2025 Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap
By Janine Appleton
Sitting down on a Saturday afternoon collecting my thoughts; procrastinating about writing this article, can be just like racing. I find worrying about the extraordinary effort involved in racing this 32 km course can be overwhelming when you know you haven't had the ideal preparation - with not enough training for numerous reasons. By entering online the night before automatically, I reason with myself that at the least I will make it a kilometre off the startline, and then if dropped it can be a training ride.
Even with a proper warm up, my cardiovascular system screams at me for the first 15 minutes while it adjusts to the demands of maintaining at least an 80-90 % effort.
There were the usual group tactics discussed at the start line at Botanic Park. Starting in a group of four, we had an advantage over other groups of just two or three, but when we dropped Jean-Daniel Guerin on the Barwite Hill, I was less confident.
The significant head wind on the way out to the turnaround at Sawpit Gully Road affected the scratch and block group in the handicapping, Craig Wilson and Tim Hall worked well with me until Barwite Road, when Tim dropped off in the tricky cross wind.
John Eisner stuck with us for a few minutes before we eventually passed David Bock on the start of the Coombesberg. Surprisingly, Craig was holding my wheel up the hill and I was happy to tuck in behind him down the other side, finally passing Steve Curnow.
With a quick glance behind, the road was clear, and we just needed to stay strong to the finish.
Again I was able to hide behind Craig in the last 300 metres before the finish. The plan was to wait till one hundred metres to go, stand up on the pedals, keep my head low and power away. But that was matched and surpassed by Craig’s effort. He deservedly won by a bike length.
Steve Curnow was 50 seconds behind, followed by Simon Hall, Mauro ‘Jock’ Brega and Adrian Dowd with Jarrod Appleton another 30 seconds behind, followed closely by Dave Bock and Ant Bateup.
Ryder Chad, Ben Ross and Bruce Halket finished together; a massive improvement in Ben's finishing skill and fitness.
Forty seconds later was Dave Jagger, Steve Duke and Tim Hall.
Fastest for the night was again Andy Garrett, with John Eisner, Heath Hammond and Jean-Daniel relieved to finish.
Congratulations again to Craig Wilson, winning the Alain Guerin Memorial race two years in a row. Thanks to all the marshals and officials, and the Mansfield motorists for their patience during this event.
Here are the results and many thanks to Tony for his pics. Next week it’s Howes Creek Road, one for the rouleurs.
Chadd boys not feeling the love and Ben Ross takes a tumble whilst Scarlett Darcy shows the field a clean pair of heels on her first night of XC racing.
By Damian Grundy
Well done to everyone for an enjoyable night of MTB Cross Country racing.
Special thanks to Ryder for setting out the course and to Cam Dobson and Kate Stonnill for taking care of the timing.
Firstly, congratulations also to all the MMBCC members who competed at the State Series XC races at Avoca over the weekend. Some great results!!!
Welcome also to our first time XC racers: Scarlett Darcy, Lucas Bellman and James Camilleri. We hope you had fun and look forward to seeing you at future races.
And so, to the racing…
Another Irish Handicap where everyone has a chance (If the handicapper has got it right) 😊.
We are so fortunate to have the Rifle Butts Mountain Bike Park. The trails are fun and challenging. The course was a shortish lap of 2.4km using Bogans, XC and Critters.
With the staggered starts and mixed lap numbers for the competitors it is often confusing until later in the race as to who is actually going to win.
17 competitors faced the starter with your intrepid handicapper (Damian myself) starting first on a 5 lap journey followed a short time later by the somewhat late arriving Bruce Halket.
And so the countdown continued and starts for all competitors, new racer Scarlett Darcy started at 14 minutes delay for her 2 laps and the final competitor James Camilleri started for his 2 laps at 18 minutes.
Early on it was clear to me that Bruce Halket was going to take advantage of his superior fitness and reel me in, but I could see that Ben Ross a little further back was showing little fatigue from his weekend of racing, he was on a flyer and relentlessly catching both us older folks (Bruce & Damian). However, bad luck or miscalculation dealt young Ben a blow when he crashed at the end of his 3rd lap; not a serious crash but a couple of skinned and bruised knees and a mechanical issue with his bike meant he was going to be a DNF for the night.
As all the competitors got onto the course It was clear that Scarlett Darcy was a lot quicker than anticipated and was going to be almost impossible to catch. And so it was! Scarlett crossed the line first for a deserved win.
In 2nd place Elliot Leatham also flew a little under the handicapper’s radar and posted a solid ride for 3 laps.
Bruce Halket raced fast and passed all but the leading two for 3rd. The ever present and supremely consistent Mr David Bock rolled over the line in 4th and Lucas Mennen was 5th. Fastest on the night was Bruce Halket! Well done. What might have been if not for the two ‘Roughies’ ahead of him 😊!
In a big change from the previous XC night the Chadd brothers, Ryder and Micah, fought out a tough back of the field family race finishing 15th and 16th respectively.
Alastair Ross was the only finisher from the Ross family with Ben’s crash and dad Tim’s absence.
Congratulations everyone!
Rake ’n’ Ride - 3pm Sunday
In case you didn’t already know, MMBCC is hosting a round of the All Terrain Cycles sponsored Alpine Cycling Club Junior MTB Series in February next year.
As part of our preparations, we’re holding a Rake ’n’ Ride session at the South Blue Range course (the van der Hayden’s property, off Rifle Butts Road) Sunday at 3pm.
Please bring along some decent boots, gloves and whatever useful tools you have available, plus, of course, your mountain bike, as we prepare a brand new course for the event.
Speaking of the Alpine CC Junior MTB Series, congratulations to Ben Ross for winning the U15 Boys at Round 2 of the series in Bright today!
