Rocky Trail Entertainment kicked off the 2014 gravity season with a bang last weekend in Ourimbah State Forest. Following the now-developed race formula made up of two timed sections, with an untimed section between and restricted shuttling, round 1 was an opportunity for many to rekindle their race faces, and for elites like Brad Kelly and Jon Odams to prove that an off-season doesn’t mean a decline in performance!
Promount Billet founder Michael Vanos styling it up after a rough run on the CDB trail, losing vital seconds but keeping up to speed after a break from racing.
The Rollercoaster series is a dynamic event, changing greatly round-to-round in the nature of the trail, allowing series competitors to fully experience what NSW/ACT has to offer in enduro riding. Ourimbah included a full run of the downhill trail, complete with rock jumps, pallet landers, and famously great berms on entry and exit to the trail. At the end of the downhill trail the timed section continued on to a short XC style loop, ensuring jelly-legs for those who pushed the pace on the DH track.
While many saw menace in the knife edge rocks that litter the trail, adventurous riders found joy in the numerous natural jumps to be discovered at Ourimbah.
From here, riders would pass trail-base-camp and take a fire road climb at their own pace, a well-earned chance to catch breath before entering the Shimano trail; a more endurance and all-mountain/xc style trail which delves into the beautiful rainforest scenery in the heart of the forest. Completed quickest by Ourimbah legend Brad Kelly in just over 6 minutes, the Shimano trail encompassed the versatility of mountain biking and provided a less-intense experience for the more XC oriented riders on the day.
Trail Base Camp, where riders caught their breath and recalled momentous race runs, compared times and tweaked bikes.
The combination of the CDB Downhill trail and Shimano trail, and a steamy 28C day put the Enduro in the Rollercoaster round, a great day for racing, not to mention on the Australia Day public holiday! We’re K-E-E-N keen for the next one. See you there!
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Jon Odams appears to be walking on air to the finish line, powered by his 2013 Rollercoaster overall title.Bromley Richards tackles the most mentally-tough section of the day, a rock roller come wooden tranny which sends riders hurtling into a pedal section before dropping into the second half of the track.Flow Mountain Bike’s Mick Ross steaming in on the CDB downhill trail, gliding into the final minute of the Rollercoaster stage!
Dean Lucas cuts through the dense fog early Saturday morning.
Mount Baw Baw, home of cold weather, fog, and the 4th round of the Victorian Downhill Series. Upon arrival all we could see was fog, we were lucky to see 5m in front of us! In the morning we poked our heads around the top part of the track and the neat new berm that the team at Baw Baw have freshly installed for the VDHS round (but as a permanent structure). We were very impressed, as we walked further down the track we spotted all the work down in the infamous jeep track area, made somewhat famous by Jackson Davis last year. We could see the work put in to turning the track away from the classic lines, however for this race the classic jeep track line was in use, bunted slightly different but still very much the classic configuration, we were sure this would impress both riders and spectators.
Elijah Marinov pushes out of one of the first berms in the open section, already eyeing off the following one.Lincoln Varass makes the most of the tacky-ness railing the corner.Oli Zwar pops over the small drop about mid track.Madeline Taylor makes her way down track with the fog now clearing.
As riders began to flow down through the fog, we were jumping off the track, relying more on bike sound over actual visuals! As the track snaked its way down the hill the fog began to thin and the trees opened up, we found ourselves in the switchback section with plenty of berms. The berms had also recently been worked on, there were plenty of riders feeling more than confident to dip some bars and get super low through these, this section was looking much faster this year, was it the sticky dirt due to conditions or was it the work on the berms? Time would tell!
Dean Lucas eyes off the upcoming corner.Jesse Beare rockets through the small jumps and drop before entering the fire road.Aiden Varley pushes hard into the final berm before the fire road, holding as much speed as possible.Elliot Reed gives us some Euro action, shifting body weight.Cam Osiurak hits the new berm at speed.
The wet fresh dirt was being picked up by tires and spread all down the track, this made the following sections much more treacherous, with the already slippery shale rocks being coated with fresh mud, to stray off line meant lots of seconds wasted and a very sketchy re-entry. The fog had cleared by now and we entered the high speed fire road section. This was very fast as usual, but with the sun coming through the trees it was drying out rapidly, but in a very patchy manner making it a very un-predictable surface to travel across at high speed.
Angus Jackson navigates the top section.Jackson Davis pushing hard into the berm, determined not to repeat last years incident!Getting a bit artsy with Dean Lucas.Trent Piribauer holding as much speed as possible into this berm.Tegan Molloy drops into the Jeep Track.
The track closed and riding was done for Saturday and there was time to ponder tomorrows conditions. Fog rolled in for the night, would it hang around Sunday morning or would it be like Saturday? Again time would tell.
The sun rose over the mountain awakening the hill for racing, with no fog in sight, just blue sky, this would dry the track up much more than Saturdays practice, would it be too much or would it stay tacky? Throughout practice the consensus was, it was definitely staying very tacky and grippy.
Madeline Taylor shifts allegiances, repping Australia on Australia Day.Ben Zwar had a day he’d rather forget.
Racing started and the crowds flocked down the hill, some were side attracted by the new berm, choosing to sit up the top and bask in the sunlight and enjoy the riders hitting the berm at high speed. However, but most couldna��t resist the potential for carnage and heckling at jeep track. As the spectators filled the section it got louder and louder and more rowdy, some riders revelled under these conditions and some felt the pressure to perform, pushing too hard and making mistakes. At the end of the day there were no really serious offs through the jeep track and Dean Lucas walked away with the win, again showing us just why he enjoyed the success of racing the World Cup circuit last year.
Max Kreuzer putting on a show for the crowd in Jeep Track.Dean Lucas departs Keep Track on his way to victory.
Elite Men:
1. Dean Lucas
2. Rhys Atkinson
3. Liam Panozo
4. Oliver Zwar
5. Max Kreuzer
Elite Women:
1. Tegan Molloy
2. Sarah Booth
3. Madeline Taylor
4. Carrie McLachlan
5. Ellie Wale
Women’s Podium.Men’s Podium.Dean And Max making the most of the podium champagne.A jolly bunch of podium getters and Media players.
That wraps up this round but the series continues to roll on.
Images and report: Jason Stephens Photography (Facebook.com/Jasonstephensphotography)
Troy Brosnan, having fun as always getting slightly sideways!
Round 1 of the Nationals Series, held in the hills surrounding Adelaide at Eagle Mountain Bike Park was a big event and we are wrapping up our coverage with one of our biggest ‘Pick of the Pics’ to date. A range of images that convey the weekend, some feature bikes and some don’t! We also do a bit of a style check with multiple riders at the same location, enjoy!
The track offered some spectacular views from the top.Looking to the stars?! You pick the caption…Up close and personal!
Inside Line club president, Andrew Byrne, going for a different ride!
Deanos the machinos!
Sideways!Scrub-a-dub-dub!
Wild times!
Sending it!Style points?!
Matt from Matt Bird Media and Dean Lucas.Art….Ty from Captyvate Media was on hand throwing down some solid edits from the weekend, check them out if you haven’t already!The new downhill247.com singlet coming in Summer ’14…. MaybeLaying down the HP.We style checked riders on this corner in finals.
The man himself, Jase, from Jason Stevens Photography getting the bangers for you all!
You have to eat when you can living the dream as media! Tim Bardsley-Smith chowing down!Winners are grinners, Connor Fearon throwing down the horns!Thanks for coming along on the ride this weekend!
As always, plenty more coverage of racing to be up on the site, check back soon!
Downhill racing in Australia in Summer is typically a dusty affair and Eagle kept up the theme!
Round 1, day 3 and it’s action time! A short practice session in the afternoon before riders lined up, waited for the beeps and pedaled out of the start hut for near on 2 minutes of downhill joy! Well joy for most, there were a few crashes, that said, it could have been worse as Eagle is a track where you can’t let your concentration lapse at all. There are no fire roads to ‘take a break’, the whole track requires commitment.
Whoops! Slide outs on the loose gravel were common.Some riders could still find areas on the track to relax a bit and let it hang out, Will Rischbieth getting flat!A lot of riders were scrambling to find long sleeve jerseys as per UCI requirements, some were probably left with their second choice in terms of look! No such problems for Henry Blake who was looking good all weekend.Dean ‘The Machine’ Lucas used his overseas experience to get up to speed, looking fast very early on in the piece.
As the B group practice and racing finished a bigger and bigger crowd started forming trackside, the bottom finish arena with its tight switchbacks, rock drop and jumps proved to be quite popular.
To kick racing off we look at the Under 19 females, with Tegan Molloy the hot favourite she didn’t disappoint taking the win by some 20+ seconds from Ellie Wale (and setting the fastest female time of the day).
Tegan Molloy set the fastest female time of the day by posting a 2.25.79, very impressive to say the least!
Next we move onto the Under 19 male class, always a large group with riders keen to impress the powers that be so they can have the honour of representing Australia at the World Champs. Australian team coach and all round good guy, Jared Rando, was on hand over the weekend chatting with many riders, his years of racing knowledge invaluable. Talking to Jared he even said he may race a few rounds himself so look out for that (not that team Giant need any more riders, it seemed every second rider going past was on the team!).
Looking at results and we can see that Matthew McCorkell had a flying first run but couldn’t quite back it up in finals, eventually finishing 15th. The top 10 was a quality field, looking further at the top 5 revealed an excellent quality of riders. Aiden Varley was fifth, local rider Matt Taylor was fourth, impressive considering Matt’s tender age, in third just three seconds off the win was Ben Hill and in second Max Warshawsky. This left one rider, Andrew Crimmins, with the number one spot – he took the victory by some 1.96 seconds, made all the more impressive by the fact he had a mechanical during his run that couldn’t see him pedal the bottom section!
We had Matthew McCorkell pegged for a top 5 result before issues on the course put a stop to this.Third for Ben Hill, the rider who always has a smile on his dial!Max Warshawsky cornering hard for second place.A sign his form is red hot Andrew Crimmins took the Under 19 victory despite a mechanical during his run.
Moving onto Elite and more specifically the Women’s class we saw Danielle Beecroft step up to Elite and take the win in her first attempt, the ever reliable Sarah Booth was second with Michelle Crisp in third place.
Fifth place for Victoria Armstrong in Elite Women.
The pointy end of the day was the Elite Men, after seeding there was talk that riders would go under 2 minutes come finals. We would have to wait all the way until the last rider to see if this was true and while no rider dipped under the 2 minute barrier they got close! As with any Australian National race it was a very competitive field, names all through the top 20 were capable of pushing for a podium spot. With a DNF in seeding Angus Maddern hit the hill early in the piece and set the time to beat, his time of 2.08.66 was enough for 15th at the end of the day. Whilst we could talk about everyone’s run it was David McMillan who snuck in under the 2.05 mark at 2.04.36 to grab fifth and set himself up for a good series. With it being a three race series a strong start was crucial and David was understandably happy! Fourth went to Dean Lucas, a rider who we know is keen to hit the World Cups this year. Third place was the biggest unknown of the weekend, Josh Button returning to racing and showing he still has it! Sure enough the top spot came down to an SA showdown, first off was Troy Brosnan who took the hot seat at the bottom of his run. With only Connor Fearon left to come it was going to be a local win one way or another, tearing the last corners, as the crowd chanted his name, Connor crossed the line and up flashed his time: 2.00.89, a winning time! Made all the sweeter by the fact it was his birthday.
A successful return to racing for Josh Button, third place on a track he has done well at in the past.Troy Brosnan was looking good in his new green and gold kit, it certainly had the fans talking. A second place shows he is good form as we get closer to the World Cup season.Also sporting a new kit was race winner Connor Fearon, it also happened to be green and gold!Stoked! Here is a question for you, when was the last time Connor Fearon lost a race here?! He won this year, he has won two under 19 Champs here as well as the Under 17 ones, that is a remarkably good record!Happy to chat and stay out of the spotlight until the last minute at presentations Troy and Connor provided one heck of a race for us!
Join us in a few weeks for round 2, before then we still have a large (very large) number of pics to show you guys from the weekend.
Riders were a lot more comfortable on track today, the weather conditions may have played some part of this…
Back to Eagle today for practice and seeding, albeit in much cooler conditions! Riders were coming to grips with the tough conditions, we saw a few crashes but nothing too major.
Practice was split into A and B categories today. B practice (and seeding) was held in the morning but all riders were focused!Rain fell overnight, not that you would have known! There was still a lot of dust…It was Tegan Molloy’s birthday today and she managed to score the title of the fastest female in seeding, across all the classes, sounds like a good day!The Swell/Specialized team have had an interesting weekend with a snake (as in the animal) being found hiding out in the team accommodation!
Looking at the qualifying results revealed Andrew Crimmins had a solid gap in front of his closest competitor, some 4.57 seconds Matthew McCorkell. Andrew will be keen to impress this weekend with Kona’s World Cup mechanic in town.
Under 19 Men:
1. Andrew Crimmins 2:03.16
2. Matthew McCorkell 2:07.73 + 4.57
3. Max Warshawsky 2:09.61 + 6.45
4. Ben Hill 2:09.89 + 6.73
5. Aiden Varley 2:12.04 + 8.88
Under 19 Female:
1. Tegan Molloy 2.32.59
Fourth place for Ben Hill in qualifying.Fifth place in seeding for Aiden Varley, a quality field means the win could be any of the top five riders from seeding.
Moving on to the Elite classes and with her overseas experience coming into play Danielle Beecroft seeded first in Elite Female ahead of former Adelaide local Sarah Booth. The Elite Men was always going to be a showdown between the local riders, Connor Fearon and Troy Brosnan. In the end Connor took the number one spot by just over half a second from Troy with Thomas Crimmins a few seconds back. In reality, with no rain forecast for tomorrow, these positions won’t have any real influence on the final results.
Elite Female:
1. Danielle Beecroft 2:34.06
2. Sarah Booth 2:38.87 + 4.81
3. Michelle Crisp 2:39.36 + 5.30
4. Victoria Armstrong 2:49.68 + 15.62
5. Shelly Flood 2:52.78 + 18.7
Elite Male:
1. Connor Fearon 2:02.87
2. Troy Brosnan 2:03.40 + 0.53
3. Thomas Crimmins 2:05.55 + 2.68
4. Dean Lucas 2:06.37 + 3.50
5. Luke Ellison 2:06.90 + 4.03
Connor Fearon, number one in seeding!A huge contingent of riders are racing under the Giant banner, so much so it was hard to keep track of who was who! Will Rischbieth getting it done.It is not just about all the big name riders though as everyone starts somewhere!And while racing was serious there was still style to be had!If you have a crystal ball you probably already know who is going to win, for the rest of us we will just have to wait until finals!
The Australian National Series has kicked off in Adelaide at the Eagle Mountain Bike Park in what can only be described as warm conditions…. The mercury was over the 40 degree mark meaning everyone was just trying to stay cool! With a cool front coming in tonight conditions should improve. Check out some of our favourite pics from practice and keep in tune for all your nationals coverage. Ps if you are at the race come see us at our tent and purchase a t-shirt or our new limited Downhill247/Connor Fearon sticker.
The day started with the obligatory track walk, Dean Lucas throws down the horns!The Downhill247 tent was set up nice and early to provide everyone with shade!Being the first race of the series meant everyone was trying to come to terms with who it was going past them on the hill.Troy Brosnan blasts past with the pits in the background.Tegan Molloy shows the crowd how it is done.Riders were getting up to speed as the day went on.A few line changes were making things interesting.There was a lot of roost going on with all the dust in the air!Media were out and about to get the shot to bring to you guys!It was odd being at a race without everyone having race plates yet, makes it hard to pick riders who are on the same team. Often it comes down to little details such as helmets, gloves or often riding style!The downhill247 pool was getting put to good use!
