Category: Australian race posts

Fun Facts – Thredbo

Thredbo has the highest lift point above sea level in Australia at 2037m AHD. Photo: Ronnie Grammatica

Thredbo is one of the oldest mountain bike racing destinations in Australia and we thought we would hit you up with some Fun Facts;

1 – Your wheels turn just over 1800 times to cover the whole distance of the track (providing you don’t ET every jump!).

2 – Assuming they hit the jump and cleaned it riders would only need to hit the new jump in the middle of the track 345 times to cover the whole distance of theA�track.

3 – The average rider would burn over 500 calories on race weekend from just riding their bike alone!

4 – Mount Kosciuszko is the highest mountain in AustraliaA�at 2,228m above sea level and is named after a Polish freedom fighter.

5 -A�The airA�pressure in your tyreA�at the top of the track wouldA�read 1 psiA�higher on a guageA�than if you were reading itA�at the beach.

The Elite Men’s podium at Thredbo required around 300 runs to determine the final outcome! Photo: Ronnie Grammatica

Another Fun Facts session closed out!

National Series – Round 2 – Thredbo

Just like round one Thredbo is a classic stop on the downhill racing calendar in Australia. Here Caroline Buchannan hits the top of the course.

Fast and dry conditions set the stage for the second round of the 2013 Subaru Gravity Cup series at Thredbo, similar to what we experienced last round at Mt Buller. The weather was good, just a little windy, and the atmosphere was great, with a good number of spectators turning up to cheer the riders on.

The Thredbo crew did a good job getting the track ready for the race with the course nice and smooth all the way down to the bottom. It was good to see that they also made a few changes on the track to make it faster.
Ask many a rider an they will stay this course isA�the hardest in the series. By the time the riders get to the bottom of the track their energy is spent and they dig deep to muster up enough energy to pedal to the finish line, trying to get the win.

Sam Hill gave us a glimpse of what he had in store for the weekend in the seeding on Saturday by securing the fastest time, a clear 5.65 seconds over Connor Fearon and 7.16 seconds in front of Jack Moir. The weekend ended with Sam in 1st with a time of 5’21”95, Jack in 2nd and Connor in 3rd. It was well earned first podium finish for he Yeti OZ team rider, Jack, just a couple of days after his 19th birthday.
Jack Moir getting super wild! Second on your birthday is a nice little present to yourself…
Third place for the second race in a row, consistent if nothing else!
Three times BMX world champion Caroline Buchanan won in the elite female category with 6’13”78, the Canadian rider Clare Buchar claimed second place, and the 2004 XC Olympian Lisa Mathison took third.

Round 2 hasn’t changed the overall rankings, with Sam Hill and Caroline Buchanan continuing to lead in the Gravity Cup rankings for their respective categories.

The Thredbo local and a Giant team rider, Thomas Crimmins, took first place in Under 19 on the dusty and tough course at Thredbo with a time of 5’32”69. Here he shows us he isn’t just fast on a downhill bike!
Luke Ellison posted a time of 5’34”97 to claim second spot in Under 19, followed by Dean Lucas in third.
Over to the final junior women results, Tegan Molloy took first place with Danielle Beecroft caming into second. In third place was Kellie Weinert.
With the 201 plate Danielle Beecroft finished second.
Andrew Crimmins, with a time of 5’28”14, took the win in the U17. This super quick guy had the third quickest time overall, just 6 seconds behind the legendary Sam Hill. Could this 15 year old local boy from Bredbo be the future of our sport?
Chris Kovarik riding the tight wood section just after the big sender.
Ben Hill on Zerode riding through the new section that bends around the True Blue rock garden. This section is pretty rough and blown out!
Jared Rando – the Giant Australia ambassador and junior coach – riding the Bunny Walk section.
Dean Lucas brought it home in third place.
Troy Brosnan was happy to be back on his bike, even if it wasn’t to race.
David McMillan seeded in 5th but came 8th at the end of the weekend, you know he is capable of that podium spot though.
Caution downhill247.com supporters on road! Thanks everyone for the support across the country!

With a short seriesA�we are rapidly drawing to the end!

Article and images credited to: A� RonnieGrammatica.com

Flash Result – Seeding – National Series – Thredbo

Chris Kovarik is always a threat and seeded in seventh, expect him to better this come finals. Photo: Ronnie Grammatica

Riders are experiencing warm conditions for the second round of the Australian National Series, currently beingA�held at Thredbo. After a few wet races there recently this is nothing to complain about though. Seeding results are as follows;

Under 19 Male

1. Thomas Crimmins 5.34.20

2. Dean Lucas 5.37.40 + 3.20

3. Luke Ellison 5.38.26 + 4.06

4. Brent Smith 5.39.26 + 5.06

5. Aiden Varley 5.41.83 + 7.63

Under 19 Female

1. Tegan Molloy 6.18.58

2. Danielle Beecroft 6.28.68 + 8.10

3. Kellie Weinert 6.40.79 + 22.21

Elite Female

1. Caroline Buchannan 6.15.54

2. Claire Buchar 6.17.16 + 1.62

3. Lisa Mathison 6.21.02 + 5.48

4. Genevieve McKew 6.43.68 + 28.14

5. Madelline Taylor 6.51.42 + 35.88

Elite Male

1. Sam Hill 5.22.44

2. Connor Fearon 5.28.09 + 5.65

3. Jack Moir 5.29.60 + 7.16

4. Joey Vejvoda 5.31.43 + 8.99

5. David McMillan 5.33.85 + 11.41

Looking at the results in Elite Men it is interesting to note that four out of five are riders who have just stepped up from the junior ranks!

Tegan Molloy was the fastest Junior Female but we expect a close race in finals. Photo: Ronnie Grammatica

Check back for a full report after finals.

Tassie DH – Round 4 – Wilmot

Round 4 of the Tassie downhill series and the sun was shining!

Last weekend the 4th round of the Tasmanian gravity series was held in the small town of Wilmot, about 30 minutes out of Devonport in the statea��s North. The track consisted of many flowy corners, with a couple of technical rock gardens and some big gaps thrown in to mix things up. Saturdaya��s conditions saw a sunny, dry day which allowed riders easy conditions to work out their lines and how to maintain their speed. Also held on Saturday was a super D race, although downhill bike numbers were low at this event, it attracted many cross country and all mountain riders.

Yeah boy! Wide open…
Hang on a second…
Whoops! Thankfully the weekend was relatively injury free, except for Saturday afternoon, when Sue Booker sustained a broken ankle in the steep rock garden. Get well soon Sue!

By the time Sunday morning had come around the track had worn out a fair bit and become a bit more rutted. During practice many riders picked up speed and got their lines dialed for race runs and were trying to gap the rather large finish line table top.

Ewan Faveretto putting a leg out!
Dan Booker won Under 17’s.
Brent Capel adds some style, second in Under 19’s for Brent.
Second place in Elite went to Aaron Oates.

The Womana��s category was again won by Christina Sergeant, with Jill Brady coming in second. New Track X team rider Dan Booker took first in the under 17a��s, Jarvis wall in second and Connor Greatbatch in third. Ben Hill again took the win, showing impressive speed and style, on his way down the course Brent Capel and Jack Lynch followed in Under 19a��s. The hotly contested Elite category was again one by Kaine Cannon with Aaron Oates in second and Josh Fuller in third.

Ben Hill kept up his good from taking out Under 19’s.

That wraps up Tassie for another round!

Article credit and photos to: Andrew Palmer

Fun Facts & Pick of the Pics: Mount Buller

The first chairlift at Mount Buller opened in 1949.

After a two successive races in a row at Mount Buller we thought we would put up a few photos along with some fun facts!

The elevation change of International is around 400m over approximately 2000m, to give you a comparison the 2012 World Champs track in Austria was a 484m elevation change over 2615m.
International is made up of approximately 50 corners (depending on what lines you take and how it is bunted). If you could save just 0.15 seconds on each corner your race time would improve by 7.5 seconds, how much further up the results would that have got you?!
We estimate (conservatively) that 2300 runs of the track were done over the weekends’ of the two races!
That meant riders covered 4600kms! That is enough to go from Melbourne to Buller and back again nine times!
Over the two weekends if you had to wait for the rider in front of you to finish their race run before you could start yours it would have taken just under 24 hours to get everyone downhill the course!
Some of the stats are probably not good to think about, how many gear changes did you do? How many impacts did your bike record going down the hill? At least downhill bikes are made for it!
Enough numbers, we hope you have enjoyed our Buller coverage, National number 2 kicks off at Thredbo in a few days, as usual expect coverage from one of Australia’s most famous race tracks.

Until next time Mount Buller!

2013 NSW Enduro Series

The 2013 NSW Enduro series is about to kick offthis weekend here at Ourimbah!

The 2013 Flow Rollercoaster All-Mountain Enduro Series willA�feature four A�different locations for the official title of NSW State Series Winner and State Champion. Starting at Ourimbah MTB Park it will offer different race formats, including shuttled and chair lift transport or un-timed rides to the top and of course those timed Flow Rollercoaster race runs a��according to the organisers they will use whatever concept suits the race venue the best. It kicks off this weekend at Ourimbah and here is the orgainsers take on what you can expect;

Round 1 – Ourimbah (3rd February) This was the venue of one of the first ever all-mountain races in NSW early last year. It’s a great track where the top is DH heavy, with a middle bit where you will need to pedal and the final stretch on the track called the Rollercoaster where it’s all about being smooth and fast. We will use the actual DH start and ride on the top part of the DH track at Ourimbah. B-lines will be in place and riders will have all morning to familiarise themselves with the challenging technical sections. We will then turn off to the all-mountain track and after a few fast and technical berms there will be a short stretch to pedal to the top of the Ourimbah Rollercoaster trail section. From there it’s a smooth and flowy ride to the finish, which will be located near the DH finish on the fireroad. So in summary, for Ourimbah we’ll have 1 track – shuttled runs to the top – 2 runs each – better run counts.

Different race formats on different tracks should keep racing interesting and levelfor all riders.

For future rounds and the Championship event at Thredbo the plan is:

Round 2 – Del Rio, Wisemans Ferry (17 March)
3 tracks are at our disposal there: the old DH track – Del Sin, the new DH track – Bike or Box and the descent of our original JetBlack24 track.
The plan is to use either all 3 tracks or the 2 better ones. We will have B-lines on all the tricky sections of the DH tracks. To further test your fitness you will be required to ride back to the top. There is a short but steep climb that we used for the 24 hour race which will be marked for you. Once at the top it’s a relaxed ride to the start.
=> 2 or 3 tracks – climb yourself – 1 run per track – combined time counts

Championships – Thredbo (6 April)
The brand new all mountain flow track is open and we are hearing great things about it. It will be by far the longest track of all of them. We can’t give you an official estimated time because you will be the first ever racers on that track!
=> 1 track – chairlift to the top – 2 runs each – better run counts

Round 3 – Stromlo Forest Park (28 July)
We loved the tracks so much there last year that we decided to go there twice in 2012. In Season13 we will be back for more, much more: not only will be flying down the Skyline-Luge tracks but include a second one down the back of the mountain: Pork Barrel-Double Dissolution. Shuttles will be provided to take you from the event centre and main carpark to the top of Mt Stromlo but from the finish of Double Dissolution you have to make your own way back to the carpark or straight up to the start again.
=> 2 tracks – shuttled runs from the carpark to the top – 1 run per track – combined time counts

Well there you have it, a full Enduro series running in New South Wales proving just how popular this style of downhillA�racing is getting!

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