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”→
What a view! The APDHC is high on the list of races one must attend, totally different to any other race going!
Time flies, feels like it was only a few days ago we held the 2013 Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge. Here we are back at the same track in beautiful Bali, the Patrol DH track. It hasna��t rained for 7 months and the heat was much much worse than last year! We were back in August to scout for a better lines to make the track faster and longer. We could still see some greenery back then. Now ita��s early November, most of it has gone to brown and the track conditions were dry and loose. a�?I never seen such a loose dirt in my life, worse than back homea�? said Ty Bowmaker who made the trip down to do the video documentary for us. We opened the track 3 weeks before the event to let riders have more time riding it and to see how the track was holding up. We watered the track as often as we could but that didna��t help at all. Most of the berms were blown out and there were ruts everywhere, tree stumps and rocks that werena��t there before started to show themselves.
The track was pretty wild, with lots and lots of dust!
The line up for the elite this year was quite interesting, it wasA�almost like the east vs west kind of race. We have more Australian riders coming every year. Jackson Davis is a regular, well almost like a local now. Along with him came Sik Mik, Jordcan Prochyra and Shane Wode. More Aussies racing in other categories too, Remy Morton the new kid who just signed by HUR team will race in Junior, Kian Esmaili in Expert Mens, Jake Royle in Master Expert. Wyn Masters remaining as the only New Zealander for the 2nd time. He flew in early to get as much practice as he could, he was keen to get the win just like everyone else. We also saw more Japanese riders coming, Hajime Imoto had been here before in 2011 but raced on a different track. Madison Saracen WC team rider Kazuki Shimizu who came 2nd in Asian Champs a week before also made the trip, Keisuke Hayashi, Fujita Shoya and Daiki Shimogaki completed the line up for team Japan. Fabian Cousine was not the only Frenchmen, Remi Thirion was invited by the Commencal and Bos distributor to help promote the brand and the new store opened in Jakarta. Malaysiaa��s national champion Adam Ahmed accompanied by Aaron Chan.
There was a pretty stacked field! Kazuki Shimizu was coming into the event with red hot form having grabbed second at the Asian champs the week before.Wyn Masters back and ready to entertain everyone both on and off the bike!
The local riders were also very keen to test their skills against the pro riders, Popo Ario the local hero was racing with an injured ankle but eager to get another win again after the legendary winning run in 2010. Ditra Pranata, Candra Purnamawan, Afrizal Brasco, Agung Fambudi, Dafit Iskandar, Mahfudz and Isrofudin are the Indonesian line ups. To wrap up the lists, Specialized sent their freeriders to have a go at the race. The Coastal Crew, they were stoked to ride their bikes in Bali. Even more stoked that they are very famous in Indonesia. We were talking to other riders during the year to try and get them to race the event but unfortunately most of them couldna��t make it due to their contracts expiring and the fact some will be changing team. Hopefully those guys can make it next time though.
There were plenty of local riders who were riding fast and could take the win, Pop Ario being one of them!
A total of 200 riders registered and were divided into Men Elite, Men Expert, Junior, Men Open, Women Open, Master Expert, Master A,B,C and Grand Master. In other categories we also had riders from all over Asia and the world such as, Philipines, Austria, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Australia and South Africa. The organiser kept the limited slots because they want to keep the race a little bit exclusive so all riders can race the final.
There were 200 riders entered from across the globe.The crowd and people were loving it!That view….Here you can see how steep and loose parts of the track were.
There weren’t many changes on the track except the 1st off camber section was much more faster as we made it a bit straighter so the riders could carry more speed to the next section. The major changes were towards the bottom where we lost the A line because of the entrance to the steep rocks was no longer rideable and not much we could do to fix it. We decided to use the B line but with some changes to it. Garry from Trailscapes and Eric Sanjaya did a good job to keep everyone on their toes all the way down. The new bridge was a nice new feature added to the bottom part. Riders can either launch down from it or roll if they think ita��s faster. Garry also added 2 big jumps before the finish line, which some riders head scratching on how much speed they need to clear it. We saw few riders went down hard and some rims cracking as they came up short.
Some big jumps near the bottom allowed riders to get some style in if they wanted, many obliged!
Finding shade and cool surroundings was a big deal with the heat!Cranking!
The track was opened for practice on Thursday, after the track walk. Most of the pros decided to skip it, may be because of the heat but not for Remi Thirion who is still waiting for his prototype fork and shock sent from France. Most of the local riders making the most of it to find their set up and get used to the climate. Wyn Masters was looking fast and got his lines dialed. He was throwing down big whips for the crowd and photographers.
Whip it good, real good! Wyn Masters can whip no doubt about that!
Hiroyuki Nakagawa known as one of the WC photographers’ made the trip again, hea��s been a great help to us on promoting the event in Japan. When Hiro is on the track, you can bet there will be some epic shots and sick angles taken by him.
Shoya Fujita negotiating some off camber sections.
Friday was the official practice and each rider must do a minimum of 2 runs to be able to make the seeding on Saturday. Sik Mik looked very smooth everywhere, Remi finally got his suspension and was doing runs with Wyn Masters. Remi looks at home after a few runs. We saw some creative lines from him that others werena��t hitting it or were they just not playing their cards too early? A�Young Jackson Davis decided to race in Elite to see how close he can get with the big guns. Kazuki seems to have find his lines tooa��. he was looking fast all day and throwing nice style over the double at the bottom. Popo was struggling a bit with his injured ankle but was riding very loose everywhere. Tracey Hannah was again in the class of her owna��. it is sad that the women riders get less and less each year. Therea��s only 3 riders competing and we are wondering whether this sport is still attractive enough for girls ? God only knows.
Tracey Hannah was a small number of females racing, a real shame.Uplifts!It was also a chance for an impromptu selfie or two!
Riders were up early on Saturday to punch in some runs in a tight time frame given by the officials for practice. Track condition was worse, in a way that it got even more blown out after the Elite men hammered the track on Friday. For some they found it a lot easier to ride as the Elite has pushed the loose dirt and rocks away by the end of their practice runs. A lot of riders were getting flats as sharp rocks appeared more and more towards the bottom of the track. Tracey won seeding by 42.774, from Fitriyanti and 1.26.292 from Tiara. We see a lot of crashes in Master categories but we also saw some fast old guys made it look too easy in some sections. Remy Morton took seeding by 8.495 from Local boy Anak Agung a�?Abiena�?. Will he be able to find that time to beat Remy on final ?A� Sik Mik was riding really well and won seeding with 2.29.923 from Remi just by 0.012 though, Wyn Masters in 3rd but 3.315 off the pace, Kazuki Shimizu in 4th with 5.150 back and Fabian Cousine round up the top 5 with 5.231 behind.
Seeding was a good indication of who was on it but some how yuo knew people would be holding their cards close to their chests at the same time!
Sunday was a bit cooler and everyone put on their race face, the atmosphere at the top was very chilled. Most of the master riders sharing their story about the practice they had in the morning, how the track changed on some sections. Few took a tumble and didna��t make the start because of injury or the track got the best of them and decided to sit it out. In Junior Remy Morton was untouchable and took the win with 2.36.947 and clear by 11.531 seconds to local boy Anak Agung a�?Abiena�? in 2nd place. Fahraz SA in 3rd, Andy Prayoda and Calvin Krisna Dwipa round out the podium. In women open, Tracey took the win as expected by 43.120 to Fitriyanti and 51.662 to Tiara. Men Expert category has a good competition going on. Dimas Pamungkas took the win with 2.52.523 only by 0.093 from Kian Esmaili. 3rd Chrisdian Mardianto, 4th Eko Purwanto and 5th Erda Gozali.
The Coastal Crew were rocking the singlets, must have helped, finishing strongly in a big field was impressive considering they’re not racers!
During lunch time we have the usual poster signing by the riders. The Coastal Crew, Jackson Davis, Remi Thirion, Popo and Fitriyanti was getting down to business. Over 500 posters were signed all together in an hour, might be a new world record ? Wyn didna��t need any posters, just like a rock star he signed on the girls Ta��s and on the best spot.
Posters were a hot commodity with everyone wanting one.How often do you get all these superstars in your home town?Classic Wyn…. Signing anything!Some just want a pic, the price of fame?!
The Elite started at 2pm, the temperature got a bit cooler and you could feel the sea breeze if you were watch from the top sections. The crowd was pleased by The Coastal crew as they threw whips on the big double near the finish linea��. Kyle Norbraten finished in 11th, followed by Curtis Robinson 12th and Dylan Dunkerton in 16th. Not a bad results considering the stack of field and hardly any racing experience. They put on a good show for the crowd and won the best whips too. As the 10 ten riders coming down time starts to come down in a big margin. Popo pushed hard but only managed 10th even though he better his seeding time by 8 seconds. Jackson Davis took over the hot seat better Popoa��s time by 4 seconds. Hajime Imoto rode really well and took the hot seat from Jackson only by 0.596 seconds. Time different becomes tighter as the faster riders coming down. Shane Wode took the hot seat from Hajime, then Jordan Prochyra took over and Fabian Cousine took over by 0.684. Kazuki Shimizu stayed for a while as Wyn Masters slipped into 6th when he crossed the line. He spun out in one of the corners he said and lost a lot of time.
Jackson Davis boosting into the finish!
Remi Thirion was fast out of the gate and looks like hea��s on a mission. Gapping down the off camber then boosting out of the berm at Barng section, he looks fast everywhere. Remi crossed the line with 2.26.119 thats 3.804 seconds faster than Mick Hannaha��s seeding time. We asked him where did he find that 3.804 ? he said he was just focusing on riding smooth and not to push too hard as the track was a lot looser than Saturday. Mick Hannah came down and keeping it low wherever he jumps as Sik Mik always does. He looks so in control and was looking fast as he took the last drop from the wooden bridge and sprinted into the double and pedal hard as he crossed the line. It wasna��t enough to beat Remia��s time, he was 1.631 behind. Such an intense race and the crowd really enjoyed ita��. this is the best race we had so far because the racing was so tight and there was a great atmosphere the whole weekend.
Remi stood atop of the podium, a quality field no doubt.Mic Hannah came close but couldn’t grab the win, Mic was still his usual happy, positive self though!Not the winners but they still got on the podium!Tracey Hannah is a force at any race, on any track!The crowd was loving every minute of it!
During this event Specialized Indonesia represented by Darrick Subrata and Rayza Tisnohadi donated, 1 S works demo frame to be auction and 1 Specialized Dissident Comp DH helmet as a lucky draw prize. Buy as many coupon as you want to get lucky. The money raised will be use to purchase as many bikes as possible that later will be donated to the people of Klungkung Bukit Tengah. Thank you to Wayan Agus Eka for making the highest bid on the frame. Hea��s now the proud owner of the one and only frame that was signed by The Coastal Crew. Today November 18th we have donated 42 bicycles, 40 of them are given to the students of a primary school in Bukit Tengah and 2 of 26a�� bikes were given to the priests in Goa Lawah a temple very close to the track.
Now what a fantastic idea to help the local community (and a great prize!)Helping out the local community with bikes was a great initiative.A very stoked winner with The Coastal Crew!We are already keen for next years race!
After the event we were all invited to the after party by The Chillhouse at Deus in Canggua�� everyone had a good time good music and free flow of drinks at the VIP area. Some went home after midnight and some headed to Legian for more party. After all ita��s Balia��. party ona�� enough said.
Thank you to all sponsors United Bike, Specialized, Patrol Mountain, Shimano, FJC, Castle, Kabuto, Formula Bike, Spinergy, Commencal, Bos Suspension and The Chillhouse
Photo credits Hiroyuki Nakagawa, Simon Yeong, Christopher Berry and Damian Gerrard. Article: Andre Palmer.
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).
