Category: Australian race posts

Inside Info: Team Talk

The pits for both the Australian domestic and the international season, are going to look substantially different for 2013.

Without doubt this has been one of the most intriguing off seasons to date, there has been some big changes, as well as some unexpected ones. With that in mind lets have a look at whereA�you can expect to see theA�Australians racing and on what.

Ben Hill – In his first season on the Clint White Racing program, Ben has started off with solid results in both the Tassie and Vic series, look as he pushes for Worlds selection later in the year.

Ben Power – Ben has been dealing with a injured hand but hopes to get to overseas later in the year to hit up some races in North America.

Bryn Atkinson – No real big changes for Bryn (and fiancee Jill Kintner) for 2013A�they are;A�”still riding for Norco, and running our own team. We’re both staying in the US this off season, so I’m not going to be at any Aussie races unfortunately”.

Caroline Buchannan – It was a nice surprise to see Caroline return to downhill for 2013, riding an Airborne bike Caroline has said she would like to race both downhill as well as 4X, not to mention her busy BMX program leading up to the 2016 Olympics, hectic indeed!

Chris Kovarik – Chris (and partner Claire) are still running the Kovarik Racing program which will see them attend selected races (such as Australian National Series races’) whilst continuing their successful ride clinics. A change for 2013 sees them on Fox suspension.

Connor Fearon – After a hugely successful 2012A�season Connor steps up from the junior ranks forA�his first season as a senior, still on Kona and unable to comment too muchA�on team commitments, with Mitch DelfsA�no longer on KonaA�don’t be surprised to see Connor as the soleA�team rider for 2013.

Crimmins Brothers – We thought we would cover both Andrew and Thomas together as a unit, both are racing for Giant Australia, expect their speed to continue to grow and watch as they make a push for Worlds’ selection.

Danielle Beecroft – After third at Junior Worlds in 2012, Danielle will continue riding Pivot Bikes for 2013A�and is “currently in talks with a major sponsor, that will help her in her quest to improve on her third place at the World Championships last year ” so expect more news soon.

David McMillan-A�David has continued with the Specialized Australia program for 2013, look out for David as he tries to head overseas later in the year to some international races. Currently the team has the 2013 alloy Demo with the carbon models landing in February.

We are super keen to see Dave have a good season this year, an off season scare with a crash at the dirt jumps hasn’t appeared to slow him down. He looks happy in this photo with his alloy Specialized, the carbon models are on their way (or maybe it is because he has got his hands on one of the super limited adition downhill247.com t-shirts?!) Photo: Ronnie Grammatica/toptobottom.it

Dean Lucas – Since returning form overseas Dean has been in good form at home on board his Kona, expect much the same in 2013.

Mitch Delfs – Mitch moves off Kona on to his new team, when we talked to him about he was coy other than saying he was “pretty stoked on the new gig” and he claims he will be on one “good looking bike”, more news as soon as we get it!

Jackson Davis – After success racing in Indonesia recently, Jackson will be racing for Specialized Australia this year at all the National races,A� when Sam Hill says Jackson has one of the best cornering techniques he has seen you definitely have to pay attention.

Jack Moir – After 5th at the 2012 World Champs inA�juniorA�Jack is in fine form and will be hitting up all the Nationals and as many World Cup races as possible. This year Jack is on the Yeti Australia team butA�our hot tip is that he will be picked up by the Yeti World Cup Team, watch this space…

Jack took his new Yeti to Thredbo to get some time on it before the Nationals start, from this photo it looks like he is pretty comfortable on it already! Photo: Ronnie Grammatica/toptobottom.it
Jack is pretty happy with his new set up and why wouldn’t you be! Photo: Ronnie Grammatica/toptobottom.it

Jared Graves – A strong start to 2012 in South Africa was the highlight for Jared’s World Cup season, in 2013 Jared is still aboard Yeti but focusing on the enduro downhill scene, something he should do well in considering his ability to train at the highest level physically combined with his bike handling skills. Expect Jared to help mentor Aussie Jack Moir wherever possible.

Josh Button – Unfortunately Josh won’t be heading overseas for 2013, a real loss for Australian downhill, Josh has the skills to become a real consistent top 20 prospect but has been hampered by bad luck. His constant knee injuries (which were often not his fault) have been what has really slowed him down, for 2013 Josh is trying to make it to the Thredbo and Canberra rounds of the National Series.

Rhys Atkinson – Rhys is back on board with Specialized and will look to regain the overall National Series title he claimed in theA�2010/11 season before heading overseas to race some World Cups.

Sam Hill – Big news saw Sam leaving not only his Specialized team but also long time team manager Sean Heimdal as he heads to Chain Reaction Cycles/Nukeproof, he willA�take over a raft ofA�existing sponsors, including SRAM so expect to see him on the Blackbox program for 2013 which means he won’t be riding Marzocchi as previously suggested.

Timmy Eaton – After a successful 2011/12 season Tim has changed it up slightly for 2013, getting on board the Giant Australia team, which could easily dominate this season with the depth of field it has signed.

Tracey Hannah – Tracey will be riding with brother Mic on Polygon Bikes, after a promising start to 2012 a big injury put a temporary hold on her return, Tracey is now back on her cross country bike, expect to see her fighting it out at the first World Cup in a few months.

Troy Brosnan – 2012 was a year Troy would rather forget, so much promise but cut short by injury, Troy is now back on his cross country rig and training hard for 2013, with new team mates expect Troy to be even hungrier after a ‘lost’ international season last year.

Will Rischbieth – Will has been recovering from an injury sustained last year but he will be back riding for Giant Australia in 2013 at Nationals across the country.

2013 is going to be an interesting year to say the least! There are plenty more riders who could have made this list, expect coverage of a huge range of races in 2013.

Victorian All Mountain Series – Myrtleford Preview

The next round of the Victorian all mountain series is happening over the 12th and 13th of January at Myrtleford, no doubt many of you will be racing itA�(or wanting to!) and we just had a chat with course builder Ben Watkins about what to expect from the event. To say Ben was pretty excited about what was in store on the ‘Breckenridge Trail’ would be an understatement!

“This is one of the best trails I have ever built” If you have sampled some of Ben’s other trails then you would know this is a big statement!

The new singletrack has had a lot of gone into it to help the flow, in Bens enthusiastic words; “The trail I am using for the Myrtleford Yeti Cycles Elevation round, is a trail called Breckenridge trail. Ita��s in a myriad of old hard core moto enduro loops, fouby tracks, and tech mountain bike descents, winding down the side of a huge mountain with tons of these tight sharp steep little “valleys” on the way down.

This gives the trail an amazing yet unique mix of long, flowy descending sections, which then gives you enough speed to get up the other side of a short sharp little climb. The bonus of this is that you drop a ton of vertical elevation but then you get most of that back again without a massive climbing effort, so it feels like an endless roller coaster ride.

I did a few days hiking with a high end GPS which helped me to see a�?the whole mountaina��, even though you cana��t see over the next ridge in the thick forest. This helped to pick which direction to go, which old trail to use, and which ones to let die. Picking out some of the diss-used trails and rebuilding those, along with piecing together some amazing new linking sections which have amazing terrain has given us what seems like “the perfect trail” for all mountain, super D, or gravity based enduro riding.

Even though there is a lot of old trails there from long ago, the erosion from heavy rain had destroyed a lot of it, so by the time I added new links or whole new sections, rebuilding the old trails meant that pretty much I ended up with what looks like five kays of brand new single trail. This did allow for more interesting and creative new lines, and this trail as a whole is definitely a step in the right direction from the Bright trail, and more interesting from a riders perspective too.

The elevation drop is close to 1000 vertical feet, and after the first lay out of the track it was five kays long. It has since had two un interesting sections removed, but also an amazing new section added, so it will be interesting to see the times and the actual new trail length, as Bright was 3.5 kays taking ten minutes.

A lot of riders have asked me “whata��s the track like?” as a builder I think this one is the best, and most creative Ia��ve ever built. As a rider, I cana��t wait to thrash it!”

Rocks, lots of rocks! Make sure you have your bike set up for the conditions.

For more info head over to the Facebook or site or hit up their website, as usual expect a full report on the site after the event!

Tassie DH – Round 3 – Glenorchy Mountain Bike Park

Round three of the Tassie downhill series was held over the weekend at Glenorchy Mountain Bike Park.

Hobarta��s Glenorchy Mountain bike park played host to round 3 of the Tasmanian downhill seriesA�over theA�weekend. The race took place on the new North South track, which makes ita��s way from Mt Wellington, descending down into the mountain bike park. The Race course began as the track entered ita��s final downhill section into the park before crossing the shuttle road onto a cross country descent full of tight berms andA�then finallyA�connecting onto the lower section of the Nationals DH course finishing with a straight of large jumps.

Event organiser, Matt Wood, gets accustomed to the new track the riders were racing on.

Saturdaya��s practice saw wet, muddy conditions which was a change for the notoriously dusty track. Many riders used the day to discover the flow of the track and experiment with different lines, as it wasA�the first time the course has been used for DH racing.

Simon Palmer getting use to the track and the conditions.

When Sunday morning came the track had dried out a fair bit, with riders gaining speed and finalizing decisions on bike set up and line choice. A total of 65 riders competed in the event, with a range of different styles of bikes to combat the varying terrain, everything from cross country bikes, all mountain rigs and full DH bikes.

Different riders were choosing different bikes for the conditions, here George Newham chose the little bike and it must have paid off, second in Elite!

By the time Sunday afternoon came the track had well and truly driedA�out with loose dust starting to reveal itself. When qualifying came around, most riders chose to hold back and not push as hard during the flatter cross country sections of the course in an effort to save some energy for their race runs. After a short break riders were quickly shuttled back to the top of the course to begin their final run for the weekend.

Win number three for Christina Sergeant this season!

The Women’s category was again won by Christina Sergeant, her third win for the season. The Under 17a��s was won by Dan Booker followed by Connor Greatbatch and Ewan Favretto placing in third. Under 19 series leader Ben Hill took out first place closely followed by Brent Capel in second, with Simon Palmer rounding out third place. The Hotly contested Elite mena��s category was again Won by Kaine Cannon, George Newham placed second and Aaron Oates in at third.

Dan Booker took out the Under 17 Men’s class.
Ben Hill’s awesome season continues taking out another victory in Under 19 Men.
Simon Palmer placed third, here he leads Dan Booker and Billy Johnstone down during practice.
Elite Men’s winner Kaine Cannon negotiating the jumps near the bottom of the course.
George Newham got the little bike down the hill and into second place, what a nice tactical manoeuvre!
Rounding out the top three was Aaron Oates.

The state series continues on February 2nd and 3rd at Wilmot in the statea��s north.

All photos and the articel credited to Andrew Palmer.

VicDH – Round 3 – Kinglake

As the day passed by the sun came out, the track got a little dustier and a lot looser.

Kinglake! Round 3 of the Victorian Downhill Series has come and gone, a series quickly becoming a magnet for not only local talent, but for riders Australia wide! For the first time this season the track wasn’t just a dust festival (initially). Storms to previous day kept the ground moist and made for some excellent conditions to practice in.

Why do we like it loose? Because riders like Ben Hill show us how ita��s done on the flat corners!
Here Trent Piribauer gives us his take on how how ita��s done in the flat corners…
… And goes drifting on past!

As race day rolled in the weather decided it would be a little bit bipolar, and though it didn’t rain, the clouds ensured that it was a typical Melbourne day with the weather going from hot to cold more times than you can count. The changing light made some riders cautious, especially popping out from the much darker wooded sections.

The Alpine Gravity Team showing no caution to the steep stuff!

As practice drew to a close, we began to get a real show from some of the riders out to have some fun before the seriousness of qualifying moved in.

Timmy Eaton getting completely flat, awesome!
Jack O’Hare going the opposite way from Timmy Eaton and getting that bike vertical!

Come qualifying everyone stepped it up a notch, with style being substitutedA�for raw speed.

Scrub-a-dub-dub! Ben Hill getting it done!

We saw some of the top riders come through a step down section just before the rock garden, three riders, three very different riding styles, one very similar determined look on their faces.

Variety of riders, variety of styles, whatever works for you…
This doesna��t mean you can’t have some fun though! Santaa��s little helper took some time off from toying about with Santa to show off some skills!
Henry Blake was out to ensure the trip to Vic from SA was worth the effort, he was looking very quick over this small kicker.
Keeping the SA theme going, Angus Maddern came across for his first race of the season, he could have been the replacement for Connor Fearon who was noticeably absent.

As the day grew on the crowd came out and lined the track, the changing weather conditions not deterring them. Come finals the crowd was going crazy and Elite riders were copping all sorts of different cheering tactics…

Look at that crowd! It is no surprise as the Vic series is the most popular downhill race series in Australia. Photo: Harry Hartwig.

The shenanigans certainly didn’t stop when the racing was finished. The podium presentationsA�became complete shambles with people falling off the podium steps, objects being thrown and Dean LucasA�reading his sponsors off the jersey and being caught out, only to return a spray to the crowd!

Some interesting podium moments certainly spiced the proceedings up a bit!

At the end of the day racing was a hotly contested with some big names vying it out, in the end Dean Lucas took another win from Timmy Eaton, Rhys Atkinson who helped construct the track here took third.

Elite Men:

1. Dean Lucas

2. Timmy Eaton

3. Rhys Atkinson

4. Joey Vejvoda

5. Liam Panozzo

 

Elite Women:

1. Tegan Maloy

2. Sarah Booth

3. Jacqui Lovett

4. Ellie Wale

5. Li Lina

 

U/19 Men:

1. Aiden Varley

2. Andrew Crimmins

3. Ben Hill

4. Oliver Zwar

5. Elliot Webb

It wasA�a top weekend where the weather played along, even though the forecast suggested it wouldna��t. A really excellent weekend of racing finishing off with plenty of laughs.

See you all at Round 4, Mt. Buller, which is held a week apart from the National round there, talk about a double header!

From myself, Jason Stevens,A�have an awesome Chirstmas everyone! I will see you all in the New Year!

Thanks Jason for another awesome report and pics (with some help from Harry Hartwig), there will be plenty more up on downhill247.com as the year draws to an end, check back soon.

NSW/ACT RedAss Downhill State Series – Thredbo – Round 5

The final round of the NSW State Series fittingly was held on one of Australia’s most famous, toughest and longest downhill tracks!

Thredbo resort held the 5th and final round of the Red Ass NSW-ACT Downhill State Series 2012 this weekend. Riders inundated the village to ride the legendary Cannon Ball trail and to see who would be crowned the overall champions for 2012.

Ben Cory would know this track like the back of his hand after racing here so often!

In the Elite male category, the old hand Ben Corey was victorious this weekend followed by Jack Moir. The young Graeme Mudd came in third place, which was enough to secure him the overall championship title for 2012.

No surprise Tegam Molloy took the victory on her home track!

Maybe ita��s no surprise that Tegan Molloy took out first place on her local track, with Sarah Booth in 2nd place and Danielle Beecroft in 3rd. Sarah was crowned the 2012 overall series champion following a consistent performance over the season.

Pretty standard Thredbo weather!

The weekend started out well with the sun shining, everyone smiling, although a little windy. Typical of the Alps, by Sunday the weather had taken a turn back to winter with wind and sleet seeing the Elite males off for their seeding runs.

A long way down still to go with a slightly different starting position!

Thredbo is renowned as the oldest DH track in Australia accessible by chairlift, and also as being one of the toughest tracks in the series. The track measures around 3km in length with over 500 metres of vertical. We could see that the Thredbo MTB crew had worked hard in the lead up to the weekend to build some new features. On show this weekend was a brand new double jump just above the a�?Bunny Walka�� section and a new step down jump at the bottom of the course.

Snowgums! The old girl got a run this weekend.

For those of you that know the track, this year the top section of the track that follows the gravel access road was closed for maintenance works. This meant that riders had to take the old Snowgums chairlift up and the race began at the beginning of what is known as the a�?Kareela Highwaya��.

Andrew Crimmins had the new section sorted!
Tim Eaton had no problems on ‘Snakes and Ladders’ one of the more technical sections of the track!
Wherever you can, whenever you can…The Lusty’s Industries/ Orange Bike team chilling under their tent.
Sara Booth won the Elite female category.
Local rider Joey Vejvoda showing off his skills on the new double jump.
Jack Moir came 2nd in Elite Men.
Thomas Crimmins popping off the double jump onto the lower ski runs, on his way to 4th position in Elite.
Hi five to Greame Mudd, the young gun from Maitland who won the Red Ass NSW-ACT Elite Downhill State Series for 2012.

The RedAss Downhill NSW/ACT State Series 2012 is over but we are looking forward for the 2013 edition already!

Article and pictures by Ronnie Grammatica – www.ronniegrammatica.com

VicDH – Round 2 – Mt Tarrengower

Jack Lumb navigating through a random rock patch mid-way down the track.

Round 2 of the VicDH Series saw the sun shining, lets hear from Jase Stevens as he gives us the lowdown on the event;

Welcome to Mt. Tarrengower, Round 2 of the Victorian Downhill Series. The suns out, the rocks are ready to destroy anything they come in contact with and the dust… well it seems its turned up again. The camera equipment just loves all the dust! If there was to be a stereotypical Australian Downhill track this one might just tick all the boxes, red Australian dust, rocks, and just a ripper of a day. As practice started you could see the track starting to be pulled apart by heavy braking and hard cornering.

Maldon gets straight into things, not messing about at all, a couple of berms and your thrown right into the thick of it, coming into a rock drop/garden and from there on for a significant stretch ita��s rocks and flats. The top section of the track claimed it fair share of riders and tubes, even through the early practice sessions. From the rocks you descend into some smooth berms, as practice progressed the berms got looser and looser, by the time race runs came around some of the exits were like dust traps making it vital the riders kept as much speed as possible.

Brent Harwood finding his line through the top rock section

The track then descends down a ridge line where the rocks seem to disappear and some jumps come through, getting progressively larger as your come down the track. It was very interesting to watch riders styles change as the day progressed, as the landings became softer and softer more and more riders opted to stay super low and scrub all the jumps. From my stand point this certainly looked much quick and appeared much more stable on landing and having to turn.

Dean Lucas cruising over the double.

As qualis began to quickly approach and riders stared to ease off the runs and the dust began to settle the wear on the track became apparent with plenty of the corners becoming rutted out with dust hiding those ruts, yet some parts of the track seemed to be untouched.

Ben Hill charging through the dust on the final corner to take the win in U/19s, no brakes and death gripping, nice!
Rick Munro keeping it upright on one area of track that didn’t deteriorate as much as some other sections.

As qualis began the riding was stepped up and everyone found another gear, rocks and bumps that appeared to just be an obstacle suddenly became kickers to clear large sections of track, new lines came out and the speed generally went right up a notch.

Jacqui Lovett showing everyone that the girls can go just as fast in the rough stuff.
Andrew Peck shows us one way of attempting the rock garden.
Jack O’hare has a different line in mind.
And Dean Lucas has a winning line in mind making sure that the rock garden simply becomes scenery as he claims air time over most of the rough stuff.

Race runs begin and one thing is rather evident, therea��s going to be mechanicals at this round. Plenty of riders suffered the misfortunes of flat tyres and other problems, and other suffered offs over the whole track.

This was the story of the day for so many unlucky riders.
Not so for Aiden Varley who absolutely pulverised the top rock garden at full speed.

As the elite riders began their runs the track really started to get properly loose, just holding on to the end of the day. The final part of the track became a spectators dream as every rider came through faster and faster creating roosts from the loose berms as the rip down on the pedals to squeeze every last second they can out of the run.

Ashley Maller pushes even harder getting both wheels loose on the soft stuff.

As the top elite riders started coming down times started falling and each rider started taking over the hot seat. As Connor Fearon came over the line and took the hot seat there was only Dean Lucas to come. He appeared through the trees and cleared the road gap with ease smashing the final berm but oddly not pedalling, as the bike goes past it sounds rather unhealthy, pushing for every last second Dean ghosties the bike over the line for the win, only on later inspection do we see the issue Dean battled with to take the win.

How you win a race when your bike looks like this is beyond us.
Elite mena��s podium. Interstate galore, nice to see a Victorian take the win.

Final results were:

Elite Men:

1. Dean Lucas

2. Connor Fearon

3. Rhys Atkinson

4. Tim Eaton

5. Trent Piribauer

 

Elite Women:

1. Sarah Booth

2. Tegan Malloy

3. Shelly Flood

4. Jacqui Lovett

5. Kelly Bayliss

 

U/19 Men:

1. Ben Hill

2. Aiden Varley

3. Mathew McCorkell

4. Ben Kelaart

5. Eliot Webb

All images and words in this article are credited to Jason Stevens, to see some more of his fantastic work follow this link;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason_stevens_photography/

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