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!
The second round of the SA Gravity Enduro series had been postponed once due to the weather but that didn’t stop the event this time. Despite how appalling some of the conditions were!
We hit up Eagle Mountain Bike Park for the second round of the highly successful SA Gravity Enduro series, this round had already been postponed due to the weather but even with more sub par conditions for the event,A�it didn’t dampen peoples spirits. Four stages with climb trails/links in between saw a totally different event from round 1, big jumps on stage 2, rocks and tight corners on all the stages and the weather really made it interesting.
It was foggy near the top, real foggy! That didn’t stop Josh Flack from putting a bit of style in, nice!The stages lower down the hill were a lot better for visibility. Riders were trying to adapt their set ups for the conditions, whether they got it right is another question though…There is always a good mix of bikes and backgrounds out these events. It is always good to see the friendliness between different disciplines that generally don’t get a chance to mix it together. Check out the rocks!Fair to say the enduro style of riding/racing has really caught on here in SA.It was really wet and foggy if you didn’t get it the first few times… So much so visibility was a real challenge in many sections!Troy Brosnan showed a clean pair of heels by taking the win with a healthy twelve second margin. Always smiling too!
Results for the Elite guys looked like this;
1. Troy Brosnan
2. Andy Clarke
3. Dave West
4. Alex ‘Wankles’ Waddicor
5. Craig Yates
The next round heads to a little mountain biking oasis – Melrose!
Rocks, always an issue at Eagle, punctures would come in to play all weekend.
For round three of the SA State series we headed to Eagle Mountain Bike Park, at the risk of jinxing it this was another race held in glorious conditions, not too hot not too cold, just right! A few small changes tot he track kept everyone on their toes (or should that be pedals?!)
Riders had a new shoot to deal with, lined with rocks it was a good addition.There were still some of the rider favourites retained on the track, this jump saw scrubs-galore!Some riders were finding new lines in places the track has gone for years. It may look like this tree is in the way of the riders, yes to some degree it is, the more innovative riders were actually leaving off the side of the lip and going through the tree to straight line the section, nuts!Some lines were more about just lining up and pulling the trigger though…How about that!? Interesting…There is always something interesting hiding in the pits!Over 150 riders turned out to ride one of SA’s most notorious tracks, to everyone that got injured – get well soon!We did spot some riders, mostly juniors, riding in multiple classes to gain more experience. It is good to see a club progressing their junior riders in this way, no doubt some of the reason names like Brosnan, Fearon and Rischbieth are household names in the mountain bike world.Racing was close across all categories – in Under 19s James Chambers piped Matt Taylor by just over half a second with Cody Barker in third place. Laura Kelly took the win ahead of Dana Ross in the Junior Female class.In Elite Women, Moira Love single handily took out the category. Callum Morrison, pictured here, took out his first Elite SA podium in fifth place.Cam Ryan took fourth, Steve Gebert pictured here, was in third place.Mr Privateer, aka Mr Henry Blake not only threw down the style but the speed as well, second place for the Dark Knight!No denying World Cup speed, Will Rischbieth, now one of the ‘old hat’ riders at the club took the win by a solid two plus seconds!The next round heads to Fox Creek, is Will going to take another win or will someone else step up?
The South Australian State Series returned back to Eagle Mountain Bike Park, the site of the 2012 Australian National Championships. This was our favourite image from the weekend, we don't know why but it instantly reminds us of World Cups! Maybe it is the speed blur, the riders position or their appearance whatever the case we love it! The rider is local fast man Brad McDonnell, hash tag: sofactory!
Round four of the South Australian State Series saw riders take onA�the revisedA�track at Eagle Mountain Bike Park. The track hadA�seen some revisions since the last time it was raced on.
