It’s been a little while since You Yangs has had a national so there were some fresh faces checking out the track.
We check in at You Yangs in Victoria for round 1 of the MTBA National Series, being the first race of the season everyone is keen to see where there is form at and with some heavy hitters from the World Cup in attendance we are positive racing is going to be action packed. This weekend we have a slew of heavy hitter photographers on the ground to bring you all the action, no worries!
This is possibly the star of our recent interview Darcy Grooby blurring past but seeing as they’re going too fast we are struugling to tell!Riding with mates is always fun, get your train on!Getting sideways, who else but Ben Hill!It wasn’t just Ben getting sideways though!Of course some riders were strictly business, Angus Maddern on the hunt!Shakkas brah….! Transaltion: good times!There were a lot of riders riding ‘smaller’ downhill bikes to reflect the nature of the track, including Troy Brosnan. He could pretty much ride anything though and still go fast! Check back soon for a feature on these bikes.Team Giant have a big presence, some riders on the small bike some on the new 650B downhill bike.Jackson Davis.Connor Fearon, we had a detailed look at his Kona Process so watch out for that on the site real soon.Of course there is a range of grades racing, not just Elite, Matt Kelly in under 17’s cranking.Shuttles, essential part of the downhill scene across Australia!
Check back soon for more action from a hot, dusty You Yangs! Like what you see? Hit the Facebook like button below!
Images:A�RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
Foot out flat out! With the precipitation about it meant some parts of the track were a bit slippery.
Last weekend Thredbo Resort, situated in the breathtaking Snowy Mountains, recently held the second ever Cannonball Festival. There was some big money up for grabs and a variety of events over the three day weekend to cater for not only the big names in attendance but also the recreational rider. In preparation for the event, the Thredbo MTB team had made a few alterations to some of the tracks and had the legendary Cannonball DH race track in form to offer some great racing. However, there was nothing they could do to keep the wet and wild weather at bay. But that certainly didn’t put a dampener on things.
Thomas Crimmins was on fire on Thredbo’s twisty trails and took the win in the Flowmotion Cup, second in the Australian Open DH and was ultimately crowned King of the Cannonball 2014. Keeping it in the family, it was brother Andrew Crimmins that won the Australian Open DH.
Local rider and current DH world champion Tegan Molloy had an unlucky weekend. She crashed during practice on Sunday morning which put her out of the Australian Open DH. This made it easier for Queenslander and world class racer Tracey Hannah to take the win in the pro female category.
The dual between current junior world champ Tegan Molloy and Tracey Hannah never eventuated but we at least got to see Tegan riding for the a reasonable part of the weekend. Here Tracey shows a corner what’s up!
After the race we caught up with Andrew Crimmins to have a chat about the race.
Downhill 24/7 – Hey Andrew! Congratulations for the win!
AC – That was crazy. I definitely thought Sam was gonna be faster than what he did but … I’m on top spot!
DownhillA�24/7 – We didn’t see you much on the mountain… were you hiding your lines!?
AC – I wasn’t really hiding lines. Sunday morning I wanted to see what the track was like so I let other people ride first to see if it was gonna chop up or gonna stay dry. I definitely knew the track so that was a bit of an advantage I guess. I didn’t really have to do so many runs considering it was pretty wet.
DownhillA�24/7 – And mate, what about the Flowmotion Cup? You didn’t race it?
AC – I planned on racing if Flowmotion Cup was on Saturday but just because I didn’t really want to do two races in a day. I wanted to save my energy for the downhill.
Andrew Crimmins prepping and getting his ride sorted, it appears he had his lines sorted as well taking the win in the traditional downhill race.Chris Panozzo, 2nd place in the Flow Motion Cup.Kelly Weinart was crowned Queen of the Cannonball with consistent results over all events.Sarah Booth won the Flow Motion Cup in the female pro Category.Blake Nielsen won the RockShox Pumptrack Challange by putting his 4X expertise to good use!
What a shame that due to a massive storm the Whip Wars event was cancelled, it was one of the most anticipated events. Anyway we did have a bit of fun…Sam Hill gets asked to sign all sorts of things…This didn’t faze him though and he kept the situation under control!And by about now the nerves are kicking in if they haven’t already!The rain didn’t dampen the spirits that’s for sure! David McMillan at the pump track.
All in all, a good weekend with a multitude of different types of racing!
It seems every riding location around Australia has a local pinner or an up and coming kid who shreds. We had a quick chat with Darcy Grooby, an 18 year old kid who started riding in 2011, as a lot of us do he started on dirt jumps before turning his bike down some trails and getting the downhill bug. A few years later and we have a genuinely nice guy who can win a state level Under 19 downhill race by an easy 4 seconds such as what happened at Fox Creek earlier in 2014! Continue reading “Inside Info: Darcy Grooby”→
November 15 & 16 saw the first edition of the East Coast Titles mountain bike event, hosted by Wollongong MTB club. Favourable weather, with a little wind for challenge in the open jump sections had riders at their best, race hardening new sections and punishing old ones for the title. Continue reading “East Coast Titles 2014 – Greenvalleys Bike Park”→
Back racing on the/a bike! First enduro race for Mr Fearon,
The final round of the Gravity Enduro South Australia series was my first proper enduro race. Luckily it was held at the Fox Creek downhill tracks because I have been riding there for probably over 10 years now and know most of the trails well. The format of the racing is really relaxed, basically you can ride up the hills at your own pace with a bunch of your mates and then race them back down 4 different tracks over the day. Typically the tracks where all pretty downhill oriented albeit with a bit more pedalling in them to lengthen the tracks. Stage one was the top section of Green Smoothie which crosses over to Fast half way. Probably the most physically demanding track it also had the biggest a�?liaisona��(for those playing at home this is the technical word for the un-timed transit stage). Being the first stage all of the racers climbed up the whole hill following each other. It was then I realised making the 3pm cut off to finish all the stages would be no hard task as the pace was pretty slow.
Stage one was probably the most physically demanding and Green Smoothie is one of the most hotly contested tracks on Strava if that kind of thing floats your boat!
Also worthy of a mention is the timing system, all riders wear a ring on their finger that has a transponder on it. You need to poke it into a little machine at the start and finish of every stage. Unfortunately the machine at the bottom of stage one was placed in an awkward position around a corner so once you saw the machine it was almost too late to stop. There was many close calls and a few crashes because of this. The climb up to stage 2 was really steep although the stage itself was anything but. Being the bottom half of the Green Smoothie trail it was relatively flat and consumed a lot of energy having to always pedal to keep your speed up, nonetheless it was a fun stage and probably the longest stage of the day.
Connor chose to go the full face option, as did a lot of riders, in a large part due to the high speeds of this race!
Stage 3 was either your favourite or least favourite track of the day. It is a relatively new trail (to my knowledge at least) that drops off the opposite side to most tracks at fox creek towards Adelaide. The start was high speed down steep fire roads and drops into really narrow, steep and off-camber single track. Especially with the dry dusty conditions which made traction minimal it was the most technical track of the day. For a lot of people it was the first time riding the track and they were caught off guard. Luckily I had ridden the track twice before and knew to take it easy!
Just like downhill, enduro is much about as knowing where to take it easy as it is to go that little bit harder!
It was a long liaison section in between stages 3 and 4. There was a big group of us so we took it easy and talked a lot of banter on the way almost forgetting we were doing a race. Stage 4 was Fox Steep that continued all the way to the main car park. For those of you who are not familiar its quite a technical rocky track thata��s probably more suited to a downhill bike with a big long flat section at the bottom. It was definitely my favourite stage of the day and a track Ia��m very familiar with. It was the first time Ia��ve raced Fox Steep since my very first downhill race in 2005, which was pretty cool. As people were getting fatigued by this point the final stage claimed a lot of riders but luckily no series injuries. After coming off an injury I gave the race a pretty good crack and ended up winning the day which was awesome. My Kona Process made it through with no mechanicals what so ever and was the perfect bike for the job. It was good for my confidence to win this race so just got to keep the ball rolling onto the national downhill series! Thanks to Kona bikes, Fox Head, SRAM/Rockshox/Avid/Truvativ, Yakima rack, HT Pedals and Maxxis.
First enduro race and first win! 100% win ratio is always nice….
Images in this article from Kaneophoto (Instagram @kaneophoto) andA�RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
The third and final round of the South Australian Gravity Enduro series headed to a proverbial favourite among crow eaters – Fox Creek! This track often gets used for the Inside Line state downhill races (as well as the Adelaide Mountain Bike Club cross country races) and it is generally fast!
There were a lot of riders sporting full face helmets because of the high speed along the stages.The sun was shining and riders were all smiles…Okay maybe not quite all smiles but overall!Now that is a cool way to roll!Troy Brosnan with a legend of the Aussie riding scene Steve Marsh. Troy will tell you it was Steve who found him and nurtured him to reach the professional level he has since got to.It was good to see Connor Fearon back racing after his crash in Norway a few months ago.The 4 stages that made up the race, riders had to complete them within the allocated time. Green Smoothie and Fast made an appearance along with a newer track
With volunteers scraping for time after being locked out of the forest due to fire ban in the days leading up to the event, everyone did an amazing job to get the trails bunted and groomed ready for racing Sunday. Being blessed by the weather gods was one way to make racing more flat out and corner slapping than ever. With both beginners and Adelaide mountain bike royalty coming out of the woodwork, it was set to be an awesome race for all.
The sun was shining!So enduro…Troy Brosnan was back on the bike after taking a well earned break in Hawaii!
With some big names in (and out) of the mix in the elite categories, Phillipa Rostan took out the ladies, followed closely by Jackie Schapel and Anna Puckridge rounded out the top three. All eyes were on Troy Brosnan and Connor Fearon to battle it out in the elite mens. The number 1 plate of Dave West quietly confident he could knock the two young shredders off their perch (and rightly so….. with Dave being no slouch on a bike). After the day’s racing it wasn’t to be, with Connor Fearon taking out the elite men win by a considerable margin of around 20 seconds, followed by Troy and Dave filling out the remaining spots.
Connor Fearon took out the win by a massive 20 seconds, a far larger margin than we were expecting. Connor has given us a report from the weekend’s race so look out for that!Troy Brosnan second and smiling as usual!Third place for Dave West on the day, here he leads the pack!Smiles all around on the elite men’s podiumOur roving reporter, Aaron Pelttari, looking schmick if we do say so ourselves!There was different tracks that suited different riders and their skills.Darcy Grooby going flat out!And the prize for looking most like a professional goes to Kane Lademan who had everyone confused for Connor Fearon…!Always good to see more and more girls out on a bike and riding, something we hope continues to happen.These girls are no slouches on bikes either! Shelly Flood borrowing the photographers bike for a bit of fun.Towards the bottom of the stage saw riders have a few different options where they could drop in on.The timing system meant riders just had to insert their chip at the beginning and end of the stage, overall it worked well.The dry conditions meant there was some dust getting kicked up, it also meant riders were washing out when they were pushing too hard!Getting up high, setting up for the corner.Weaving in and out of the trees at Fox Creek.Being the final round the South Australian series we suspect next year there will be even more riders!
Thanks to all that put their time and effort into making these events possible, trail builders, marshals and event organizers for another epic year of enduro racing. we will see you all next season! In the mean time get rad on your bike!
Ps check back soon for Connor Fearon’s exclusive Inside Info where you get the words straight from the winner’s mouth!
That’s a wrap we are outta here!
Words Aaron Pelttari (Aaron would like to thanks Monza Imports, Bicycle Express & Bouwmeester Composites).
Images in this article from Kaneophoto (Instagram @kaneophoto) andA�RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
