MMBCC News - Sun 24 Mar

“Ned Flanders: You were bicycling two abreast?
Homer Simpson: I wish. We were bicycling to a lake.”
The Simpsons, “Dangerous Curves”, Season 20, Episode 5.

Dirt Critters coming to an end

By Tim & Luke

For our final Dirt Critters THIS TUESDAY, we will;

• Meet at Rifle Butts Reserve at 4pm (BOTH the younger and older groups);

• Have a quick ride around some of the trails there;

• Ride down to the Botanic Park via Rifle Butts Road, Monkey Gully Road and Highett Street;

• Have a BBQ tea; and

• Finish up at around 5:45pm (parents to collect their kids from the Botanic Park).

We should have a couple of 'Jigsaw Jumps' at Botanic Park for kids who'd like to have a go.

We need plenty of parent riders to ride with the kids so that they get safely down to Botanic Park. Thanks in advance to our wonderful parent helper riders.

We also need a couple of volunteers (perhaps parents who aren't riding) to head down to Botanic Park and cook a BBQ ready for our arrival. We will organise the food, etc. If you are able to help in this way please let us know via email.

Looking forward to wrapping up a great summer of Dirt Critters. See you on Tuesday!

MTB Nationals at Awaba NSW

By Kate Stonnill

By all accounts it was a technical, “janky” course. I was glad they were all in one piece by the end of the weekend, as were their bikes!

• Elise - 2nd in Elite Women.

• Matt - 24th in Elite Men, made up 15 sec from his seeding run. (That’s him in the black kit.)

• Zac - 30th in Junior Men but changed before I could get photo.

Final Dirt Crits

As has often been the case this season, a storm last Tuesday forced another Dirt Crits cancellation.

Hopefully, this coming Tuesday’s last Dirt Crits for the season, a Gravity Enduro, will go ahead without any weather interruptions.

A perfect Autumn evening

By Dave Bock

Perfect Autumn conditions greeted the sixteen cyclists fronting up for the final Thursday evening race for the MMBCC Summer Road Race Series.

For the bunch of four riders setting off first, as the Limit group, Ian Conrick, Dave Jagger, Dave Bock, and John Eisner, the task was straight forward; head out on the Mansfield-Whitfield Road, turn around at the Sawpit Gully Road intersection, then race back and swing left to the finish line in front of the Mansfield Showgrounds. All this while working together to keep their speed high enough to avoid being overtaken by the chasing riders.

The first trio of chasers, with a time gap of four and a half minutes to close down, were Janine Appleton, Steve Curnow and Craig Wilson.

Tim Ross and Adrian Dowd followed four minutes later. Setting off ten minutes after Limit, the quartet of Steve Duke, Mick Pearce, Carl Simmons and Dave Moore had a minute and half on the Block pair of Damian Grundy and Dave Empey. With a minute to close down to catch Block, in a solo effort, and twelve and half to overtake Limit, Andy Garrett, the one Scratch rider, faced a huge task to have a shot at the win.

After the turnaround, seeing the gaps back to chasing groups, Limit began to think they might be in with a shot.

At the 80km sign coming into town, with not a chase in sight, they dared to dream of a win as they turned left into Battery Road.

They ceased to be a team and became competitors! Ian Conrick took the win ahead of Dave Bock, Dave Jagger and John Eisner.

Over two minutes later, the first of the chasers crossed the line with Carl Simmons taking fifth and fastest time of 42.25. Then came Pearce, Moore, Ross, Dowd and Appleton. Block and Scratch finished in the order they started.

A big thanks to all the volunteer Marshals and Commissaires, particularly the non-racers, who give up their time so others can.

Here are the results and many thanks again to Tony Copland for his pics. Another great season of images - thanks very much for all your snaps Tony!

With Easter/Good Friday holiday traffic expected to be an issue next week, that was the final race of the MMBCC Summer Road Race Series.

Thanks to everyone who helped organise the races, to all those that officiated and all those that competed.

Keep your eyes out for news of the summer series presentations soon. That’s when we’ll find out who won the Summer Road Race Series, the Road Race Women’s Trophy, Dirt Crits and the Alain Guerin Memorial Crossover Trophy.

This weekend’s results…

From the 2024 Gravity Enduro Victorian State Championship and round 3 of the Victorian Enduro Tour.

• Rueben Bateup - 3rd (out of 17) in Under 15 Men.

• Ant Bateup - 9th (out of 30) in Veteran Men - 35 seconds slower than Rueben!

• Archie Smith - 14th (out of 38) in Under 21 Men.

• Adam Baker DNSed after discovering his frame was broken!

Well done all.

Roof racks for sale

This week’s road race winner, the bloke who claims he’s half an inch too tall to be a midget wrestler, has some roof racks for sale.

Finally…

Notification has just come through that the Ridley Fenix scheduled to be ridden on the Tour of Flanders Sportive ride next Saturday won’t arrive in time. It’s been swapped out for a Scott Addict with Ultegra Di2. Forecast is for rain - proper Flanders weather! :)

Upcoming Event…

MMBCC News - Sun 17 Mar

CONGRATULATIONS…

to Elise Empey for her silver medal at the Downhill Nationals in NSW yesterday.

And to Talia Appleton for winning A-grade Women at the Mansfield Hotel Tour p/b Orcoda today, winning all three stages!

Final call…

The Ventou portal for club kit is about to close! Email Bruce for the password, then click this link to go to the Ventou website to order your kit.

So far it’s known there have been speed suits, jerseys, bibs and at least one mountain bike jersey ordered.

Pink defeats Gravity Enduro

Dirt Crits Race Report - Tue 12 Mar

By Damian Grundy

The Empeys chose Pink over mountain biking! What is the world coming to?!

In their absence the Baker Boys (Adam and Finn) stepped up to set and mark two courses for the evening. Cam Dobson and Peter Carman stepped in to help with the starts and finish timing and so the Gravity Enduro night proceeded.

And so the crew rode themselves to the top of Stage 1 and competition was underway.

Ant Bateup and Archie Smith tied in Stage 1 with both finishing on 2 minutes 6 seconds. Adam Baker and Ruben Bateup were then in equal second place on this run with a time of 2.14.

In Run 2, a longer and more pedaling course, Ant Bateup put the pedal to the metal and clocked 3.18, 4 seconds clear of Archie Smith with Ruben Bateup a clear 3rd on 3.25.

All up it was a close result at the front of the field.

Overall Ant Bateup finished with a combined time of 5 minutes 24 seconds, 4 seconds clear of Archie Smith in second place with a combined time of 5.28.

Ruben Bateup was third on 5.39; Finn baker 4th on 5.49; Rylan Fox 5th on 6minutes even.

Special mention to the first woman on the night, Arial Stava with a combined time of 9.54.

Here are the results.

Only two more weeks of Dirt Crits left in the season - see you next week for the final XC night!

Riding bikes and bulls

By Ian Conrick

Writing an article for a Thursday night bike race should be pretty straight forward.

Well… let me tell you the footy is on the TV, Carlton has attacked Richmond and is leading by 10 points,

I’m also thinking Dusty Martin has had a bit more ink put on over the off season and then out of nowhere an ad for Yencken’s Hardware pops up on the screen that reminds me I should get a couple of bags of blood and bone for my garden. Anyway, back to the bones of the race…

Don’t be disturbed or bewildered if you read the term “I think” more than once in this report. Also the expression “those blokes” would refer to the other 20 riders that started in the race. Not to forget “that mongrel“ would be a term referring to the handicapper and not a pair of size 10 work boots from Yencken’s Hardware.

By now the race is well and truely under way l think the course is out the Mansfield -Whitfield road to a Long Lane turn around back to Barwite Rd down to the Old Tolmie Rd; another turn around then retracing Barwite Road and back into town, allowing for the additional turn arounds. I think Strava had me on about 25-40 km by now although I recall not recalibrating my computer.

Look, apart from a bit of a head wind coming back into town nothing was going to stop “The Bull Rider” - yes, young Jake Lay used to follow the rodeo circuit; riding bare back on those powerful half-mad outback bulls. But now that I’ve talked him up, I’ve checked the results and realised he came second!

First and fastest was Stuart Darling, a visitor for the night, who started with Jake and, in my defence, in the green kit they wore, looked like Jake’s twin. Stuart averaged 41.8 km/h over the 26km.

Ian Conrick (half an inch too big to be a midget wrestler) held on for 3rd place.

As usual we thank the volunteers, friends and families for helping out in running our events also to the Brown family and staff from the Mansfield Hotel for their ongoing support to the club and cycling community.

Here are the results and thanks again to the maestro, Tony Copland, for the pics.

Next weeks race will be the last of the Summer Road Race Series, starting again at the Botanic Park, out to Sawpit Gully Road and back, finishing again on Mt Battery Road near the Showgrounds.

MMBCC News - Sat 9 Mar

“Few articles ever used by man have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle”
US Census Bureau Report, 1900.

Club kit still available.

The Ventou portal for club kit is open for one more week! Email Bruce for the password, then click this link to go to the Ventou website to order your kit.

So far it’s known there have been speed suits, jerseys, bibs and at least one mountain bike jersey ordered.

Only one week to go…

Dirt Critters News

The Vivash family had an incredible experience at Thredbo last week, competing in the Australian MTB Interschools, alongside 1200 other competitors (across all divisions).

Both kids competed in all 4 events - Miles was 15th in Norco All Mountain, 20th in Fox Flow Motion Cup and 12th in the Oakley Cannonball Downhill. Impressive results for a Grade 2 student competing against Grade 3 and 4s.

Sienna, also in Division 5, took out podium finishes in all events - 1st in the Fox Flow Motion cup, and in what was her favourite event, 1st in the Cannonball Downhill beating her competitors by a whopping 1min 45 sec.

They both backed it up with 1st place wins at the Alpine Cycling Club Gravity race in Albury on Saturday.

Go Team Vivash!

the Long Lap Extravaganza

By Damian Grundy

First of all a very special thanks to the trail marking crew! The course used at least 95% of the available trails in the park. The long lap was 6.4km in length and the short lap 2.4km. It’s a demanding course with several very technical and physically demanding sections.

On the night the fast guys were tackling two long laps, the intermediate riders were on one long and one short and the least experienced got to tackle just one long lap.

There was a good turn out of 14 competitors - check out the results here. As usual with the Irish handicaps the start was time staggered.

At the end it was Mr-All-Terrain-Cycles Shannon Rademaker trundling into the finish in first place. Rylan Fox finished second 57 seconds later and David Bock was third 38 seconds after Rylan. The average speeds were down for everyone on the night, a testament to the toughness of the course.

Congratulations to all competitors and a special thanks to Adam Baker for taking care of the timing.

Second in the third last

By Janine Appleton

For the third last race of the season and a week before hosting the three stage Mansfield Hotel Tour, the Cycling Club started at the Nutrien, Buller Road and raced the Barwite Loop in an anticlockwise direction. With five riders from Seymour and most of the regulars attending, the precious points in the local championship would be hotly contested.

Dave Bock was first to roll out with a tail wind, followed by Ian Conrick and myself two and a half minutes later. 

Knowing the next group of Tim Hall, Adrain Dowd, Craig Wilson and Adam Baker were only 90 seconds behind, I was determined to get to the top of Coombes Hill at my pace. Ian was quick to regret the massive ride to Whitfield and back earlier in the week when he encouraged me to leave him on Graves Road.

Adrian Dowd was too strong for his group and caught me a few kilometres onto Barwite Road, where the head wind was causing all the riders to go into a higher level of hurt. The three, first-time Mansfield event riders of Ryan Schultz, Ian Baker and Bret Bender were caught by Darren Bakker, Steve Duke, Mick Pearce and Dave Moore and the Mansfield crew took no hangers on. 

It wasn't until 1.5 km to go on Mansfield Whitfield Road, near Dead Horse Lane, that the now combined group of Jake Lay, Talia Appleton, Bruce Halket, Chris Miller, James Hender and Michael Thomson thought they had a chance at a place. It was a tight squeeze around the corner into Mt Battery road, where full gas was applied for the uphill finish.  

Adrian Dowd was able to pull away easily from my poor, sprint-finish legs. The handicapper was applauded tonight as 3rd place, Michael Thompson was only another 8 seconds behind me, with a mixed group of 9 riders finishing in the next 30 seconds, with Jake Lay taking out fastest time. 

Thanks to the Mansfield Hotel for the appetisers for everyone and their weekly special $25 prize - going to Jenni Sparnon this week for making herself available to marshal, at very short notice, despite never participating in races.

Here are the detailed results and many thanks again to Tony Copland for his images.

Just a reminder to all vehicles on the road on this coming weekend - we have a few hundred competitors visiting for the Mansfield Tour, with Stage one on Saturday morning around Stoneleigh road and Merinda Way,

Stage two on Saturday afternoon on Mansfield Whitfield Road, Barwite road and Old Tolmie road; and Stage 3 on Sunday morning on Mt Buller road finishing at the top of Mt Buller. Please be patient with all the cyclists and official cars over the weekend. We would like to continue to receive the wonderful feedback we always get - a safe, well-organised event run by super friendly, community volunteers.

prize revealed

Exciting news! A new prize will be awarded to the winners of each of the Summer-long competitions run by the MMBCC; both the Summer Road Race Series and Dirt Crits.

With many thanks to an anonymous benefactor, the winner of each series will now receive a new Giro time trial helmet, just like that one in the images below.*

Second place gets two helmets!

*Possibly not. This should really have been published on the first of April.

MMBCC News - Sun 3 Mar

“Training is like fighting with a gorilla.
You don’t stop when you’re tired.
You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
Greg Henderson

Club kit is GO!

The Ventou portal for club kit is now open! Email Bruce for the password, then click this link to go to the Ventou website to order your kit.

We’ll use All Terrain Cycles as the address (somewhere central in town where you can collect it). Or you can pay a bit extra and have it sent straight to your address.

A BIG week for Dirt Critters

By Tim Ross

Dirt Critters enjoyed a Gravity Enduro night at Rifle Butts Reserve last Tuesday. Course setter Luke Vivash sent the younger kids down the Critters course, with Dayna clocking the fastest time. He then set the older kids a course from the very top of the hill. Not sure what tracks they used but there were some astonishingly quick descents over the two passes, with Blake just pipping Micah for fastest time with Cooper, Miles and Jarrah hot on his heels.

A large group of kids from Mansfield Steiner School participated in the Falls Creek MTB inter-schools on Friday. This is a well-organised and fun event on a great XC course. Cheered on by enthusiastic parents, all the kids gave 100% and enjoyed their races.

Podiums to Ruby Rademaker, Rueben Bateup, Keeva Morris-Webb and Edwin Morphett.

Coming up is the next race in the Alpine Cycling Club’s Junior MTB series. This time it’s at Albury’s Nail Can Hill track and takes the form of a Gravity Enduro next Saturday 9 March. As we’ve noted before, this series is well-organised and participation focused. And inexpensive, with just $10 entry.

Dirt Crits Gravity… finally!

By Kate Stonnill

Senior Dirt Crits finally had another Gravity Enduro night on the 27th after the last one had to be cancelled due to weather.

Zac Empey designed a new course, with a new starting point. He said the top section was quite technical but otherwise was a very fast track. All riders rode the downhill track twice, and interestingly the older the rider the bigger the improvement on the second run down.

It was great to see the return of some of the younger riders. With 18 riders in total the more technical track definitely seemed to favour the more experienced downhillers. The timed descents were added together for one total time.

Sadly Will Anderson took a wrong turn at the top of the first run and designed his own adventure.

Adam Baker and Luke Vivash came in 6th and 7th respectively. The Podium was then followed with Rueben Bateup in 5th (3:25), Zac Empey 4th (3:24), Archie Smith 3rd (3:17), Shannon Rademaker 2nd (3:16) and the top step being easily won by Ant Bateup in 1st with a time of 3min :11sec.

Ariel Baker again flying the banner for female mountain bikers.

The usual contest between Dave Bock and Steve Curnow continued again this week, with Bocky edging in front for the first time. Steve was possibly still recovering from his win at the Otway Odyssey on the weekend. Well done Steve.

A cool change, new course, some new faces, a couple of returning ones, plus old dogs with no tricks.

By David Bock

A drop in temperature to a pleasant 26*C, in the hour before Thursday’s race, was welcomed by the twenty two competitors gathered beside the cemetery, preparing to race. The 23 km course, consisting of two and a bit laps of the Stoneleigh Road - Merinda Way - Monkey Gully Road circuit, hadn`t been used for the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club`s Thursday evening racing before, so was something of an unknown quantity, particularly for the Handicapper. A slight wind also added to the uncertainty.

Two Dave`s, Dave Jagger, and Dave Bock, were the first to set off, as the Limit group, for the faster riders to try to chase down.

The next pair off consisted of Janine Appleton, racing after a bit of a hiatus, and Ethan Nealon, racing with the Club for the first time.

The following group splintered early, losing first Craig Wilson, then Steve Curnow. After dropping Adam Baker, Adrian Dowd and Ryan Schultz were able to work together for a while, before Ryan proved too strong and pulled away, so they all continued on solo.

Working more effectively as a group were Darren Bakker, Steve Duke, Mick Pearce, Carl Simmons, and Dave Moore, in his first race for a year or so.

The fastest competitors set off as two groups of four, the Block group of Bruce Halket, Dave Empey, Chris McKnight, and Chris Miller, having a two and a half minute head start over the Scratch bunch of Jake Lay, Talia Appleton, Dan Purcell, and Andy Garrett.

On the uphill run to the finish line, still clear of the chase, Dave Jagger opened up a ten second gap on Bocky, to take the win, not far ahead of a bunch sprint of seven, charging for third place. Ethan Nealon claimed that prize, ahead of Darren Bakker, Carl Simmons, Mick Pearce, Steve Duke, Adrian Dowd, and Ryan Schultz.

Just over thirty seconds later, Dave Moore crossed, to round out the top ten, five seconds in front of Dan Purcell, who claimed fastest time, crossing with Jake Lay.

Many thanks to the Commissaire, Allan Gerrans, and all the other officials and to Tony Copland for his images, below.

Here are the results.

Next week it’s the Barwite Loop.

With only three race left, the top ten of the current point score for the Summer Road Race Series sees Darren Bakker leading on 105 points ahead of this week’s winner, Dave Jagger on 81. They’re followed by Ruby Dobson on 78, Bruce Halket - 76, Jake Lay - 67, Andy Garrett - 65, Mick Pearce - 63, Tim Ross - 61, then Steve Curnow and Adrian Dowd on 59.

MMBCC News - Sun 25 Feb

“I thought of that while riding my bicycle.”
Albert Einstein (on the Theory of Relativity)

Club kit

We’ve had some enquiries regarding club kit.

If enough members are interested, we can get Ventou to open the online portal for you to order.

And don’t forget, Ventou have added a long-sleeve mountain bike jersey to the offerings.

Email Bruce if you’re interested.

Dirt Critters

By Tim Ross

Last week, Dirt Critters rode the single track along Rifle Butts Road, to the lookout and back. Despite pretty warm conditions all the kids seemed to have plenty of energy. 

Next Tuesday, we’ll be doing an Enduro course at Rifle Butts Reserve. 

Coming up next Friday is the Vic Inter-Schools MTB Race at Falls Creek with a big contingent of Mansfield kids attending, many of them current or former Dirt Critters. Best wishes to them all.

Sealed Irish Handicap 20 Feb

By Damian Grundy

Another great week of fun dirt racing!

A warm welcome to another first timer Lachlan Storer.

For a twist everyone started together for this race with handicap time corrections being applied to the completed times at the end of the race. The course was longer at 2.37km per lap than the previous XC night and lap numbers were similar so a longer race was the challenge for the riders. Three lappers were to race 7.1km and the fast people at six laps had 11.85km ahead.

Luckily it wasn’t too hot, though definitely on the warm side.

A field of 14 riders greeted the starters yell of “GO!”

Ruby Dobson was in attendance and so there was a very fast bunny to chase. Ruby led up the first climb and despite a small mechanical issue towards the end of the first lap, and a wrong turn at the start of the second, was untroubled to finish as the fastest on-course completing six laps in 43min 18sec at an average speed of 19.7km/h.

The first rider to complete their allotted number of laps was Ariel Stava completing her 3 laps in 31min 32sec.

And so the riders continued to finish and the “sealed Envelope Of Handicap Time Corrections” was opened and times duly corrected.

Once all the riders had completed their allotted laps and calculations were completed, the night’s winner with a strong ride was Steve Curnow with a corrected time of 41min 17sec. This was a promising sign as Steve is travelling to Forrest this weekend to compete at the Otway Odyssey. GOOD LUCK Steve!!

In the minor placings we had Ariel Stava in her second race this season finishing 2nd. Cam Dobson in 3rd, Luke Vivash in 4th and Adam Baker 5th.

Full results have been posted here.

Congratulations to all competitors and we hope to see you all in two weeks for the Long, Long Lap of Riflebutts Dirt Crits extravaganza. The usual prize money has generously been quadrupled for this race so don’t miss out!

Baker Takes The Cake

By Ian ‘Stream of Consciousness’ Conrick.

Any cyclist considering a casual ride would wander outside to feel the wind, look to the sky and say, “It’s on tonight!”

Yes! Thursday night Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club racing out on the Mansfield-Whitfield Road with the turn around point at Long Lane finishing on Graves Road; a distance of 22km with 13 riders on the start list for the handicap race.

It means that you can be graded with fellow contestants; that could be a school teacher, a security officer, a sign writer or a poor, old, Aussie battler who’s had Vegemite soup for lunch. But we all have the same goal - to grab the moment; to say to ourselves “I’ve had a 30 minute nana nap this afternoon” or “I’ve had a handful of nuts and a mini chocolate bar” and call on your group and say “Let’s have a crack at winning this race!”

They might reply “Mate, I’m cooked, done. You go.”

Or you’re thinking about going around to your mother-in-law’s for a warm cup of tea.

By now those other blokes have got the jump on you and then you’re further delayed as a you’re stopped to give way to a vehicle.

That’s fine; as the wind has swung around onto my back and I’m flying to the finish line. My legs are burning and the lungs screaming for a rest but what a great nights’ racing!

Congratulations to the winner, Adam Baker, followed by Ian Conrick and Adrian Dowd. Fastest time went to Bruce Halket, which must have been a clerical error.

With fellow riders and their families we enjoyed a meal at the Mansfield Hotel, thanking the Brown family for their ongoing support of the MMBCC.

To the volunteers, as always, many thanks for your help. Also to Tony Copland, our photographer, the person behind the snaps and shots. Here are the results.

As always we welcome visitors, families and the like to have a ride or race with the club look at www.mmbcc.org.au for further details.

Next weeks race is a new event; the circuit is the Owens Creek Road / Merinda Way Loop, two and a half anti-clockwise laps starting at the cemetery, probably for a good reason.

Otway Odyssey Results

Congratulations to Ruby Dobson who was 6th in the highly competitive 100km Elite Women yesterday.

And… to Steve Curnow and Lise Andreasen who both WON their category in the 30km race today. Again!

Mt Baw Baw VDHS Results

U15 Men - Rueben Bateup, 5th (5 seconds faster than Dad); Keegan Carman, 20th (out of 32).

U17 Men - Spencer Carman, 25th (of 30).

Masters Men - Ant Bateup, 6th (of 19).

Elite Men - Matt Empey, 2nd (by just 0.21 of a second!)

Well done guys!

Finally…

Kudos to the RMB for clearing an absolutely massive tree from the Australian Alpine Epic. It was so big it was hard to clamber over - so getting this big boy out of the way will make a big difference. Many thanks to Dave McCoombe and the crew.

MMBCC News - Sat 17 Feb

“One of the most important days of my life was when I learned to ride a bicycle.”
Michael Palin

Have you subscribed to MMBCC News yet? Get it straight to your Inbox - enter your email address on the MMBCC Homepage.

Dirt Crits got ripped off

… by the weather again. But this coming Tuesday’s XC round will make up for the disappointment!

Bakker Plumbing Handicap 2024

By Dario Cippolini Gazzeta

Perfect conditions greeted Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club riders and volunteers at the start of one of the club’s marquee races of the season in beautiful Jamieson.

There was one late scratching with Campag Wilson suffering a broken spoke. And almost another but out marker David Jagger just made the start in time after fulfilling his fire fighting duties.

Jagger was the first to start by himself and had the job of trying to hold off the next 15 riders. Next off was a solid group of four, Adam Baker, Steve Curnow, Adrian Dowd and home town boy Allan Gerrans.

They were followed by a very capable quartet of Damian Grundy, Steve Duke, Michael Pearce and Darren Bakker.

Next to go was the biggest group of the night and probably the favourites for the win; Smokey Garrett, Ruby Dobson, Chris Miller, Bruce ‘Lead Out’ Halket and club President David Empey for his first race for the season.

They were being chased by the Scratch duo of Jake Lay and Talia Appleton.

The Jamieson course is beautifully scenic but also very fast; so most riders were chewing on the handlebars on the way to the turnaround at Ten Mile and there wasn’t time for sightseeing;

It’s also a unique course due to all the bends in the road, so you can’t really see if you’re gaining on the next group until the turnaround. After the turnaround all the groups were coming together, so they could look at each other’s progress.

The Block group of five were down to three just before the turn with Empey blowing up after some mega pulls on the front and Millar puncturing. Scratch were making progress but had the job ahead of them if they wanted to feature in the finish.

Meanwhile the smooth movers Duke, Pearce, Bakker, and the big engine Grundy, were collecting all the front markers, thinking they were a real chance not to get caught.

It wasn’t to be as they were caught by the rampaging remnants of Block about 1.5km from the finish. It was set to be a cracking finish with 7 riders vying for the win.

With 600m to go Halket and Dobson were keeping the pace high to stop any attacks. Duke started making a move on the outside.

Then with 300m to go Halket attacked, Smokey Garret was straight on to his wheel and blasted past him with Bakker trying to get into the slipstream.

There was no power outage in the sprint as Andy (Watt Bomb) Garrett hit 1100 watts, smoking the field to win by a big margin. Bakker came in 2nd, Ruby 3rd, Halket 4th and Grundy 5th. All the others riders came not long after, a sign of good handicapping. Good Job Dave.

Jake Lay from the Scratch group rode the fastest time of 60:10; only 9 seconds faster than the winner Andy Garrett. “If I’d known it was that close I would have tried!” Andy exclaimed over a recovery ale. Here are the results. Thanks to Tony for the racing shots, Bruce and Cameron for the presentation pics.

Big thank you to all the Marshals, Commissaires and helpers and a special thank you to the Court House Hotel for their efforts after a trying week.

Good luck to MMBCC members competing…

this weekend at the Cannonball at Thredbo.

And next weekend at the Otway Odyssey in Forrest.

MMBCC News - Sun 11 Feb

“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realise fishing is stupid and boring.”
Desmond Tutu

Dirt Crits Irish Handicap

By Damian Grundy

After the enjoyable first ride night on January 23rd, it was back to the serious business of racing for the first XC race night of Dirt Crits in 2024.

Using a very slightly modified course from the last race of 2023, a determined Baker’s Dozen of riders lined up for the start. The race format was the usual “Irish” Handicap. “How does an Irish Handicap work?” I hear you ask.

Here is an attempted explanation: With riders of all levels of ability and fitness the objective is to have a single race in which all riders have a chance to win. The handicapping takes into consideration each rider’s level of fitness and adjusts their number of laps to best suit their endurance abilities coupled with their predicted race speed based on previous performances. This permits the handicapper to give individual numbers of laps and individual start times with the objective that everyone approaches the finish at roughly the same time. The point is that we all have a chance, and the objective is FUN and FITNESS.

The course for this week was relatively short at 1.45km in length, nothing particularly steep or long in the climbing department and a generally fastish sort of layout.

Darren Bakker was the first out of the start with 6 laps ahead of him. Luke Vivash was the final starter 6 minutes later with 3 laps to complete.

It was great to see Ariel Stava and Shannon Rademaker making their first race for the 2023/2024 season. Welcome back and hope to see you regularly for the rest of the season.

Given that your reporter was in the thick of the action himself it isn’t possible to say much about how the race progressed however at the end It was Adam Baker who prevailed for the win after crossing the line in second place. Archie Smith crossed the line first but had to admit that he possibly misinterpreted the course and went the wrong way and has generously disqualified himself from the results.

On this I will say that I do recommend arriving a little earlier and doing a course reconnaissance for familiarisation and a warmup. The courses are usually well marked out by 5.30pm and usually short enough that a lap for warm up is more than achievable.

Luke Vivash, returning from a broken wrist, finished a creditable 2nd, 40 seconds behind Adam.

Yours truly finished a further 30 seconds back from Luke in 3rd, Dan Hall was 4th and Darren Bakker 5th.

Ariel Stava was first female.

Congratulations to all competitors. And I am eternally grateful to Kate Stonnill and Cam Dobson for managing the timing and the pics. Thanks!

Use this link to go to the full results.

Perfect conditions for a road race

By Jake Lay

Thursday night’s twilight road handicap attracted a field of 16. The race was held on course 9 over 22km and featured the dreaded Coombesberg climb.

Conditions were ideal for racing, with little wind. The only setback was recently completed (30 minutes before race start) roadworks on the Barwite Road. Some of the riders were nervous about getting fresh asphalt on their bikes (Andy). For rider safety, the road works was declared a neutral race zone.

A big MMBCC welcome back to Adam Baker for his first road race in a long, long time!

First off was Dave Jagger followed by four strong groups of three with Andrew Garrett and Bruce Halket off second Scratch with Jake Lay solo a minute behind. A total of 12:30 was all that separated the field.

Tony Copland was nominated Chief Commissaire for the night, as well as conducting his usual MMBCC pro tour photos of the field.

Jake had caught Andy & Bruce before the turnaround and the three worked well until the climb where Jake released the afterburners as the whole race was strung out up the Coombesberg.

After the descent he started reeling in each rider over the last few kilometres, except one. Congratulations Tim Hall on a nice solo victory.

Thank you to all volunteers, lead & follow cars, officials, Dave Moore the Handicapper and The Mansfield Hotel.

Here are Tony’s pics and here’s a link to the results.

Next week it’s back to Jamieson for one of the highlight races of the MMBCC season, the Bakker Plumbing Handicap. It’ll be followed by dinner and presentations at the Courthouse Hotel.

Dirt Critters is back!

By Tim and Luke

Great to have Dirt Critters up and going for the new term, with many of the old faces and some new ones. Nice to do a few laps of Rifle Butts to re-familiarise ourselves with the trails.

Next week (Tuesday 13th Feb) we'll meet at Rifle Butts, and then ride the single track alongside Rifle Butts Road to the lookout and back.  As usual the times are;

4:00pm     Grade 3 and below

4:45pm     Grades 4 - 6 (and we welcome any of last year's Grade 6 ers who aren't quite ready for senior Dirt Crits)

Weather is expected to be fairly hot, so sunscreen is the go, and don't forget to bring your water-bottle.

Dirt Critters is open to all Primary School children, with the aim for kids to enjoy riding and to learn new skills.  Parents are most welcome to come and watch or to help out.

A reminder that all riders must have an AusCycling membership.

Click here to go to the Join Now page and follow the steps to get your AusCycling licence (Race Off-Road is the one you want). An AusCycling membership is valid for 12 months and costs $81 for 7yo and under; $109 for 8 to 12yo. 

For those who haven’t previously had a membership, a free, four-week ‘come and try’ membership is available.  

Those who've had a previous membership please make sure it's current (Auscycling will send an email prompt).

Racing 

A big contingent of Mansfield kids headed to Beechworth on Saturday to contest Round 4 of the Alpine Cycling Club’s Junior MTB Series. The series comprises six rounds at a range of venues in NE Victoria, with a mixture of XCO and Downhill events.

Twelve Mansfield riders ranging from U9 to U13 took part. Podiums for Sienna (U9 girls) and Ben (U13 boys). Most of the group retired to Bilson’s Brewery for lunch afterwards to celebrate.

The series is well organised, and is a fun and low stress chance for kids to get into racing, with a focus on participation. Email if you'd like more details or call Luke on 0455 604 785 for more information.

See you next week!

MMBCC News - Sun 4 Feb

“Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym.”
Bill Nye

A warm night of Gravity Dirts Crits

One race course, raced twice, fastest combined timed wins.

1 Archie
2 Elijah
3 Charlie
4 Zac
5 Luke

Great riding from all and thank you to our wonderful club volunteers for organising. Here are the detailed results. See you next week for XC race edition.

Many thanks to Shannon Rademaker for the pics.

Who knew John could sprint?!

By David Jagger

Thursday 1 February saw a perfect summer evening for a bike race, 25 degrees, clear skies and a south-westerly wind. The Howes Creek Road course is a good mix of flat sections and rolling hills; a variation that will suit most riders for some part of the course.

Like most of the club’s road races, this was a handicap race. The slower riders were sent off first and the fastest about fifteen minutes later with the aim that they all cross the finish line at about the same time.
Tony Morris, the statesman of the club was the first to set off. The head wind was quite strong at the start, so he wisely waited for the next riders (John Eisner and David Jagger) to catch him and provide support. Dave Bock joined the group and added valuable strength heading into the wind.

Tim Hall and Ian Conrick were the next group but were caught near the Preston Wool Shed by Craig Wilson, Adrian Dowd and Steve Curnow. This group of five steamed their way to the turnaround at Cummins Road and looked invincible.

Steve Duke, Darren Bakker, Damian Grundy and Tim Ross powered out of the start and set a cracking pace. This proved a little too fast for Tim who was dropped by his group a little earlier than he would have liked.

Andrew Garrett, Ruby Dobson and Chris Miller were making the headwind seem like a gentle breeze as they powered along to the turnaround. From there they seemed that they were sprinting on the way back, now with the wind on their backs.

Fresh from the Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Talia Appleton was the last to start a further minute back.

The rolling hills took a toll on a few riders and were dropped from their groups, riding solo back to the finish. In the cruel outcome of many handicap races, Andrew, Ruby and Chris overtook many riders in the last few hundred metres.

Meanwhile, the first group of riders managed to just stay ahead, John winning with a short sprint over David. Chris caught Dave Bock on the last hill to finish third.

Chris had the fastest time of the race, but credit must be given to a lone powerhouse: Talia Appleton. She set a blistering pace right from the start, with 25km appearing like a warmup for this amazing girl. She finished the race only 90 seconds slower than Chris who had the assistance of his group for whole race. And Talia was the only one who had to be stopped by a marshal at an intersection due to an oncoming car!

Here are the results and many thanks to Tony Copland for the pics, below.

Thanks to all the helpers on the night to make the race possible. Their sacrifice enabled the race to run. The Mansfield Hotel award went to Dave Empey who is always around to support the MMBCC.

Next week we’re racing on the Whitfield Road, going around the ‘Barwite Loop’ and finishing on Graves Road.

MMBCC News - Sat 27 Jan

“Anyone who rides a bike is a friend of mine.”
Gary Fisher

Not much to report this week. Only five turned up to race the first Dirt Crits XC race of 2024, so we went for a very pleasant evening ride instead! And the rain on Thursday forced the cancellation of the first road race of 2024.

Next week will be better! Tuesday will see the first Gravity Dirt Crits of 2024 and Thursday we’ll be back on Howes Creek Road, one of the best courses we race on.

In the meantime…

The 2024 Mansfield Hotel Tour powered by Orcoda is fast approaching - Sat 16 & Sun 17 March. Please make a note in your calendar as we’ll be looking for volunteers very soon.

Speaking of our Tour, Jason Parker found these great little videos from Nero KOM Racing from the 2017 Mansfield Tour. It features some youngsters who’ve turned out to be fairly handy bike riders: three-time Australian Road Race Champion Luke Plapp (now of Jayco AlUla) and Q36.5 pro Jimmy Whelan.

Finally…

Good luck to Talia Appleton in Saturday’s Deakin University Road Race. It’ll be Talia’s longest ever race and will be broadcast on 7Mate and online on 7+.

MMBCC News - Sun 21 Jan

Subscribe to MMBCC News and WIN!… a newsletter in your inbox every now and again.

Dirt Crits is back, baby!

The second half of the Dirt Crits season starts Tuesday 23 January with a cross country (XC) round.

Then it’ll alternate between Gravity and XC every week. All races are now on the MMBCC Events Calendar.

(Dirt Critters is still a few weeks away from a re-start. We have to wait till Luke gets back from playing around in Japanese powder snow. Probably Tuesday 6 February but that’ll be confirming as soon as possible.)

Results from the weekend…

Round 3 of the Victorian DownHIll Series was held at Mt Beauty with some great results by MMBCC members.

Matthew Empey: Elite Men, 15th.
Ant Bateup: Masters Men, 3rd.
Rueben Bateup: U15 Men, 3rd. (14 seconds faster than Dad!)

LIttle video from Nathan Dabbs of Matt Empey in practice

Winning in the wind

By Adrian Dowd

The temperature was perfect and the sun came out from behind the clouds for the first MMBCC road race of 2024 along Whitfield Road.

The swapping of marshals at the last minute was like trying to predict the buffeting of the swirling southerly. And the windy conditions wouldn’t suit so many solo riders which was inevitable with numbers down to only ten.

First off was John Eisner followed shortly after by Tim Hall and Adrian Dowd at four minutes; Damian Grundy and Mick Pearce five minutes after that. Ruby Dobson, Darren Bakker and Bruce Halket were another minute back with Jake Lay and Andrew Garret a further three minutes back; a total of 13 minutes between Limit and Scratch.

Hall was the first to be dropped near Barwite Road and Dowd caught Eisner near the tomato farm.

Further back, Grundy and Pearce worked well together; but Dobson and Halket dropped Bakker early (a victim of too many km in training) but he did manage to get onto the back of Scratch for a bit.

On the way back to town the southerly wind was relentless, making it really hard for those riding alone.

Except Jake Lay.

Dowd held the lead up until Kareen Court when Lay went past solo like a freight train and turned up Mt Battery Road to a well-deserved win; and Fastest Time!

Adrian held onto second, closely followed by Halket and Dobson. Then came Pearce, Grundy, Garrett, Bakker, Hall and Eisner.

Many thanks to our Marshals, Commissaire and Handicapper for a safe and well-organised race.

Here are the results and below are Tony Copland’s pics.

Next week we’re racing on Whitfield Road again but on a new course - turning around at Long Lane, then out and back along Barwite Road.

Hayden Fletcher

Hayden might have been living in Brisbane for the last three years but he’s still racing on a Mansfield Mt Buller CC membership, still winning and now, setting a new track record at Park Orchards.

Have a look at this great little video of his new record on Facebook that his dad Paul sent through.

Gravel bike for sale

Cam Dobson's sister-in-law is selling her 2020 Giant Revolt Advanced carbon gravel bike. Size small, it’s in excellent condition. Recent new continental gravel king 38mm tyres. Pickup Croydon 3136 area.

Click on this link to go to the Gumtree listing.

Upcoming…

Northern Cycling are hosting a 64km Masters Handicap at Seymour on Sunday 28 January. Entires are via Entry Boss, registration opens at 9am, racing starts at 10am.

Seymour Broadford CC host Twilight road races just about every Tuesday evening and Saturday afternoon over summer. Entries are via Team App (the one we used to use too.)

Road Race Reminder 2024

Road racing for this summer starts again this coming Thursday!

Entries are now open and close at 8pm on Wednesday.

The first race of the calendar year starts at the Botanic Park and out along Whitfield Road to Sawpit Gully Road, then back to town, finishing on Mt Battery Road near the Showgrounds.

Please check the duty roster and see you there!

MMBCC News - Mon 8 Jan

Dirt Crits racing will be back again soon. But until then…

Summer Mountain Biking

When: Tuesday evenings, 5.30 - 7ish. Join in at any time.

Where: Riflebutts Mountain Bike Park

What will we be doing? Some riding. Some set training efforts. Some XC focussed skills. Maybe a little trail maintenance.

There will be an experienced MTB Coach onsite. Feel free to ask any questions.

It all starts tomorrow night, Tuesday 9 January.

MMBCC News - Sat 16 Dec

Give yourself a Xmas pressie - subscribe to MMBCC News…

Xmas Irish Handicap

By Damian Grundy

First of all let me wish all Members of MMBCC and their families and friends a very safe and merry Christmas.

Tuesday the 12th of December 2023 had been a hot, hot day and this probably explains the small turnout of 7 riders. From here on I will refer to them as the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN! Let me name them all given that they deserve all the plaudits for their determination to race and there aren’t that many of them.

Damian Grundy (standing in for Darren Bakker), Tom MacMunn, Dan Hall, Steve Curnow, Ant and Rueben Bateup and David Bock.

It had cooled a little by 6pm and so it wasn’t too oppressive for racing.

A very short and simple course of 1.29km had been set and race distances were relatively short.

The Magnificent Seven were sent on their way at the allotted handicap interval times.

By the end of the race Rueben Bateup who found himself thinking that he had come second but was the actual winner in a finish time of 27min and 28sec.

In 2nd was Steve Curnow, 36sec later. Ant Bateup was 3rd, a further 42sec behind 3rd place and then Tom MacMunn in 4th only 6 sec behind Ant. David Bock was 5th and Dan Hall 6th.

Damian Grundy self-disqualified based on being the handicapper but he was very happy for the hit-out.

Congratulations to all! Thanks especially to Kate Stonnill for managing the timing and results.

Mind the gap

By Ecurb Teklah

Last Thursday saw the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club host its Xmas Handicap on Howes Creek Road, finishing on the dreaded O’Hanlon’s Road hill.

Starting the festivities off Limit at 14 minutes were Micala Jacobs and David Bock.

They were followed by Craig Wilson, Steve Curnow and John Findlay off 9 minutes; Adrian Dowd and Tim Ross off 5 minutes; Jarrod Appleton and Michael Pearce off 3 minutes (made all the more difficult by the late scratching of Ryder Chadd) and Block saw Bruce Halket, Steve Duke and current points leader, Darren Bakker off 1.30.

Then came our two local ‘pro’ cyclists, Ruby Dobson of Roxsolt-LIV-SRAM and Talia Appleton of Team Bridgelane, as the Scratch group and firm favourites for the win with the ragtag group of 12 vagabonds and miscreants they were chasing.

Block thought they’d ridden really well, catching a relatively relaxed J Appleton and Pearce at about one-third distance. That made it even more of a shock when Talia and Ruby caught them not long after, well before the end of Howes Creek Road.

As the tempo increased, Duke, Halket and Pearce hopped on the back of Scratch as they went past. But as Duke faltered with the increase in pace, Halket was lucky enough to see the gap open in front of Steve’s front wheel - he and Pearce accelerated across the gap to get onto Talia’s wheel.

Dowd and Ross were the next caught with only Tim able to get onto the train, which meant through the turnaround at the end of McMillan Point Drive it was the two young girls leading the way for the three old blokes.

But another decisive gap soon opened. After a big turn on the front, Dobson drifted too far to the back of the group, with Ross, and saw a gap open to the leading trio of Appleton, Halket and Pearce. And it wouldn’t close again.

Halket managed a few obligatory turns on the front but it was all Talia to O’Hanlon’s Road. Bock and Wilson were caught at the base of the climb and all were left in Talia’s wake as she danced on the pedals up the climb to a convincing, even comfortable win (If you can call riding to the line with a heart rate of 196 beats per minute comfortable!)

“For a brief moment I thought I might be able to catch her. But I blinked and the moment was gone!” Halket said after hanging on for second ahead of Mick Pearce. Then came Steve Curnow, Dave Bock, Ruby Dobson, Craig Wilson, Tim Ross, Jarrod Appleton and Steve Duke in the last points scoring position.

Not surprisingly, Talia was fastest in a corrected time of 38.22 - a minute and a half quicker than anyone else.

At the post-race presentations at the Mansfield Hotel, race preparation was discussed in great detail. Halket and Ross prepared for the race by spending the early part of the week with Tim’s boys (Ben and Alistair) downhill mountain biking at Thredbo. With his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, Halket was quoted as saying it shows that those who only ride downhill have no excuse for not racing on the road. “If a 60 year old who can’t descend can do this, what’s their excuse?!”

Steve Duke admitted that his race preparation had been less than ideal. “I’ve spent the last week training with my elbow” he said after attending his son’s wedding in Albury last weekend.

Talia won this one too though, with her preparation based on a race day lunch time ride up Mt Buller!

Many thanks to all our officials and Commissaires and to all the courteous Mansfield motorists who help make our racing so safe.

Merry Christmas to all - let’s have a safe and happy silly season.

Many thanks also to Tony Copland for his images, below, and here are the results.

The point score at the Xmas break shows Darren Bakker, last week’s winner in Jamieson, leading the way on 69 points. He’s followed by Ruby Dobson on 56, then Tim Ross and Steve Curnow tied for third on 50. Then comes Bruce Halket, 47; Mick Pearce, 42; Ryder Chadd, 41; Dave Jagger, 39; Andy Garrett, 37 and Jake Lay rounds out the top ten on 35 points.

Interim BikeSpot Results released

Mansfield got a mention with two spots marked as dangerous. If you know of dangerous places to ride in and around Mansfield, it’s not too late to mark them on BikeSpot.

Here’s the Interim Results and here’s the link to add a spot - you’ve got until the end of January to add to the list.

Upcoming Events

Thu 21 Dec - Pro Kit Bunch Ride. With road racing finished for the year, let’s go for a Thursday night 6pm bunch ride up the Whitfield Road instead, followed by a possible fermented recovery ale. Wear your best/worst pro roadie kit or your Santa costume.

Sat 23 Dec - Gravel Bunch Ride. Meeting at the Botanic Park at the normal time of 8am, another of Bruce’s gravel loops. Bring your gravel bike and your Xmas spirit.

MMBCC News - Sat 9 Dec

A fair bit to get through this week… don’t forget to subscribe!

Dirt Critters Update

By Tim & Luke

There will be NO DIRT CRITTERS next week as Tim and Luke are both away.

However, we will have our Christmas breakup the following week (Tuesday 19 December); more details nearer the time.

Last week 

On Tuesday both groups did some timed loops at Rifle Butts Reserve. The younger group did two laps of Critters. Angus C, Dayna and Hayden were the three fastest, with Scout, Baz and Angus A not far behind. 

The older group did two laps of Joyride. Blake blitzed the field, with Miles and Mitch making up the podium.  Great to see both groups taking on the longer courses to help build up their endurance. 

Racing 

The next race in the Alpine Cycling Club Junior MTB series is a Cross Country race at Yackandandah this Saturday 9 December. Checkout the details via this link. Best wishes to Blake and Scout who will be flying the flag for Dirt Critters (along with other MMBCC members Ben, Alastair and Cruz).              

Contact dirtcrits@gmail.com or call Luke on 0455 604 785 for more information.  Thanks,  

Dirt Crits Gravity Enduro Report

By Dave Empey

The last Gravity Enduro for 2023 was held in perfect conditions. Riders raced over two tracks that provided a bit of everything. There was a little bit of steep, a bit of pedalling a bit of flat and a lot of corners.

It was Matt Empey who came out on top with a commanding 7 second win. Shannon Rademaker and Charlie Dobson tied for second place closely followed by Rueben Bateup in 4th and Ant Bateup in 5th.

In the family battles it was Rueben Bateup beating Ant for the first time, Charlie Dobson continued his winning ways over Cameron, Peter Carmen bucked the trend and prevailed over Keegan. It was great to see the younger riders starting to pick up the pace and take the racing to the older riders.

Here are the detailed results. Next week is the final race for 2023 and it will be a Cross country pain fest, which I hear Bruce Halket is very much looking forward to. (Except that he won’t be there Dave - Ed.)

A Finish To Remember

By Ryder Chadd

Thursday evening saw the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club road racing at the later time of 6:30 at one of our favourite courses - Jamison. With a grey, overcast sky and the sun trying to come through, riders set off in humid weather.

Setting off first was Micala Jacobs TT’ing most of the 30km. She was followed by Selina Green and Dave Bock after 5 minutes, then John Findlay and Dave Jagger at 6. The two groups worked together for majority of the race.

Bella Green, Steve Curnow and Craig Wilson set off at 8 minutes, working together strongly to keep away from Michael Pearce, Ryder Chadd and Damian Grundy, who set off at 12.30, weaving through the Jamo turns.

Starting off Scratch, with the most work to do, were Darren Bakker, Steve Duke and Bruce Halket, motoring along the road to catch everyone in front.

Towards the end almost all the riders had bunched together, preparing for what would be a close finish. Perfect work from handicapper, Dave Moore.

Bruce led the group towards the finish before Darren set out an early sprint over the rise to the finish. Ryder having to go the long way around Bruce.

No good for Ryder though, Darren Bakker hauling all the way to the finish. Followed by Ryder a length back. Damian crossed the line for third.

Bruce, Michael and Steve Duke followed closely behind for 4th, 5th and 6th.

Craig Wilson, Dave Jagger and Bella Green coming afterward, followed by Dave Bock, Steve Curnow and John Findlay.

Micala crossing the line for 13th and Selina finishing off the group for 14th.

Presentations and dinner were held afterward at the Jamison Brewery.

A big thank you for all the Volunteers and Commissaries for putting the afternoon together.

Here are the results and below are this week’s Copland pics.

Start of Summer News

A big weekend of cycling, here’s the latest MMBCC News… make sure you subscribe on the website so you don’t miss out.

New road numbers

With so many of the ‘new’ road numbers missing, we’ve ordered ‘newer’ numbers. They’ve arrived; so we’ll use them in next week’s race, at Jamieson. (We’ll lash out and buy new pins as well!)

And we’ll go back to the traditional way of using them: the Handicapper will allocate all racers a number each week, you get to pin it on and use it for the race, then return it to the race trailer after the race.

No more taking numbers home… they go missing that way!

Lightning Beats Dirt Critters

No Dirt Critters Update this week as the weather was doing its weird start-of-summer thing again, forcing cancellation. Hopefully the weather will behave itself for next week.

Dirt Crits Irish Handicap

By Damian Grundy

Let me be brief! Vini Vidi Vici! “I came, I saw, I conquered!”

Or So Julius Caesar is alleged to have said in a letter soon after a conclusive victory over some poor European nation.

One might suspect that if Rylan Fox was a classically educated young man, he might have said something similar after the race at Rifle Butts on Tuesday 28 November. He took full advantage of a generous handicap and absolutely dominated the race, finishing almost 2 minutes clear of Archie Smith.

Tom MacMunn was on a single-speed blinder and rode super fast to finish in 3rd place.There is a rumour that a crowd funding page is being set up to try to generate some funds to help him put some gears on his bike!

Reuben Bateup and Cruz Archibald fought out a close tussle to round out the podium in 4th and 5th places respectively.

And once again Ant Bateup was fastest on the night but only by a whisker over Tom MacMunn, who as previously mentioned, was riding with only the one gear.

Here are the detailed results - gravity race next week.

Rob Curtis Memorial Handicap Road Race

By Ruby Dobson (with a little assistance from Cam Dobson)

This weeks race was the Rob Curtis Memorial. Rob was a legend in the world of winter sports, a very handy bike rider (particularly going up hill) and a long-term (and missed) member of MMBCC. The course departs the Botanic Garden heads out on the Whitfield Road, turning around at Rob’s house with a finish in town in front of the Showgrounds; total length 30.4 km.

Ably handicapped by Dave (Mr. Spreadsheet) Moore the field of 14 was split into 7 groups, with Tony Morris punching the breeze out front, with the muscly entourage of Jake Lay and Andrew Garret departing @ 15:30.

Tony got away with very little fuss and very little briefing, other than to watch out for potholes, gravel and cars (not necessarily in that order). The rest of the crew got away in short (prescribed) order with similar treatment and very little delay from light traffic.

Shane and Ruby (riding off ‘Block) were on the road @ 13:30 with a mission to keep away from Scratch and to round up as much as the field as possible. They managed to catch Darren Bakker, Michael Pierce and Damian Grundy at the turnaround point; Scratch were about a minute behind at this point, which got Shane and Ruby a bit focused.

I know that a focused Ruby is quite a thing (I haven’t met Shane before but he seems to be similar) and they proceeded to pull the finger out and got stuck in. Damian and Micheal lost contact after a surge up one of the rises back towards town while Darren gritted his teeth, pulled on both his fingers and joined in. The run home was completed at an average somewhere north of 39km/h, with the trio of Shane, Ruby and Darren working together until Dead Horse Lane, where Darren died after one last attack from Ruby.

This was ultimately the winning move of the race, with Ruby winning by a half wheel after a vocal negotiation process on Mt Battery Road. Winning (race) time was 46:34 @ 39.2km/h.

Scratch rider Jake Lay demonstrated again just how fast he can be, coming in third (pipping Darren by 2 seconds) with fastest time 44:35 @40.9km/h.

Thanks to all the riders, marshals and Commissaires.

Some of the events described above may have been embellished.Times, speeds quoted are based on what played out on Thursday night, but could be significant under/over estimates depending on your view of the truth and whether you were actually there.

Next week we’re off to Jamieson for a handicap on just about everyone’s favourite course.

Here are the results and many thanks to Tony Copland for a really great set of pics this week.

Some Weekend Results

Tour of Bright

A special congratulations to the MMBCC’s own Talia Appleton for 19th place overall in the highly competitive Women’s A grade.

Jake Lay (who comes over from Seymour Broadford CC and races here most Thursdays) came in a very impressive 8th place in the almost as competitive Men’s B.

Shayne Kirby (another Thursday night regular from Seymour Broadford CC) came in 27th in Master’s C.

And Chris McKnight (who works for Tourism North East, used to work at Mt Buller and races here occasionally) came in 42nd in Master’s C.

Congratulations to all of you. Here are the Tour of Bright results.

VIC MTB Series - taking the chocolates

Ruby Dobson won Elite Women at round 3 of the Vic Champs Series at Buxton on Saturday and doubled up by winning again at Eildon for round 4 on Sunday, taking the chocolates, literally!

Special mentions to Bruce Halket and Tim Ross who raced Masters 7. On Saturday at Buxton, Bruce finished 2nd, Tim 4th; then on Sunday at Eildon they each moved up a place, to both get on the podium and… bring home the chocolates!

Here are the results from Saturday and Sunday.

Late November Update

Two out of three ain’t bad…

Dirt Critters Update

By Tim Ross

Dirt Critters headed towards the mountains for Tuesday night's ride.  We gathered at Carter's Rd and rode the single track up along the river to Mirimbah and back again.  The distance is a touch over 6km return, fairly flat, winding through the forest, includes some boardwalk and has a couple of muddy bits; what's not to love.  The eighteen kids split into three groups for the ride.  Despite the threatening skies, we all stayed mostly dry and thankfully we were spared the thunderstorm and hail that hit Mansfield at about the same time.  Special thanks to the parents who rode with us and provided encouragement and support.

Five Mansfield riders competed in round two of the Alpine Cycling Club Junior MTB series recently.  Blake, Cooper, Sienna, Miles and Scout travelled to Mt Beauty to take on the gravity trails.  All acquitted themselves well and enjoyed the experience, and both Sienna and Miles made the podium.  Next race in this series is a Cross Country race at Yackandandah on Saturday week.

Lightning wins Dirt Crits

Not really. There was no Dirt Crits this last week. Due to safety concerns, the scheduled Gravity Enduro had to be cancelled because of all the lightning. Next week it’s back to Cross Country.

Long time between race reports

By Damian Grundy

Not to complain, but I thought the winner wrote the race reports, that’s why I eased up just enough to come 2nd!

I feel doubly robbed now; I think it might be 2 years since my last road race and I thought that maybe my proper handicap group might have been limit or somewhere thereabouts, but no! I find that I am in the super strong group of Tim Ross, Elise Empey, Jarred Appleton and Michael Pearce with barely a couple of minutes over the crack grouping of Halket, Duke, Bakker and young Ryder Chadd (not forgetting James Black and Graham Cole somewhere in between).  Then Barely a couple of seconds behind them was the young strong, but possibly tired after a successful weekend of Mountain Bike racing at Avoca, legs of Ruby -The Ruthless- Dobson.

What chance I asked myself?!

Before I go further with the description of the race, I will share a couple of notes on my preparation and methodology for the race. Forgive me for digressing if these are not so interesting.

Over my years of involvement in cycle racing I have been very lucky to get some guidance from some very capable athletes. One of these athletes had developed from a gangly kid into something of a race machine. As he advanced in his career, he became more and more reluctant to race smaller races. He told me that in part it was because that for him, every race needed to be conducted at the same level of focus and preparation. There was, in his mind, no place for relaxing his intensity based on the idea that the race was less important, lest some bad habits creep into his methodology that then might undermine his performance when it really counted.

My point here is that I still try to manage myself around the few races that I do in the same way that I would have done “back in the day” when my legs were stronger, and the years weren’t so heavy on me.

So regardless that I hadn’t had the road bike out for perhaps more than 10 times in the past year my underlying thoughts were that I needed to take advantage of every possible “trick” I might have up my sleeve. None of these tricks are illegal and all fall entirely within the idea of fair sports. These are simple methods that help to maximise performance on most any day.

Here are a few of the “tricks” I used:

1.       It was a warmer day for the race so cooling and hydration would be important. Core temperature is critical to performance and so minimizing overall body temperature increase before the race is critical to performance. To maximise this I planned the following:

1.1.    I packed icewater and hydrated with this throughout the pre-race period. This has a valuable impact on keeping my core temperature lower.

1.2.    I planned a shorter warm up, muscle activation without increasing core temperature

1.3.    A toilet break immediately before the race start to eliminate stored heat and lighten up (every little bit helps).

2.       In the afternoon before the race I had only eaten lightly, no junk, bananas, rice cakes with honey, fruit.

3.       I race on some bigger diameter tyres at the moment, 700x28’s. I am running 80psi for races. In some circles there is often the idea that 100psi is a magical race number for tyre pressures, it is a Myth!

4.       My bike hadn’t been used for a few weeks, so I lightly lubricated the chain.

5.       During my warm up I went through all gear combinations and checked the brake performance.

6.       10 minutes prior to the race start at the completion of my light warm up I ate 1 x race gel.

7.       And so, into the race. I really had no idea how my legs would be for the racing. Luckily it was head wind heading out Mt Buller Road. Into a headwind it is much easier to gain protection from the rest of the group, their speed is blunted, and the value of drafting is significantly increased.

7.1.    My first goal was to not get dropped in the first 5 minutes! That was a very real fear for me! I was prepared to sit on if I found that I was immediately struggling. ALWAYS ride at your own pace in these handicaps. Rest if you are tired. Remember that you are of much greater value to the group if you do 1 turn in every 10 than if you are dropped. If you are missing turns communicate loudly and clearly with the other riders to call them into the gap in front of you, as they come towards the back of the group drift back and call them “IN”!

8.       I am always mindful that when I come through for my turn of pace, my job is to protect the riders in the line behind me not the rider who has just finished his or her turn at the front. I hold to the race line until I have finished my turn then flick my elbow and swing off, get to the back as quickly as possible and get back into the paceline to maximise the rest time in the wind protection there.

9.       When I am on the front, I try to keep my head up. I am always mindful that when I am on the front, I am steering the group. I am looking up the road which is always faster. If I can see the group in front, I am visualising the gap between us decreasing.

10.   Depending on your groups strength and size remember that shorter turns at a slightly higher speed are always better. But it is a balancing act.

11.   When I am at the front of the group, I am looking at the road surface, obviously avoiding and pointing out potholes but more importantly I am looking for the vehicle wheel tracks. Our roads are generally NOT European beautiful smooth hot mix. Our country road finishes here around Mansfield are typically Australian and are mostly a heavier aggregate bedded into a wet tar. In their raw state our roads are slow and heavier surfaces to ride on. However over time the wheels of the cars and trucks force this aggregate further into the tar making the vehicle wheel tracks measurably smoother and faster to ride on. I TRY USE THE WHEEL TRACKS. Ideally, I only go onto the slower surfaces outside the wheel tracks when moving to the back of the group. In positioning when I am at the front of the group, I try to stay to the upwind side of the wheel tracks to allow as many of the group behind me the opportunity to also ride on the smoother section of the road.

12.   I will try to ride the minimum distance possible, through corners in the road wherever possible and safe to do so I try to use the insides of the corners. There is more to this and if working in a very experienced group the paceline will always ride the inside line and riders will swap off to the outside, this requires constant change to how the paceline works but on some courses, it will add up to considerable time savings.

13.   I try to remember to hydrate consistently throughout the race, when I had done a turn I would drift back, get into the paceline, and take a sip.

Back to the race report 😊

5 minutes into the race my legs were hurting. But I hadn’t been dropped and I can’t remember too many handicaps where my legs weren’t hurting after 5 minutes so it was all good so far.

I had calculated that if we could get to the turn around with some sort of reasonable gap, it was going to be a tailwind and mostly downhill run home and mostly everyone can go fast on a downhill with a tailwind and so we might be a chance.

Heading out towards Glenroy Rd I could see most everyone ahead of us and they didn’t seem uncatchable. I NEVER really look behind. There’s not much I can do about the faster guys. If they are fast enough, they will catch me, pretty much I am riding as fast as I can.

Our group was well matched, everyone was working well and smoothly.

As we approached the bottom of the small climb to Hearns Lane, we caught the first of the groups ahead Will Wilson and … there were several other groups well in sight.

Cresting the hill and heading down to the turn around the lead car was well in sight and we hadn’t been caught. We took the turn and were heading home. A few more were rounded up by Hearns Lane and the boys on block Bakker and Co were still a good distance back. I didn’t see if Ruby had caught them yet.

We crested the hill and headed down towards Glenroy Road again and there was the limit group only some few hundred metres ahead, Oh Happy Days!

Elise, Michael and Tim Were putting in some strong turns if uneven at times and our speed felt really good but we did appear, dare I say, to have gathered a little driftwood, some riders feeling they were in for an easy ride following the wheels to the finish. Well AHEM to that I was thinking! There are only the 2 little rollers on the straight section between Glenroy Road and Graves Road. It was my feeling that legs should at least be tested and so to the second roller, I was definitely starting to feel the effort, but I did what I could, Tim and Elise rolled over and over the crest I did glance back to see that there was just the 3 of us with a gap to the driftwood.

Well the die was cast, and we didn’t ease off. The gap grew little by little and we turned into Jamieson Road with what I hoped was a race winning gap. A couple of turns and one last strong pull from Tim as the line approached. Elise jumped past and powered to the line for the win. I struggled into the first Race Report writer’s place (2nd) a result that I will now dine out on for the next 2 years until my next outing race 😉. Tim Ross finished 3rd. Michael Pearce came in 30 odd seconds later in 4th with Tony Morris riding very well from limit to claim 5th.

Ruby Dobson claimed fastest time 2 minutes later, a great achievement chasing alone for most of the night.

Congrats to everyone who raced and thanks as always to the volunteers Race Marshalls and Commissaires without whom the races would not be possible.

Here are the results and many thanks to Tony Copland for the pics.

Mt Buller Ride Day update

Let's Ride!!

Is it going to rain? Maybe. Are we riding bikes anyway? You bet your Five Tens we are!

Thanks to everyone who has registered their interest and confirmed attendance for Saturday. With such a strong response, we have even organised a second shuttle bus for the day, to keep the laps rolling quick!

Here is a bit of information for the day, including a slight schedule change.

• 9:50 AM - Village Square Plaza for a welcome from Mt Buller, Contour Works, and Bus Fleet.

• 10:00 AM - Shuttles commence from the main carpark adjacent to the Village Square.

• 1:00 PM - Lunch in Kooroora's balcony area in the Village Square.

*Shuttles will continue until 5:00 PM

We hope to create an informal, but informative event for our Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club members. You are all encouraged to grab a shuttle alongside our trail builders to ask questions about our trail management plan. And to share feedback on our network, and ideas or guidance for the future. If anyone is unable to join the morning welcome, lunchtime will provide another opportunity to chat with our representatives from Mt Buller, Contour Works, and Bus Fleet.

We're excited to see you all, and excited to kick off a new summer of riding at Mt Buller!

Bradyn Tremmel
Communications and Events Coordinator (Mt Buller and Mt Stirling)

Sunny Afternoon Update

If you didn’t get this via email, don’t forget to subscribe… add your name and email address to the little box on the right hand side of the Homepage under ‘Subscribe to MMBCC News’.

Lots to catch up on this weekend…

Mt Buller Ride Day update

Alpine Resorts Victoria would like to invite the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club to an exclusive, pre-season ride day at Mt Buller, on Saturday 25 November.

A reminder… MMBCC members only! You need to RSVP using this link if you want to ride at Mt Buller for the day. Due to a system change within ARV, this is a new link.

(If you’ve already RSVP’d with the link from last week, you’re already in. But if you haven’t yet, use this new one! The one in last week’s MMBCC News won’t work anymore.)

Dirt Critters Update

By Tim Ross

We had a great turn-up last Tuesday (14 Nov) and both groups enjoyed riding some of the upper trails at Rifle Butts Reserve. Returning to the carpark via Rubbish Run was perhaps a bit steep for the younger kids but by and large they handled it well (next time we'll take an easier track down!). 

It's amazing how much all the kids are improving in their riding, in particular, on the climbing trails. 

Nice to see Luke (still nursing a broken wrist) running the course with us, though his numerous short-cuts were noticed.

Next Tuesday: advance notice that on Tuesday next week (21 Nov) Dirt Critters will ride alongside the Delatite River from Carter's Road to Mirimbah and back, the last section of the Australian Alpine Epic.

This is a wonderful, flattish ride through the bush on a great piece of single-track. I checked the track out this morning and it's in perfect condition!!

All Dirt Critters (ie: younger group and older group) will ride at the same time (though we'll split up into groups based on speed and experience).  

We'll meet at the Carter's Road picnic area at 4:30pm and I expect we'll be finished before 6:00pm (the Carter's Road picnic area is easy to find on Google Maps; just off the Buller Road past Sawmill Settlement; allow 25 minutes drive from Mansfield). 

Parents are most welcome to bring their bikes and join the ride, or may prefer to walk out and back along the trail.

(It’s been a huge season so far at Dirt Critters, our junior mountain bike program at Rifle Butts MTB Park on Tuesday afternoons. Many thanks to Luke and Tim, from all the club, for all their great work. For more information, contact Dirt Critters via email or call Luke on 0455 604 785.)

Bruce Almighty

By Damian Grundy

What a glorious evening it was at Riflebutts MTB Park for this round of the MMBCC Dirt Crits. A perfect mild evening greeted the riders. The course, though a little grassy (Working Bee is coming up soon) was absolutely perfect after a day of light drizzle.

20 riders took to the start line for this Irish Handicap. There were 4 riders taking on their first XC race for the season and one of those, Ian (Puggo) Douglas, was a first first timer. It is always great to see new faces.

There was an early appeal to the handicapper by Cam Dobson, questioning the veracity of the handicaps. Of course, this was greeted with great sympathy and understanding by myself. I am sure we can all agree that handicappers are well known for their empathy and understanding! After careful consideration of this appeal, no adjustments were made.

The course for the evening was a straightforward 2.35km loop, up XC Loop, cut across to Joyride and follow this across and then down to the finish line.

First out of the gates were Bruce ‘Almighty’ Halket (Damian showing his age here with a painfully old cultural reference, Ed.) and Darren Bakker with a 5-lap challenge ahead. Bruce was keen to take advantage of the generous handicap and took flight.

The rest of the field followed at their allotted times and each with their own challenge of laps varying from 5 for the fastest guys through to 2 laps for our youngest competitors, Keegan Carmen and Leo Fermor who were the last competitors to take to the course.

It can be difficult during these Irish Handicaps to predict who might come out on top, but on the other side of the coin it is often quickly apparent who has been dealt a savage blow by the handicapper’s pen. On this evening David ‘Bocky’ Bock and Spencer Carmen had both clearly been on the receiving end of some harsh handicapping. Chin up boys! There will always be a next time and well done for sticking at it regardless of the outcome.

Heading into the final lap it had become clear that either of Elijah McGuigan or Bruce Halket could win. And so, to the finish and emerging from the course first it was Bruce Halket (5 laps), putting in the Almighty effort and coming out on top.

In 2nd place, 20 seconds later, Elijah McGuigan (4 laps) followed 27 seconds later by Adam Baker (3 laps) in a creditable 3rd place. Rounding out the podium were Will Anderson (3 laps) in 4th and Rueben Bateup (4 laps) in 5th.

Fastest on course for the evening was Ant Bateup at a very respectable 18.54km/h

Well done to all competitors, full results are available here.

Hall’s hills

By Beau Geste

If it wasn’t for the wind it would have “A hot summer night”… well, nearly. Spring and wind go together like “Love and Marriage”, such was the case on Thursday last.

15 riders started on the Howes Creek Road course, commencing with Micala Jacobs and Tony Morris leading the way. They were followed by the intrepid trio of David Jagger, John Eisner and Ian Conrick, who seemed fairly relaxed at the start.

The intrepid trio were followed by the dynamic duo of Tim Hall and Wil Wilson and these left two minutes ahead of Adrian Dowd and Allan Gerrans.

Then came the big groups: Mick Pierce returning after a break from racing, Tim Ross (powerhouse and last week’s winner), and Elise Empey “The Downhill Devil”.

Last to leave was the powerful Scratch group of Bruce Halket, Steve Duke and Darren Bakker; these were going to be very difficult to beat on a windy course. This group was tipped as course favourites on a night such as this.

Wilson and Hall rounded up the Eisner, Jagger, Conrick group at Preston Shearing Shed, perhaps channelling Bob Dylan, Conrick was heard to say ‘two riders are approaching”. Wil and Tim soon put the caught riders to work and the group stayed together trading turns to the turnaround, ably marshalled by Belinda and Tony Cipa.

Halfway home from Cummins Road, Tim and Wil left the workers behind and pursued the Limit riders, Micala and Tony. Tony’s fitness after riding Bankok to Phnom Penh recently served him well, as the dynamic duo proved difficult to catch.

Two hills to go and the catch was made, Tim and Wil stayed at their work until the very last hill. Tim launched a decisive attack at the top of the hill and “long sprinted” to a well-deserved victory.

Wil arrived second and the podium was completed by a loudly puffing Darren Bakker, who was also awarded fastest time (and very nearly the Bakker-Ross trophy.) The remainder of the scratch group followed Bakker in, nearly fulfilling predictions that it would be a “strong rider’s night”.

Presentations and refreshments were, as always, at the Mansfield Hotel where the big news is that Steve Brown is back on the bike, after a lengthy hiatus.

Thanks to our volunteers, commissaires and sponsors. Next week is Buller Road: Big Riders, big gears!

Here are the results and thanks again to Tony Copland for the pics.

STOP PRESS

Ruby Dobson has won round 1 of the Elite Women’s Victorian XC Series at Avoca today!

Congratulations Ruby!

Weekend Update

No Dirt Crits this week due to a horse race. Next week it’s XC again!

Roadies Reminder…

All members are encouraged to check the road race duty roster please.

If you’ve raced on the road at all over the last few years, you’re probably on it. We rely on all our volunteers taking their turn at race duty to make sure our races go ahead safely and efficiently.

Here’s the link to check the whole season on one page.

Invitation to ride at Mt Buller

Alpine Resorts Victoria would like to invite the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club to an exclusive, pre-season ride day at Mt Buller, on Saturday 25 November.

In concert with our hardworking trail crew, Contour Works will be on site throughout November, revitalising crowd favourite trails ABOM and Gang Gangs. As well as broader reshaping and feature works. We'd love the help and support of your club, to test the new features with us, and ride-in the freshly completed works.

Members will be able to spend the day alongside our trail crew. Using the provided shuttles to access the full gravity network from 10am to 5pm. We have also arranged for the Kooroora Pub to provide a catered sausage sizzle lunch in a dedicated event space in the village plaza from 1pm.

Over lunch Contour Works will provide club members with the inside scoop on the works they will be undertaking over summer. David McCoombe (Danger) will also outline our long-term asset management plans for the trail network and how we intend to keep the trails in tip top shape moving forward. Club members are encouraged to ask as many questions as they’d like during this session.

Members are asked to RSVP using this link. This will help us ensure we have enough snags for lunch and can meet any special dietary needs.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me using this link. I look forward to working more closely with the club in the future and to making sure our broader Mansfield community sees Mt Buller and Mt Stirling as their mountains.

Kind regards,
Amanda Vogt
Head of Visitor Experience | Mt Buller Mt Stirling Resort Management, Alpine Resorts Victoria.

Tim Ross wins Alain’s race

By Allan Gerrans

It was good to see a strong field of 18 riders enter for one of the MMBCC’s longest and most important races. The Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap, held each year in memory of Alain, a respected club member who was tragically killed when hit by a vehicle whilst riding on the Mt Buller Road nine years ago.

The course started at the Botanic Park and out along the Whitfield Road to Sawpit Gully Road then returning to the Barwite Road, over the dreaded Coombesberg and finishing on Graves Road - a total of just over 32km.

The field was split into seven groups with 20 minutes separating first to last starters. Micala Jacobs was first off, followed four minutes later by John Eisner and Dave Jagger who were then followed by Ian Conrick, Steve Curnow and Allan Gerrans another two minutes behind.

Eisner and Jagger were caught by the Conrick group at the Broken River bridge. The new group of five worked well together to catch Jacobs at the turnaround.

It was after the turn that they finally had a good look at the distance to the groups chasing them.

A strong group of four riders, led by Tim Ross, looked likely to catch the leading group of five. But there was still a long gap between the Ross group and the three final three groups of nine riders.

Ross, Tim Hall and Adrian Dowd finally caught the group of five at the Barwite Road intersection. But an acceleration by the two Tims (Ross & Hall) caught the others by surprise and only Curnow and Gerrans were able to go wth them, leaving Jagger, Eisner, Conrick and Dowd behind.

Ross did most of the work along Barwite Road, helped very occasionally by Curnow and Gerrans, and eventually even left Hall behind after the turn onto Old Tolmie Road.

Meanwhile, the three Scratch riders, Jake Lay, Andy Garrett and Ruby Dobson, had worked their way past all the rest of the field, apart from the leading three.

Curnow dropped back on the way up the Coombesberg; Gerrans was dropped near the top. This left Ross to race to the finish alone.

Dobson and Lay deadheated for 4th (with the money for Fastest Time going to Jake because he turned up at the Mansfield Hotel for presentations) followed by Garrett, Ryder Chadd, Bruce Halket, Jagger and Conrick in 10th.

Many thanks to Mel, Janine, Tricia and Bocky for a safe and well-organised race. Thanks too go to John for standing in as Handicapper while Dave recovers - get well soon Dev!

After the race, we rode out to the ‘Ghost Bike’ on Mt Buller Road, marking the location of Alain’s incident, where we were met by Alain’s wife Coral.

Many thanks to Tony Copland for the pics (except the last one of Coral and Tim, thanks to Leonie McLaughlin) and here are the results.

Next week we turn our attention to the rolling hills of Howes Creek Road - entries via Entry Boss and bribes to the Handicapper on the quiet please!

Still Dot-watching Wayne

By Bruce Halket

As mentioned last week, All Terrain Cycles mechanic Wayne Arazny is riding the 2023 Tassie Gift, an 1800km bike-packing race. He’s currently sitting in 20th position, up from 30th (after the broken forks incident) and is almost half way through.

Use this link to check his progress.

Cup Day Gravel

Seven gravel-equipped roadies hit the dirt roads around Mansfield on Tuesday for a pre-cup trundle. We only got momentarily lost once and there was only one little ‘off’. Otherwise, it was bloody great!

We hope to do more rides like this soon - keep an eye out on the club’s WhatsApp group.

Finally…

An oasis of bike-related news in a media desert.

Many long-time readers of MMBCC Latest News will know that Bruce frequently linked to articles on the Cycling Tips website. The demise of Cycling Tips and the poor state of cycling new media generally has made keeping up to date with all things road and cross country mountain biking more difficult than usual of late.

That is until the discarded staff from Cycling Tips started a website called Escape Collective. It covers lots of different aspects of cycling, not just road racing. They’re currently offering membership of $1 for a month, so you can dip your toes in the water.

Use this link, select the Escape Supporter as the membership option, then type in NOVEMBER in the coupon field at the Checkout. You’ll get the first month for $1.

If you decide it’s not for you, cancel after a month and it’ll only cost you a dollar.

Cup Weekend News

Lots to catch up on this weekend…

(Don’t forget to subscribe to the Latest News!)

Halloween Dirt Crits

By Dave Empey

We had a huge turn out on Tuesday night with 23 riders taking part. Two new tracks were raced; one designed by Zac Empey and the other by his Dad. 

The top five placings were tight with Ant Bateup taking the top spot just ahead of Charlie Dobson, closely followed by Rueben Bateup. (You still have a little breathing space Ant but not a lot.)

Unfortunately for Cam Dobson, Charlie put a few seconds into him and there is probably no returning for Cam in the family bragging rights from now on. 

It was great to see so many new faces, but we had no females which is a big turnaround from the past few years. 

Here are the results.

Many thanks to Adam Baker for donating prizes (new 299 Custom socks!) to the five on the podium and for not scaring too many of the small children in his new, blue, face - something to do with Halloween, apparently.

There will be a break next week due to the Melbourne Cup and the following week it’ll be back to cross country with Damian.

Mt Buller have offered a free shuttle day at Buller prior to the tracks opening on the 25th of November. To participate you MUST be a club member! Watch for details on the club facebook page and the next Latest News email.

Racing on your own

By Steve Curnow

Thursday’s cycle race was a handicapped time trial run over 11 km on Chapel Hill Road from the Jamieson Road turn off to Three Chain Road and return.

There were eight participants who braved the onerous ride. Being on your own and not being allowed to ride behind another rider for a break makes for a true test of a rider's endurance.

The wind dropped off just as the race started which made all the difference for the riders. The first part of the ride is flat going to Wairere Road, then gradual uphill until a very pleasant downhill to Three Chain Road. After the easy down there is the sudden uphill section on the return which wakes up the legs again and then it’s homeward bound.

After the numbers were crunched allowing for handicaps it turned out that Craig Wilson came in fourth, third place went to Adrian Dowd, second to Steve Curnow and congratulations to Micala Jacobs for winning first place.

The fastest time went to Ruby Dobson in 16.42 minutes, Darren Bakker next at 17.59 followed closely by Ant Bateup at 18.05 and Tim Ross at 19.06.

A big thank you to the Commissaires and marshals, and also a big thank you to the courteous drivers who shared the road with us on the night.  

Back at the post-race presentations, Tony Copland was awarded this week’s Mansfield Hotel prize for photographic excellence and below is another group of examples. And here are the detailed results.

Next week is one of the club’s highlights of the summer, the Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap. All members are encouraged to remember our friend, who was taken from us back in 2014, by pushing themselves to near exhaustion, then recovering at the Mansfield afterwards as we raise a glass in tribute. Weather permitting, there’ll also be a post-race ride out to ‘Alain’s bike’ for those inclined.

Dot-watching Wayne

By Bruce Halket

All Terrain Cycles mechanic Wayne Arazny is currently in Tasmania to race the 2023 Tassie Gift - a bike-packing endurance event of 1800km.

After a night at Will C-J’s in Hobart, the race started at 6am on Friday and Wayne was in trouble early - a crash on a steep descent caused a crack in his left fork leg.

But he’s not giving up! He’s been back to Hobart and with thanks to Louis at Silks Bicycle Workshop (where he purchased a 2nd-hand pair of forks) and Kate at Giant Hobart (who has allowed him to use their workshop to fit the forks) he’s been given a lift back out onto the course by Will C-J and he’s back into it today!

He’ll start again a long way back but at least he’s on the move. Go Wayno!

Use this link to check his progress.

Finally…

All members are encouraged to check the road duty roster please. If you’ve raced on the road at all over the last few years, you’re probably on it. We rely on all our volunteers taking their turn at race duty to make sure our races go ahead safely and efficiently. Here’s the link to check the whole season on one page.