashing a few metres from the finish beam.
The big draw cards for the racing were Troy Brosnan and Connor Fearon, unfortunately could only do one run, a sore ankle meant he didn’t want to risk hurting it more and spectated over the weekend instead.
Elbows up! Troy Brosnan brings his international speed back home.There were all sorts of random things spotted over the weekend, large numbers of the police force, people mowing the lawn in their pit areas… All sorts!Nice view! Not that the riders would notice as they sent the kicker.
Racing saw tension levels higher than just a state round for obvious reasons, the Under 19 race was possibly the most dramatic as Matt Taylor, Conor Clancy and James Chambers battling it out all year, in the end Conor prevailed by 2 seconds. Full results are on the Inside Line club site (or should be soon!). Elite was always going to be Troy Brosnans race to win and he did just that taking the race ahead of Will Rischbieth.
Winner winner! Troy Brosnan adds the State Champs to his impressive list of achievements for 2013.Angus Maddern has had a good season all year including heading over to race his first World Cup, he shows us the middle line through the bottom chute.Henry Blake, another rider who had a good year, including heading over to Whistler earlier in the season takes the outside line.There is talk of doing a 20 year anniversary race here to mark 20 years of Inside Line next year, this bike would fit in perfectly.A good crowd witnessed a fitting final race for 2013!
That is a wrap for 2013! We can’t wait for next years series, thanks to Inside Line, the volunteers and everyone that has supported the site this year.
On a weekend where Severe Weather Warnings outspoke TV news, over 160 riders gathered to race on Lithgow’s Pony Express trail. Warmly hosted by the Central Tablelands MTB Club and Lithgow Pony Club, the racing atmosphere was buzzing early Sunday morning.
A dry, dusty track had riders on their toes, pushing for grip to beat the clock.A�Downhill riders are familiar with coming home covered in dirt, dust and sweat, usually accompanied by a huge grin and/or battle scars. There were plenty of spills and near misses, including an unlucky fall by Steve Humphreys (NSWDH) who left by ambulance, but has since been confirmed OK.
Dust isn’t as soft as it looks, as many riders found out. JB.Rick Boyer carves a wave of dust late in his race run, moments before spectators are sprayed with dust. EE.Teejay Clark took the Expert Men’s title for 2013 with a blistering run. Here, midway down the track TJ has his eyes on the prize. JB.Del Rio and Ourimbah had a designated ‘Heckler’s Corner’, here is Lithgow’s. As Jacob McCormack hit the deck on ‘Mega Thunder’ the crowd winced. With a facefull of dust, McCormack recovered and finished 21st. JB.On a modest spring day, even reptiles made it out to watch the state’s fastest battle it out. Spot our reptilian friend.. EE.Michelle Crisp on the gas to Third place in Elite Women. Michelle has had an impressive comeback after a serious shoulder injury just one year ago. 2014 will be a big year for her! JB.Lithgow locals celebrate their racing with true Aussie rider style – here ‘Skin’ stops for a well earned draught mid-race run. EE.Megaphones, tree-climbing, yelling, cheering, and sometimes drinking, the Hecklers were out in force come race time. Despite all the noise, here it’s a rider and his bike against the clock. JB.It’s like a miniature world cup atmosphere. At any level, Downhill racing represents the same values and passion; from grassroots to World Cup people are united by riding their bikes, in the bush.A�JB.
Graeme Mudd, on a high since taking out Dual Slalom at Crankworx was expected to perform in racing, and he did, falling into second place to Andrew Crimmins by less than a second.Crimmins attacks the same corner, blazing a trail of dust behind him. Andrew has shown his pace at every round this year, tough competition with Graeme Mudd and Blake Nielsen.
Here’s a few extra snaps from Lithgow’s State Champs for 2013. What a great weekend of Downhill! The next round of the NSW/ACT RedAss Downhill Series is in Awaba, November 17/18.
Dust! Finally a dry Fox race after battling mother nature over the past few months. Interesting feet positioning… Due to the lack of water the track started to get blown out in places giving riders another challenge.
After a few weeks since the last SA State race we were back at Fox for the next one! With gorgeous weather and fun track there were no complaints though. Fox Long was the location, as this track is open to the public basically all year round plenty of riders were up to speed early, the short turn around on shuttles were helping as well. No big news from the day of practice, a few injuries, get better soon all who succumbed but overall it was Sunday everyone was keen for.
A bit of last minute maintenance? Or was it the two days of riding leading up to your race run? Whatever the case we saw a few riders tweaking in the pits Sunday morning.Running off the track was bad enough with the blueberry’s (spare a thought for marshals and photographers who had to traverse it!) but with this prickly little fella an off the track excursion could have been really interesting!Like magpies to shiny objects, photographers get drawn to riders with colour!
There was good racing across all the classes, with a solid turn out of riders. The big draw card categories for most people are the Under 19 and Elite Men but it was great to see more girls out and racing too. Matt Taylor and Angus Maddern threw down in seeding to keep their form of late going and took the top times for seeding in Under 19’s and Elite respectively.
Of course it is not only just Elite and Under 19 riders that come out for race day!
With Inside Line running everything so smoothly and rider numbers not quite as big as they previously have been racing was done by 2.30pm. It was a very familiar looking podium too!
James Chambers just floating along, two wheels off the ground!Taking selfies to the next level?! Not quite the Adelaide Independent Racing guys always put out some good footage of their weekend.There was definitely a few lines on some part of the tracks, inside, outside, high, low it was all there!Mmm sunlight warm weather is close by, good conditions taken advantage of here by Matt Kelly.
To the racing and Matt Taylor held onto his number one spot from seeding in Under 19’sA�with a 2.13.83, ahead of Connor Clancy and James Chambers. In Elite Women Moira Love took the win from Simone Cameron but both riders were riding well as they went past us. To Elite Men and rider after rider just kept coming through going faster and faster! The top 5 looked like this; Cam Ryan in 5th after battling sickness leading into the race, 4th to the always consistent Ngari Jenkins, 3rd to Steve Gebert another rider who is very professional in what he does, 2nd place went to Will Rischbieth who is “taking the year off riding” and the number one position was Angus Maddern who cracked on with a 2.08.66. There was talk of riders ducking down to the 2.05 which didn’t quite happen but in the end it didn’t matter as the racing was good anyway.
Cal Morrison back form Whistler and into 7th place.Steve Gebert flew past us near one of the high speed sections before dropping in to continue his run.The Elite Men’s winner Angus Maddern taking care of business.
That is a wrap for the SA State Series for 2013, the next race on the calendar is the State Champs at a different Willunga track, we are keen to see the changes!
Good old Fox Creek, you never know what you are in for!
Hang on we hear you say, race 4? You just put up race 5 the other day…! Well after some rather inclement weather RoundA� 4 was postponed until after round 5, make sense?! When we heard that Matt Bird Photography would be heading out to the race we threw down a challenge for them, shoot the race on film! So all the warm images you see are from the ‘by-gone’ era of film!
Ah the warm glow of film! Will Badger bursts out of this corner.
Conditions weren’t dry and dusty but they were a big improvement from the weekend the race was cancelled. Pretty standard track at Fox – Pattos Curse for this round, it has some real off camber sections, some really good turns and a big jump into the finish area.
Keeping warm was the name of the game!The big jump into the finish area, Tom Matto puts on a show.
The future of the sport, the Under 19 racers, fought it out with the victory going to Matt Taylor, his time of 1.55.23 was also the second fastest time of the day, quite an impressive effort! Racing was super tight in the Elite category with the top 5 separated by less than 1.5 seconds! In the end it was Angus Maddern, who has recently returned from Canada including racing the Mont Sainte Anne World Cup, who took the victory.
Matt Taylor took the Under 19’s victory and the second fastest time of the day, super impressive!
The next raceA�in the series we head back to Fox! This time Long, it is bound to be another good weekend of racing.
