Longwood, Rifle Butts and Jamieson - MMBCC News - Sun 15 Feb

Lots to get through this week… take a seat!

Seymour Broadford Cycling Club
LONGWOOD FIRE RELIEF RACE

Next Saturday 21 February the SBCC will host a fundraising handicap road race at Longwood, with entry money being donated to help support those affected by the fires.

It’d be really great if we could get a few MMBCC members across for a pedal and support this worthy cause.

Entries and details via Entry Boss. Here are a few more details on Facebook.

Rider Development Grants

Applications are now open for Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club High Performance Grants and Young Rider Development Grants for 2025-2026. 

These grants provide financial assistance for MMBCC cyclists aged 25 and under.  The  grants are designed to encourage and support the development of young riders at varying levels in their cycling careers. Grants are available to assist with the cost of entry fees, travel, accommodation, equipment or training.

The grants are open to cyclists in any of the club’s cycling disciplines – road, mountain-biking (cross-country, downhill and enduro), cyclocross, gravel or BMX.   

Applications will close on 28th February, 2026.  

1 Young Rider Development Grants - bronze ($250), silver ($500), gold ($1000)

2 High Performance Grant ($2000)

The following criteria must be met by the successful applicants:

• be under 25 years of age by 31st December 2026;

• be a fully paid up member of MMBCC for a minimum of 2 calendar years;

• must complete an application to MMBCC prior to 28th Feb 2026; and

• grant recipients (or a family member) must commit at least one full day of volunteer labour at MMBCC events. High Performance Grant recipients will be expected to report back to members at the 2025/2026 AGM.

The MMBCC Executive Committee assesses applications and may seek advice and input from third-parties (e.g. non committee and other sporting bodies) on an as-needs basis.

The following points are not essential eligibility criteria but will be considered by the committee as part of its assessment process:

• participation and/or results in regional, state, interstate , national and international events;

• selection for state and/or national training/development camps or teams;

• receipt of sponsorships or grants from other organisations/businesses; and 

• planned use of money - e.g. travel reimbursement, accommodation reimbursement, equipment purchase, entry fee etc.

Please email all applications to mmbcc.info@gmail.com

Application closing date: 28th February, 2026.

Successful grants will be announced by 31st March 2026. 

Chris, Ryder and James take the wins

By Bruce Halket

The first Gravity Enduro of 2026 was held last Tuesday on a relatively short course at Rifle Butts. The shorter course allowed time for three separate, timed runs per racer, making the total time about the same as most other weeks.

Chris Williams on his e-bike was fastest overall on the night.

However, fastest on an ‘acoustic’ bike was Ryder Chadd, followed by Cam Dobson, Ben Ross, Cooper Hoebergen and Lucas Bellman completed the podium.

The final results, after handicap calculations, saw James Camileri take the win ahead of Lucas Mennen, Tim Ross, Nicole Hoebergen and Dave Bock.

In the far more important family competitions, Tim wins the Ross Household Trophy for the week ahead of Ben and Alastair, while Nicole takes the equivalent in the Hoebergen Household ahead of Cooper.

After a few weeks collecting handicap data, from now on we’ll see more time ‘penalties’ applied to those who’ve benefitted from the Handicaps thus far, making for more accurate calculations and more even results. Hopefully.

Here are Kate’s very neat and detailed results. Next weeks it’s back to XC.

2026 BakKer Plumbing Handicap

By Simon Mulvihill

The rolling ribbon of road from Jamieson to Kevington, tracing the sparkling bends of the Upper Goulburn River, dished up the perfect backdrop for a proper, old-school handicap cycling showdown for the 2026 Bakker Plumbing Handicap. Smooth tarmac, sneaky rises, and just enough false flat to make you doubt your gearing choices.

Off the Front – 20 Minute Man

Dave Jagger rolled out with a very handy 20-minute start and rode like a bloke who had no intention of giving it back. By the turnaround on the out-and-back course, his buffer had been slashed to just three minutes — the scratch and back markers were in full flight behind him — but Dave kept the cadence high and the panic low. When the charging hordes came into sight, he didn’t fold. He held them off to take a well-earned win.

The Chasers – Splits and Surges

Behind, the big 19-minute bunch absolutely detonated. What began as organised turns through-and-off quickly turned into survival mode as the pace ramped up. Simon M and Adrian Dowd timed their moves perfectly, bridging across the carnage and setting up their podium finishes with strong, measured riding.

Mauro ‘Jock’ Brega was in the thick of it too, doing his best to “hold back the Spanish horses” as the tempo surged. Sadly, with 900 metres to go, mechanical heartbreak, a puncture, ended his charge just as the finish line banners were coming into focus. Brutal timing.

Fastest on the Road

Ryder Chadd, starting off Scratch, went full predator mode. He carved through the field with purpose, mowing down group after group before launching into a cracking sprint finish with Oliver Hall to snatch 6th. Fastest time of the day and serious horsepower on display.

Podium Results:

🥇 Dave Jagger

🥈 Simon Mulvihill

🥉 Adrian Dowd

A ripping handicap battle along the Goulburn; tactics, teamwork, splits, and suffering. The river rolled on peacefully. The legs? Not so much.

Many thanks to Tricia and Darren of Bakker Plumbing for their continued support of the MMBCC.

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

Weekend Results

VIC CHAMP SERIES Rd 5 and Victorian Championships, Eildon, Saturday 14 Feb

Ruby Dobson - 2nd, Elite Women

Ant Bateup - 2nd, E-bike Open

Alastair Ross - 3rd, U13 Men

VIC CHAMP SERIES Rd 6, Buxton, Sunday 15 Feb.

Ruby Dobson - 3rd, Elite Women

Ant Bateup - 2nd, E-bike Open

Ben Ross - 10th, U17 Men

Alastair Ross - 2nd, U13 Men

VDHS Rd 4, Mt Baw Baw, Sunday 15 Feb

Matt Empey - 2nd, Elite Male

Cooper Hoebergen - 17th, U15 Male

Stu Clark - 4th, Veteran Male

Nicole Hoebergen - 1st, Masters Female

Spencer Carman - 17th, U19 Male

CANNONBALL FESTIVAL, Thredbo

RockShox Downhill

Jake Terry - 40th (out of 80 entrants), U19 Men

Ewen Rogan - 21st (out of 108 entrants), U17 Men

Sienna Vivash - 1st, U13 Women

Miles Vivash - 1st, U11 Men

Fox Flow Motion Cup

Shannon Rademaker - 11th, Masters 40+ Men

Jake Terry - 46th, U19 Men

Ewen Rogan - 25th (out of 92 entrants), U17 Men

Sienna Vivash - 1st, U13 Women

Miles Vivash - 1st, U11 Men

Specialized Enduro

Jake Terry - 37th, U19 Men

Sienna Vivash - 1st, U13 Women

Miles Vivash - 1st, U11 Men

25/26 Rider Development Grants

Applications are now open for Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club High Performance Grants and Young Rider Development Grants for 2025-2026. 

These grants provide financial assistance for MMBCC cyclists aged 25 and under.  The  grants are designed to encourage and support the development of young riders at varying levels in their cycling careers. Grants are available to assist with the cost of entry fees, travel, accommodation, equipment or training.

The grants are open to cyclists in any of the club’s cycling disciplines – road, mountain-biking (cross-country, downhill and enduro), cyclocross, gravel or BMX.   

Applications will close on 28th February, 2026.  

1. Young Rider Development Grants - bronze ($250), silver ($500), gold ($1000)

2. High Performance Grant ($2000)

The following criteria must be met by the successful applicants:

• be under 25 years of age by 31st December 2026;

• be a fully paid up member of MMBCC for a minimum of 2 calendar years;

• must complete an application to MMBCC prior to 28th Feb 2026; and

• grant recipients (or a family member) must commit at least one full day of volunteer labour at MMBCC events. High Performance Grant recipients will be expected to report back to members at the 2025/2026 AGM.

The MMBCC Executive Committee assesses applications and may seek advice and input from third-parties (e.g. non -ommittee and other sporting bodies) on an as-needs basis.

The following points are not essential eligibility criteria but will be considered by the committee as part of its assessment process:

• participation and/or results in regional, state, interstate , national and international events;

• selection for state and/or national training/development camps or teams;

• receipt of sponsorships or grants from other organisations/businesses; and 

• planned use of money - e.g. travel reimbursement, accommodation reimbursement, equipment purchase, entry fee etc.

Please email all applications to mmbcc.info@gmail.com

Application closing date: 28th February, 2026

Successful grants will be announced by 31st March 2026. 

Heaps of Juniors & an old bloke from Cairns - MMBCC News - Sat 7 Feb

Junior MTB Series at Blue Range

By Bruce Halket & Tim Ross

What a great morning we’ve just had up at Blue Range! What could possibly be better than a whole heaps of kids having a fun time riding their bikes? The location was perfect; the shade in the pine forest provided a cool, pleasant venue on a hot Mansfield morning.

There were 59 kids racing on the day, a whopping 18 from Mansfield! The most competitive category was the Under 11 Boys with 20 entrants. But the highlight was the Under 7s and 5s.

Misadventure is so often a part of MTB racing and this event was no exception! Hunter Hughes, Angus A and Logan H all had crashes and had to withdraw, thankfully no major injuries. Barry H didn’t let a dropped chain deter him, running his bike 100m to the finish (as is allowed), losing just one place in the process.

A huge thanks to Damian, Cam, Tim and Lucas for designing and building a great track, but especially Damian and Cam who did the bulk of the work! All the feedback has been terrific; it was hard enough to be a challenge but still easy enough to be lots of fun for all.

Many thanks to all the MMBCC members and parents who volunteered. Thanks also to Shannon for the mechanical support and donating the spot prizes which were a real hit.

Great job everyone!

Under 15 Boys

Ben Ross

Jasper Watts

Under 13 Boys

Micah Chadd

Alastair Ross

Hunter Hoebergen

Under 13 Girls

Clementine Aldridge

Under 11 Boys

Oliver Clark

Barry Hempenstall

Jarrah Bateup

Stirling Aldridge

Kai Brophy

Finley Morphett

Hunter Hughes

Angus Adams

Under 9 Boys

Aemon Van Der Heyden

Logan Hughes

Under 7 Boys

Reuben Clark

Here are the details results from My Race Result.

Thanks to Greg Aldridge, Caitlin Riley, Nicole Ross, Dave Bock and Nicole Hoebergen for the pics.

Ruttiman rides away

By Oliver Hall

The Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club held their weekly road race on Thursday evening. It was a longer course of 29km starting at the Botanical Park. The race proceeded out the Mansfield-Whitfield Road for about 13km before turning at Sawpit Gully Road. On the return, the course turned onto Mansfield-Whitfield Rd and then onto the Old Tolmie Road for an uphill finish on ‘The Coombesberg’.

The race was started by David Jagger and John Eisner with riders being released in groups of 2-4. All riders had started after 16 minutes with Bruce Halket and Ryder Chadd off Scratch.

The large group of Steve Duke, Darren Bakker, Simon Hall, Ben Ross and Oliver Hall, who started off 15 minutes, made good ground at the start of the race catching Janine Appleton, Tim Ross and Adrian Dowd before the first turn at Sawpit Gully Road. This group rode together for the return along Mansfield-Whitfield Road before the original 5 riders advanced on the leading groups along the Barwite Road. They then proceeded to catch the remaining front markers apart from Mark Ruttiman before the final climb.

Mark, who had attacked from his group early in the race, maintained his lead to the finish, winning by 40 seconds.

A competitive finish occurred for 2nd and 3rd place. Ben crossed the line second but was unfortunately disqualified, so Oliver finished second and Steve finished third, followed by Simon and Darren. Ryder

It was an excellent evening race, and many thanks go to the MMBCC volunteers and committee for the running and management.

Here are the results and thanks as always to Tony for his photos.

Next week is one of the highlights of the MMBCC Summer Road Race Series, the Bakker Plumbing Handicap at Jamieson.

Ryder is hot! plus more - MMBCC News - Sun 1 Feb

There’s lots happening this week… strap in…

PMBIA Level 1 course - Mt Buller - 25-27 Feb

By Shannon Rademaker

The PMBIA Level 1 Mountain Bike Certification is a perfect place to start your instructor journey and is designed to train instructors how to teach and guide mountain biking.

PMBIA - the gold standard of certification in the global MTB industry. For more information and to book click here.

Dirt Crits is back!

By Damian Grundy

Dirt Crits starts again this Tuesday. However, instead of being held at Rifle Butts MTB Park, this one will be held at Blue Range.

The club has built a new track for the Alpine Cycling Club’s Junior MTB Race which will be held on the same venue next Saturday 7 February.

The first Dirt Crits will be a way to test out the track and bed it in for the following Saturday’s race.

If you need a lift up to Van der Hayden’s property, call Damian on 0411 045 771 and meet at Rifle Butts at 5.30. Otherwise, see you up at Blue Range for a 6pm start!

(Next week Tuesday 10 February will be the first Gravity Handicap of 2026 at Rifle Butts. After that, we alternate XC and DH each week at Rifle Butts till the end of Daylight Savings. See MMBCC Events for more details.)

MTB Nationals volunteers wanted

By Dave Empey

AusCycling are looking for volunteers for the MTB Nationals, which will be held at Mt Buller from 18-22 March.

Click here if you’d like to be involved.

Ryder is hot!

By Steve Duke

Well… everyone was, actually.

With the predicted heat and the humidity that the day brought with it meant there were only 9 riders who turned up for the evening’s sign-on at the race start at Lords Oval last Thursday 29 January. The Commissaires and Marshals for the evening, Tony Copland, Bruce Halket, Mel Green and Steve Curnow along with Tony Morris and Allan Gerrans were keeping an eye on the temperature to make sure that it was safe to race.

Dave Jagger started off Limit after having a break off the bike for a few weeks. It’s always hard being a lone rider.

Next at 3 minutes, also on his own, was Dave Bock, then another 3 minutes was Craig Wilson making up the trio of solo riders.

The next 3 groups had the advantage of having 2 riders together. Darren Bakker and Adrian Dowd of at a further 4 minutes, Steve Duke and Simon Hall at further one minute followed off at another one minute was Bruce Halket and Ryder Chadd. Making a total of 12 minutes from Limit to Scratch for the evening’s hot and torturous ride.

Apart from the heat, the race was relatively uneventful. Other than Simon having a bit of an off in the loose gravel at the turn around. He was super quick to get himself back up onto his bike and quickly regaining his fast pace. Showing his experience and toughness as a rider. Also, for the evening Dave must have had a slow leak in a tyre, that would have definitely hindered his evenings ride, especially when it finally blew out on the ride home from the race finish.

The evening’s results were Ryder first across the line with fastest time followed 2 seconds later by Steve, Darren and Bruce. They were all racing for a bunch finish but the younger legs were the quickest, smartly followed by the eldest. The other two, well… that’s just what happens when you don’t want to write the article! Next closely behind was Simon, then Adrian, Dave, Craig and Dave.

Here are the results.

Thank you to the Commissaires and Marshalls for braving the heat and without whom we would not be able to race and to the team at the Mansfield Hotel for their support.

Next week it’s the Coombesberg!

In the meantime, here are the points so far…

MacDonald does it again - MMBCC News - Sat 24 Jan

Dirt Critters Update

By Luke Vivash (and Damian Grundy)

Entries are now open for the Mansfield round of the ACC Junior MTB Race Series here in Mansfield on the morning of Saturday 7 February. Entries are available by clicking on this link.

The race will be held at 'Blue Range', a private property about 2km south along Rifle Butts Road. We hope that most of our Dirt Critters will choose to participate in the race and show off our local MTB scene to visitors from Bright, Beechworth, etc.

We will need some help on the morning to run the event, mainly for roles like track marshalls, so please let us know if you’re able to help.

In the meantime, there are opportunities for the kids to ride the track over the holidays.  

During January some bike club members will be riding there and Dirt Critters (all ages) are welcome to join them.

To participate, meet at Rifle Butts Reserve at 5pm this Tuesday, and/or 9:30am the next two Sundays… and we'll travel to the new MTB track together.

We should be able to arrange a lift / shuttle for any Dirt Critters who don't have one. Parents should turn up at Rifle Butts and negotiate arrangements/ give permission with either Luke or with Damian Grundy.

I should mention that even on hot days it is significantly cooler at the new MTB track so don't let warm weather put you off!

In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and getting a chance to do some riding.

Two in a row for MacDonald

By Oliver Hall

On Thursday evening the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club held their weekly road race. The course started at the Mansfield Botanic Gardens, riding out the Mansfield-Whitfield Rd before turning at Long Lane. On the return, the course turned onto the Barwite Road, turning at its end, before returning to the Mansfield-Whitfield Rd to conclude the race at the showgrounds. This presented an undulating course, with an uphill sprint finish.

The race started with the handicapper releasing riders predominantly in groups of 2 or 3 riders. John Eisner started first, followed 5 minutes behind by Tim Hall and David Bock. The riders at the rear were Darren Bakker, Simon Hall and Heath Hammond together 12 minutes behind Eisner and Ryder Chadd by himself at 13 minutes.

It was a windy night, with a southerly wind providing a tail wind for the start of the race. This allowed the bunches to make good time, with them slowly coming closer together. This was unfortunate for Ryder who lost ground early on.

After the U-turn at Long Lane, the head wind allowed the front and rear bunches to combine, leaving Janine Appleton and Oliver Hall between them. Shortly after his bunch caught Tim and David B, David MacDonald attacked on his own.

Halfway along Barwite Road, the rear bunch caught Janine and Oliver who joined with them for the remainder of the race. On the return along Barwite Road, this large bunch caught the front bunch, positioning themselves second behind David M. His large lead kept him safe and allowing him to finish first.

Oliver attacked as the bunch started the short climb to the finish, finishing 8 seconds behind David M.

He was followed by Darren B (who got Fastest Time), Simon Hall and Steve Duke.

A big thank you, as always, goes to the MMBCC volunteers and committee for running an excellent race and to Tony for his images.

Here are the results.

Next week it’s Howes Creek Road, hopefully it’s not too hot. And at presentations at the Mansfield Hotel next week, we’ll be looking for volunteers for the Junior MTB race on Saturday 7 February.

Dave wins first race of '26 - MMBCC News - Sun 18 Jan

MacDONALD makes it look easy

By Simon Hall

Last Thursday was the return to road racing for Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club. Driving in to Mansfield presented an interesting weather proposition, a huge storm cell to the east and clear skies to the west. Luckily the course used Howes Creek Road, Cummins Road and O’Hanlon Roads. After a brief delay to the start, riders were provided with pleasant yet windy conditions for racing.

The handicapper sent everyone off in either pairs or singles. John Eisner leading the way a full 20 minutes in front of the loan Scratch rider. Eisner was followed by Tim Hall and David McDonald, then Jarrod Appleton. Heath Hammond missed both his partner who was a late cancellation and somehow his start time. Then came in-form Steve Duke with Simon Hall, Ryder Chad and Bruce Halket and finally Talia Appleton.

On the way to the McMillan Point turn around, McDonald rode away from T Hall and took the lead with Hall and Eisner pairing up. Duke and S Hall picked up Hammond and then the threesome rode well together, collecting Appleton and making good inroads into the leaders.

The biggest factor for this course is the uphill finish that knocks everyone around at the end of the race. This is where the places changed. With a good ride, McDonald was safe by a couple of minutes, followed by S Hall and then Duke.

Chadd, Halket and Appleton all finished at the back in their starting order, Talia taking fastest time by just 3 seconds!

Thanks goes to the MMBCC committee and volunteers to keep such good racing going. And to Tony Copland for his weekly images.

Here are the results.

Next week it’s the new-ish Whitfield / Barwite Road course, finishing at the Showgrounds.

Weekend results

VDHS, Mt Beauty

Stu Clark - 4th, Veteran Men.

Cooper Hoebergen - 14th, U15 Men.

Jake Terry - 17th, U19 Men.

Ewan Rogan - 42nd, U17 Men.

Here are the detailed results.

Blue Range XC track

A quick reminder about the new XC course in the pines at the top of the hill, at The Vanderhaydens Property “Blue Range”  206 Rifle Butts Road for our hosting of the Alpine Junior MTB Series XC race on Saturday 7 February.

Twice weekly, Tuesdays at 5pm and Sunday mornings at 9.30am, come on up and help us bed the track in. Depending on numbers and interest we may run some impromptu races as well.

If you are looking for a lift up please shoot me a message (Damian 0411 045 771) to give me a heads up.

Be great to see people up there, if you are between the age of 4 and 15 then there will be a race for you on February 7th so come on up and have a look at the track.

In Summary:

Tuesday 20 January – 5pm

Sunday 25 January – 9.30am

Tuesday 27 January – 5pm

Sunday 1 February – 9.30am

Tuesday 3 February – 5pm: the first Dirt Crits XC race for 2026

New Year News - MMBCC News - Mon 5 Jan

Happy New Year to you all and all the best for 2026.

New mtb course at ‘South’ Blue Range

By Damian Grundy

A quick update on progress for our hosting of the Alpine Junior MTB Series XC race.

The race date is Saturday 7 February.

The venue is at The Vanderhaydens Property “Blue Range”  206 Rifle Butts Road. This is the same venue as the VDHS race early last year.

We have established an XC course in the pines at the top of the hill. It’s a fun little track, typical pine forest trails, so quite different to the trails in the MTB Park! But we need to bed the course in and possibly tweak it a little as we get closer to the race.

To this end, during January, we will be doing some regular riding up at the venue.

Starting this Tuesday and twice weekly, Tuesdays at 5pm and Sunday mornings at 9.30am, come on up and help us out… get some fitness happening. Depending on numbers and interest we may run some impromptu races as well.

Given the venue’s location (it is a bit of a climb to get up there) we will offer a shuttle service with pick up at the Rifle Butts mountain bike park 30min before each ride. If you are looking for a lift up please shoot me a message (Damian 0411 045 771) to give me a heads up. It’d be great to see people up there!

If you’re between 4 and 15 years old, there will be a race for you on Saturday 7 February. So come on up and do some reconnaissance.

There are quite a few opportunities for involvement for all club members and it’ll be great to see you there; if not for all of the rides at least a couple of times 😊.

In Summary:

Tuesday 6 January – 5pm

Sunday 11 January – 9.30am

Tuesday 13 January – 5pm

Sunday 18 January – 9.30am

Tuesday 20 January – 5pm

Sunday 25 January – 9.30am

Tuesday 27 January – 5pm

Sunday 1 February – 9.30am

Tuesday 3 February – 5pm: the first Dirt Crits XC race for 2026

What’s Talia up to?

By Jarrod Appleton

Talia has been training really hard for the Australian Road Nationals. Lots of time on the bike combined with heat training. Heat training entails either 45 minutes on the stationary bike in the laundry with a heater raising the temperature to 40+ degrees or 45 minutes in a sauna at 70 degrees. She departs this Wednesday for Perth and will be racing the criterium at 5:30pm Friday and the road race on Sunday at 1:30pm. Both races are live on SBS. It will be her first outing in the Liv Alula Jayco kit.

After Nationals Talia returns to Mansfield from Perth for more training. Unfortunately due to the new UCI rules she will not race the Tour Down Under or Cadels Race this year. Under the new 2026 rules, riders registered to Continental level teams can no longer do World Tour level races. The Liv Alula Development Team that Talia is racing with this year is a Continental team. It's a real shame for the Australian racing scene. The top Australian domestic teams can no longer be invited to the TDU or Cadels.

However Talia is racing one more time in Australia at the Surf Coast Classic https://www.cadelevansgreatoceanroadrace.com.au/womens-surf-coast-classic/overview/ at the end of January, before flying to Europe on the 2nd of February. She has rented an apartment in Girona sharing it with two young female Canadian riders.

Talia has her race calendar until the end of June and she's very happy with it. The team has prioritised stage races with climbing in southern Europe rather than flat races in the north. And excitingly her first two races in February she has been invited to join the World Tour Team for https://setmanaciclista.com/ and https://clasicadealmeria.net/2018/ . Setmana Ciclista Valenciana is a four stage race in Spain categorised as 2.Pro so both WWT and Conti riders can compete. It attracts the big hitters who are not interested in the World Tour races in the middle east in February. Last year Demi Vollering won beating Kasia Niewiadoma and Elisa Longoborgini. So hopefully Talia gets to race these legends again (she raced them in the Tour de Suisse in 2024). These races can be viewed with a Staylive subscription https://app.staylive.io/cycling/en/.

Upcoming Events

Thu 15 Jan - MMBCC Handicap Howes Creek Road (O’Hanlon’s finish) - the first race for 2026 finishes on everyone’s favourite hill (insert your favourite eye roll emoji here). Enter here by 8pm Wed 14 Jan.
Marshals are: Steve Brown, Steve Curnow and Simon Hall. Commissaires: Janine Appleton and Tim Ross.

Wed 7 Jan–Sun 11 Jan - Road National Champs, Perth, WA.

Fri 16 Jan–Sun 25 Jan - Tour Down Under, Adelaide, SA.

Wed 28 Jan–Sun 1 Feb - Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Geelong, Vic.

Tue 3 Feb - First MMBCC Dirt Crits XC of 2026, South Blue Range, Mansfield.

Sat 7 Feb - Alpine Junior MTB Series by All Terrain Cycles, round 5, South Blue Range, Mansfield.

Tue 10 Feb - First MMBCC Gravity Dirt Crits of 2026, venue to be confirmed.

Sat 14 Mar - VDHS, round 6 - South Blue Range. MMBCC hosting the final round of the Victorian Downhill Series.

Thu 18 Mar–Sun 22 Mar - GWM MTB National Championships, Mt Buller.

Steve, Andy and LDO - MMBCC News - Sun 14 Dec

Weekend results

Seymour Broadford CC Handicap, Northwood Road out and back, 43km, Saturday 13 Dec.

Steve Duke: 1st! Click on the SBCC Facebook post for more details. Well done Stevie!!

AusCycling XC MTB National Series, Rounds 3 and 4, Harcourt

Round 3, Saturday.

Ruby Dobson: 5th, Elite Women. (Punctured half way through the first lap and had to run to the pits for repairs - so great result considering…)

Ben Ross: 10th, U17 Men.

Round 4, Sunday.

Ruby Dobson: 4th, Elite Women.

Ben Ross: 11th, U17 Men.

Alpine Cycling Club Junior MTB Race Series, Enduro at Nail Can Hill, Albury.

Angus A, Hunter & Logan H, Jarrah B all competed. Jarrah 3rd in U11 Boys.

Well done all!

Garrett too good

By Carl Simmons

Twenty-one riders lined up for the final handicap race of 2025 in near-perfect conditions on the out-and-back course along Merinda Way. The revised route, altered by recent roadworks, sent the field twice along the same stretch, setting the scene for an aggressive and tactical evening of racing.

With a 15 minute 30 second spread from Limit to Scratch, newcomer Jarrrah O’Brien was first to roll off, followed closely by the club’s savvy handicapper, David Jagger, who had traded the calculator for a race number.

Chasing groups wasted no time; Tim Ross, Jarrod Appleton and Adrian Dowd drove hard from the start as they tried to bridge across to the early leaders. However, Jarrod punctured 2km into the race making it hard work for Adrian and Tim. At least he had a good view of the rest of the race!

With an elevation gain of 240m in the 22km meant that the group of Janine Appleton, Steve Curnow, Simon Mulvihill and Craig Wilson had to work hard to bridge across to the early markers.

Scratch markers, Carl Simmons and the inform Andrew Garrett, settled into their work to begin their long task of reeling in the outmarkers. By the 10 km turn they had swept up the ‘Block riders, with Ryder Chadd and Bruce Halket joining forces so the combined quartet could put their heads down and carve into the remaining gap.

At the halfway mark Steve Duke was prominent, showing off his share of the pace on a new bike sourced from local Mansfield great Simon Gerrans earlier in the week. The group of Steve Duke, Simon Hall, Ben Ross and Seymour rider, Cristy Rilen, were looking the goods at the half way mark.

It was at the final turnaround, when the bunches finally merged, that the race tightened and promised a dramatic run to the finish.

Sensing his opportunity, with 5km to the finish Garrett launched a solo attack, committing fully to a long-range effort to the line. Chadd and Halket threw everything into the chase in a bid to drag the Scratch riders back, but Garrett’s strong form all season was on display as he held off the late charge to take the win and fastest time.

Fellow ‘Scratchie’ Simmons crossed just behind for second, followed by Halket, Duke, Chadd, Ben Ross, Hall, Tim Ross, Janine Appleton and Simon Mulvihill rounded out the top ten.

Handicapper Jagger could claim success as well, with the entire field finishing within two minutes, underlining how even the Xmas Handicap was. Here are the results. And thanks for the pics John.

Many thanks to all our marshals and officials - see you on Thursday 15 January for the resumption of the 25/26 Summer Road Race Series.

MMBCC Xmas Party

6pm, Friday 19 December in the courtyard of the Mansfield Hotel.

Club will provide food for all members.

RSVP via MMBCC WhatsApp feed.

Locals Day Out is back for summer

Things are all go for Mt Buller, with Bus Fleet running shuttles in the gravity zone from Mirimbah every Friday to Monday until 27 Dec.  From then they’ll be operating services from Mansfield, with pickups in Mirimbah according to our locals day out timetable, below.

MMBCC members get half price transfers on the Explorer Shuttle services 8.30am from Mansfield up to Mt Buller and 5.30pm back to Mansfield.

Santa, Elliot, Wil and Talia - MMBCC News - Sun 7 Dec

What! You’ve haven’t subscribed to MMBCC News on the website? Shrug emoji.

MMBCC Xmas PartIES

The ‘formal’ one; from 6pm, Friday 19 December in the courtyard of the Mansfield Hotel. Club will provide food for all members.

Please RSVP via the MMBCC WhatsApp feed by Wednesday 17 December.

The much less formal one: this coming Tuesday XC Dirt Crits will be held at the Mansfield Botanic Park. Rego from 5.45 for a grass-track race, followed by some novelty events, then by a sausage sizzle.

All club members welcome but especially those Gravity racers that don’t usually come to XC nights.

Elliot takes the win

By Kate Stonnill

Last Tuesday saw another great turnout for Dirt Crits; 21 riders headed up the hill to tackle the track set by Cam Dobson.

Stand-in starter Matt Empey sent the riders off from the top, with 30 second splits.

At the end of the two runs the comradery was evident with a big cheer for Elliott Leatham who rose to the top step of the podium after handicap calculations were completed.

In second was James Camileri, 3rd Blake Riley, 4th Cam Dobson and equal 5th Ryder Chadd and Alastair Ross.

Great to see Scarlet D'Arcy return so Nicole was not the only female.

Newcomer Osten Cook showed he has some good speed and may be one to watch.

All riders obviously dug deep to better their time with their second run. Fastest combined time was from Ryder Chadd, followed by Archie Smith, Ben Ross, Blake Riley 4th and Cam Dobson coming in 5th fastest.

Here are the results and thanks to Tim Ross and Ben Ross for the photos across all of Tuesday’s Dirt Crits and Dirt Critters.

Final cross country of the year next week.

Rob Curtis Memorial Handicap

By Tim Hall

It is worth while remembering our friends, and those taken too soon. Rob Curtis passed away on Dec 27th 2018, following a battle with Leukemia. Rob was a champion of winter sports and a great cyclist, particularly on the hills around Tolmie.

The Rob Curtis Memorial Handicap was held last week. One of the longer rides on the program, we raced from the Botanic Park out to Rob’s driveway on the Whitfield Road and back again, finishing on the uphill pitch to the showgrounds, completing 31km on a hot afternoon.

Leading the way off Limit were Craig Wilson, David Bock, Tim Hall and Steve Curnow. At 6 minutes, what looked like a strong team of Heath Hammond, Simon Hall, Simon Mulvihill and Adrian Dowd. Mulvihill was back on the bike after an enforced break due to injury. Steve Duke and Mauro Brega chasing them at 7 minutes. Then Bruce Halket, on his own at 9 minutes, but having to cope with a timing mixup that almost saw him sent off early. (Nice try Bruce…) Finally, Scratch rider Andrew Garrett at 10 minutes.

The limit group quickly got themselves organised, taking turns and trying to keep the pace steady but not too ‘hot’. It’s a long race and consistency is the key.

Behind them, the second group had imploded before Long Lane with Mulvihill dropped early, feeling the effects of that injury, and Dowd struggling. Brega was also feeling the heat and the pace, affected by fatigue after a run of master’s competitions and not fully recovered. Duke leaving Brega to chase down the next group.

On the way back in, the chasing group had resolved into a group of 5, with Duke, Simon Hall, Halket, Garrett and Hammond all pushing the pace along.

Meanwhile, the front group was working hard on the run back into town, fearfully looking over their shoulders for the chasing group but hopeful of holding them off.

Wilson launching himself off the downhill run past Buller Freight, lightweights Curnow and Bock struggling to hold his wheel, but Tim Hall managing to catch a lift. Still swapping turns, Hall and Wilson powering to the Mt Battery Road corner and Wilson up the incline to the finish, desperate for the win (second place gets the pleasure of writing the report…).

Wilson has won both the memorial handicaps this year – well done! The chasing group were in within seconds after this, breathing down their necks.

Thanks as always to the marshals and officials. Here are the results and thanks for the pics Tony.

Next week is the Xmas Handicap on a modified loop around Merinda Way due to the roadworks.

Vale Rob Curtis.

Tour of Bright

Congratulations to Talia Appleton who rode to second place overall in Women’s A-grade at the Tour of Bright on the weekend. The only one who could beat her was experienced World Tour pro Brodie Chapman.

Here are the results.

Matt, Ben and Will - MMBCC News - Sun 30 Nov

Last weekend at Mt Major

Just after we hit publish last weekend, news came through that Matt Empey won the Elite Men category at round 2 of the Victorian Down Hill Series at Mt. Major at Dookie, near Shepparton.

He is now leading the VDHS!

He broke his bike during practice then he and coach/mechanic/Dad Dave couldn’t fix it on Saturday night. So Elise lent him her Atherton bike. No confirmation yet on whether this means he automatically gets a spot on the Atherton World Cup Team.

(Imagine how good these two could ride if they used shoes!)

In other results Spencer Carmen finished 20th in the very competitive U19 Men and Stu Clark finished 3rd in Veteran Men.

Here are the results.

different grundy wins irish handicap

By Kate Stonnill

Senior Dirt Crits went ahead last Tuesday night despite many riders’ unavailability due to end-of-year commitments.

Damian set the course and passed the baton to son Ben to set out the arrows. Thanks to Ben and also Spencer who assisted.

Nine riders lined up for an Irish Handicap set by Damian. Bruce was first off after his warm up, getting to the race with only a couple of minutes to catch his breath. Ben Ross followed soon after and the race for speed was on, as they were the only two riders chasing five laps.

Next up was Dave Bock, Steve Curnow, then 30 seconds later Luke Vivash, Ben Grundy and newcomer Jasper Watts, all on 3 laps. Then we had a bit of a wait for Lucas Mennen and Micah Chadd to set off on their 2 laps.

The racing was close with Ben breaking away from Bruce on their third lap; Bruce’s elbows weren’t wide enough to keep Ben behind him forever.

First rider in was Ben Grundy who felt advantaged but deserved the win.

Second was Luke Vivash whose fitness is returning, third Micah Chadd, Dave Bock 4th, in 5th was Lucas Mennen (who has shown improved fitness and skill). Then came Steve Curnow 6th, Ben Ross 7th, Bruce Halket 8th and Jasper Watts 9th. 

Here are the results.

Next week it’s another Gravity Handicap at Rifle Butts.

Will wins in Jamieson

By Dave Bock

The twenty eight kilometre Jamieson course is one of the favourites of many Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club roadies. Twenty two riders gathered in Jamieson, to compete out along the Woods Point Road to the end of the bitumen and back.

A big MMBCC welcome to first time racer Will Rooks and to a gaggle of semi-regular Eastern Cycling Club visitors for the night - Craig Oliver, Dale Walton, Dean Tune and Craig Standard.

First out, solo, was Jarrah O’Brien, with a three minute head start on Dave Jagger, and double that on the trio, Dave Bock, Tim Hall and Will Rooks.

Janine Appleton, Steve Curnow, Mark Ruttiman and Craig Wilson started their chase along the picturesque Goulburn River Valley, nine minutes after the start, and Jarrod Appleton and Adrian Dowd, another two minutes later. The biggest group comprising Steve Duke, Heath Hammond, Tim Ross, Dean Tune and Craig Oliver was started at fourteen and a half minutes.

The Block group, Simon Hall, Ben Ross, and Oliver Hall, set out at 16 minutes. The three Scratch riders, Dale Walton, Craig Stannard and Ryder Chadd, the last to start, had a full seventeen and a half minute gap to overcome, if they were to overtake Jarrah, the first to start.

“What kept you?” was the greeting Dave, Tim and Will received from Dave Jagger, as they gathered him up south of Kevington. They passed Jarrah just after the turnaround but the next steep pinch showed the superior legs of Will Rooks, who was told to go for gold, while Tim eased off to stay with the two Dave’s.

Will would not be caught, crossing the finish line three minutes clear of Bocky, Tim H and Dave Jagger.

Only 52 seconds elapsed before a big bunch finish, of Dean, Jarrod, Adrian, Heath, Craig O, Mark, Steve Duke, Janine, Craig W and Tim Ross, with Steve Curnow only spitting distance, 12 seconds, behind.

Ryder Chadd (who claimed fastest time of 47.06) came in with Ben with Craig S, 32 seconds later. Oliver and Simon came in together, followed by Jarrah, then Dale.

Here are the results. Next week it’s the Rob Curtis Memorial Handicap on the Whitfield Road.

Weekend Results

ATC Alpine CC Junior MTB Series Round 3 - Yackandandah

Riders - Ollie, Rueben & Emelia Clark, Stirling & Clementine Aldridge, Logan Hughes, Jarrah Bateup, Willem Morphett

No podiums but apparently the kids all had a ball.

Vic Champ Series Rounds 3 and 4 - Haunted Hills MTB Park, near Moe.

Ruby Dobson (Elite Women) - 2nd Sat, 1st Sun.

Ryder Chadd (U19 Men) - 4th Sat , 4th Sun.

Micah Chadd (U15 Men) - Only raced Sunday, 2nd in his first series race.

Ben Ross (U17 Men) - 7th Sat, 6th Sun.

Alastair Ross (U13 Men) - 4th Sat, 2nd Sun.

No shows - Grundy, Halket.

Tough, muddy conditions for all competitors, especially on Saturday, with intermittent showers on both days. Here are the results.

Vic DH Championships - Kinglake

Mud!

Cooper Hoebergen - 14th in U13 Men.

Blake Riley - 26th in U15 Men.

Spencer Carmen - 15th U19 Men.

Matt Empey - 3rd Elite Men.

Here are the full results.

Good riding everyone!!

Downhillers are just like roadies - MMBCC News - Sun 23 Nov

… now they get handicap races too! More on that later, but first…

Round 2 of ATC Junior MTB Series - Bright

By Tim Ross

A crew from Mansfield journeyed to Bright on Saturday for Round 2 of the ACC Junior MTB series. On a largely flat XC course, times were fast!

Congratulations to Dirt Critters Logan H in his first race, along with Angus A & Willem M. Former Dirt Critters Ben & Alastair rounded out the Mansfield contingent with Ben winning the U15 category.

The next race in the series is at Yackandandah in two weeks time (Sat 29/11); details will be posted as soon as entries are open.

Mansfield will be hosting Round 5 of the series in early February.

South Blue Range track taking shape

Speaking of early February, the track the club plans to use is taking shape. Most of the Junior MTB ‘committee’ have spent the last two Sundays raking and digging the new circuit.

Taking in some of the old Enduro track plus LOTS of new single track, it should be ready to ride soon!

Gravity Enduro with handicapping

By Dave Empey

We had a big field of 20 riders turn out for the on-again, off-again Gravity Enduro. Bruce was putting into place the new handicapping system which, might I say, is working better than his left knee.

Racing was tight with three riders on the same time, to the second; newcomer Dale Larner, Luke Vivash and Ben Ross all 5.59 accumulated time with Ben Ross posting the same time for each lap.

Fastest time of the night went to Ryder Chadd posting a second lap time of 2.38.

Final placings after the handicapping was calculated saw Steve Curnow take the top step on the podium followed by Ben Grundy in second place and Nicole Hoebergen in 3rd place. Here are the results.

Gerry of the night goes to Spencer Carmen with a complete ‘over-the-bars’ out of the start gate and winding himself to boot. To be fair to, Spencer his front chain ring failed, causing all the watts going through the cranks to drive him over the bars and into the ground. He did manage to complete a chainless run and end the night on a high.

Well done all!

Ruttiman rides away!

By Dave Bock

Steve Curnow, Dave Bock, and new to MMBCC Thursday races, Jarrah O’Brien, lined up on Malcolm St, opposite the Lords Ground. Beginning their quest to chase down John Eisner and Dave Jagger, two and a half minutes ahead of them, on their way to Howes Creek Road, the trio made a determined start.

But they were mindful there was fourteen stronger riders trying to do the same to them; and of the stiff headwind they would be facing after turning left into Howes Creek Road until the turnaround point at the end of the bitumen.

Struggling with bike issues, Jarrah found the pace too hot and fell behind.

Three kilometres before the turnaround, with John and Dave in sight, and concentrating on the slowly diminishing gap, Bocky was startled to hear Steve talking to another rider! Mark Ruttiman had ridden away from his fellow 4-minute mark starters, Ben Grundy and another first time MMBCC racer, Fergus Schier, and was getting his breath back for another charge.

Not far after the turnaround, the charge came; Mark flew past Eisner and Jagger just as Steve and Bocky joined them. Even with what was now a tail wind, the four together could not reduce Mark’s lead and the four soon fractured into individual efforts.

Mark persevered to take a convincing win. Crossing the line next was Bocky, then Steve. Dave Jagger finished fourth a little before John, who had the bulk of the field breathing down his neck.

Ryder Chadd crossed with Carl Simmons, who picked up the fastest time prize for the night.

Less than 10 seconds in arrears were Andy Garrett, Bruce Halket, Ben Ross and Jarrod Appleton ,just ahead of Adrian Dowd and Janine Appleton. The final six, Fergus, Simon, Tim, Ben, Jock and Jarrah, trickled in over the next couple of minutes.

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

Next week it’s the club’s first visit to Jamieson for the season.

Travelling with your bike?

Tony Morris has some car roof racks and a really good quality travel case for sale. Check the For Sale section here.

Scarlett and Wil - MMBCC News - Sat 15 Nov

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 😊!

Here are the results.

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!

MMBCC News - Sun 9 Nov - TIME: 'Trial' and 'to order club kit'

Alpine Cycling Club Junior Series

By Tim Ross and Luke Vivash

Time for me to encourage (hassle?) you all to be a part of the Alpine Cycling Club Junior MTB race series.

The next race is in Bright on Saturday week (Sat 15th November).

Lots of reasons to get involved, including:

• This is a really easy-going and relaxed race series, with the emphasis on participation. There is no better way to give your kids a taste of MTB racing;

• The series caters for the full range of kids, from U5 thru to 15+ with the biggest participation in the U9, U11 and U13 categories;

• Bright is quite a nice place to spend a Saturday morning; and

• Racing now starts a bit later (from 9:30am onward) meaning not such an early start for Mansfield people.

Details about the series can be found here and details and registrations for Bright here.

Contact us at Dirt Crits on Tuesday, or email us for more details.

A reminder that Mansfield will be staging a race in this series in early February; we look forward to hosting riders from across the North-East then.

Time Trial, the Race of Truth

By Beau Geste

Last Thursday, 6th November, under an overcast sky and prevailing nor’easter 15 riders faced the ultimate challenge in cycling… “The Time Trial”. No assistance, no drafting, just rider and machine against the clock.

Chapel Hill Road was the venue, with riders travelling 11km alongside lush green pasture, contrasting poetically with content Angus cattle.

First to leave, and predicted to be fastest, was Andy Garret (the speedster from “over the hill”) followed by Bruce “from the bike shop” Halket and then, the aptly named Ryder Chadd. Ryder will need to watch his form closely as he was joined in this race for the first time by his younger brother Micah.

Andy completed the course in the fastest time of the evening at 16 minutes and 10 seconds, however when times were adjusted for handicaps, the extended podium was as follows. John Eisner 5th, Steven Duke 4th, Mark Ruttiman 3rd, Wil Wilson 2nd and first place was “secured” with a spectacular ride by David Bock.

Welcome to Micah at his first road race and we hope we will see more of the “grandparent” cheer squad.

Thanks to all the volunteers and Commissaires on the night. Here are the results and many thanks to Tony for his images.

Next week will be the Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap. The Memorial is a signature race for the club and we are hoping for a large turnout.

As always presentations and rehydration was at The Mansfield, proud club sponsor.

Club kit

By Bruce Halket

An admin error at Ventou means the Club Kit Portal is still open for purchases. It was meant to have closed but it will close this Monday night.

However, so far there aren’t enough pieces to meet the minimum requirements for production.

A few people have mentioned wanting some club kit, or updating their current old stuff. (We’re all still looking at you John!) Now is the time…

Email Bruce for the code, then click here to see and order the kit.

Vic Champ Series Rounds 1 and 2

By Bruce Halket

Five MMBCC members headed to Avoca on the weekend for rounds one and two of the Victorian XC Championship Series. Now in its 10th year, the series is a tough but fun series for those who don’t mind using their own power to get up hills.

Round 1 on Saturday saw Alistair Ross, Ryder Chadd and Ruby Dobson all finish 2nd in their respective classes. Ben Ross had a mechanical and had to withdraw after 3 of 4 laps.

Round 2 on Sunday was run in the opposite direction on a longer lap and our three podiums placegetters from Saturday repeated their results.

Ben and Bruce both finished strongly but didn’t bring home any chocolates.

The only serious negative to the weekend was Ruby’s Subaru breaking down on her way home.

The next two rounds are at the end of the month at Haunted HIlls MTB Park near Moe.

Finally…

Club road photographer Tony Copland sent Andy Garrett his photo after the ITT on Thursday. Andy then sent it to a mate, who promptly sent the following after running the pic through ChatGPT!

MMBCC News - Sun 2 Nov - Wins for Alistair & Heath

"When my legs hurt, I say: 'Shut up legs! Do what I tell you to do!'" – Jens Voigt

Great Handicapping!

By Damian Grundy

Every so often the handicapper gets it right. And this was one of those nights. With less than a 2 min gap from 1st to 5th everyone in attendance emphatically agreed that the true winner on the night was indeed the handicapper (yours truly 😊)

What a fantastic season we are going to have. It’s fair to say that family pride is going to be a dominant feature of the racing this year. Three Ross’, two Chadds, two Hoebergens… there is definitely much interest not only in the overall placings but there is a high level of fierce intra-family rivalry.

As mentioned, the racing came together at the end for a very close overall battle.

Young Alastair Ross took overall honours in a hard-ridden and well-deserved win. And also taking out family honours for the night.

Spencer Carmen was 2nd and Micah Chadd held off brother Ryder (4th) by 5 seconds for 3rd overall. Ryder had metaphorically ‘come-from-the-clouds’, overtaking Ben Ross in the final few corners. So Ben Ross was 5th.

First female on the night was Nicole Hoebergen who finished just off the podium in 6th.

Tim Ross had a very serious race focus for the night and whilst he was beaten by both sons he achieved a very noteworthy performance of being 3rd fastest rider on course for the night behind Ryder Chadd (fastest) and Ben Ross (2nd fastest).

Here are the results.

Congratulations to all and a special thanks to Ben Ross for marking out the course, Kate Stonnill for the assistance with results and Ryder for picking up the arrows after the race.

Heath’s first ever win.

By Steve Duke (with a little help from Judi)

Fifteen riders lined up for this week’s race. The weather was a big improvement on last week, sunny and warm making for comfortable riding.

First off for limit was John Eisner, shortly followed by Craig Wilson, both starting out solo. Next was the duo of Adrian Dowd and, starting his first race for the season, Jarrod Appleton. They only had a 2 and half minute lead on the biggest group for the evening - Heath Hammond, Steve Duke, Tim Ross, Ben Ross and Mark Ruttiman. It was Mark’s first race with MMBCC recently moving to the area and returning from a 5-year pause from racing.

A further 2 and a half minutes behind were the trio of Darren Bakker, Ryder Chadd and Simon Hall.

Starting in Scratch was Bruce Halket, the ever-reliable Andy Garrett and we welcomed visiting rider Alan Adams, fresh from his recent Age Group win in the Worlds Gran Fondo. Bruce was showing no ill affect from his mishap at Seymour Gravelista, where he raced in the horrid conditions and was the clubs only representative. He was sporting a nice new helmet though.

Early in the race Mark had a dropped chain and was dropped from the other four riders who knew they had to keep up the pace if they were going to keep away from Alan. He continued on with a solid solo ride and we look forward to seeing Mark back again knowing he will be a strong addition to our regular club races.

By the turn around at Long Lane, Craig had made steady progress to the front of the race. The stretch along Barwite Road, as usual, saw plenty of changes in race positions. Bruce being distanced and eventually joining Darren, Ryder and Simon.

Steve’s group caught Adrian and Jarrod and although making great time on everyone else, Andy and Alan were briefly stopped by traffic. It was at this point in the race that Andy told Alan to go for it, knowing that it was his only chance of catching the front riders.

Up the Coombesberg young Ben began the first of numerous break away attempts. Only to be caught each time. He may have an age and weight advantage on his elders but he is yet to be able to keep this on the downhill sections. (Note to you all Alan was clocked going 34 to 36 km/h UP the rise!)

With the final Graves Road section saw the riders making every effort to either maintain position or catch those out in front.

It was a great finish and I am sure that all enjoyed the evening race.

Final placings over the line were Heath, Steve, Ben, Alan, Jarrod (same time). Tim +0.11, Craig +0.44, Andy +0.32, Ryder +0.01, Bruce +0.03, Darren, Simon +2.25, Mark +1.30 and John +0.32. Heath travels down to Mansfield each week from Benalla - congratulations to him for his first ever win in a bike race. We're really pleased your maiden win is with the MMBCC.

Thank you to the handicapper, race marshals, commissaire and Tony, our official club photographer. Here are the results.

Next week it’s the Race of Truth, an Individual Time Trial on Chapel Hill Road.

MMBCC News - Sun 26 Oct - A simple breeze

The last uncomplicated Gravity Enduro for a while

By Bruce Halket

Fourteen keen mountain bikers were on the start line at Rifle Butts Reserve for the second Gravity round of the summer Dirt Crits series.

Winner of both Dirt Crits rounds so far this season (and the road race last week too!) Ryder Chadd looked the likely favourite. But Spencer Carmen kept him honest, finishing only 27 seconds down overall.

Rounding out the extended podium was cross-country racer turning downhill threat Ben Ross, Dirt Critters Meister Luke Vivash (still got the kids covered… for the moment) and Mansfield’s latest successful trail builder, Blake Riley.

And a shout out to Jess who didn’t start the second run after finding herself navigationally challenged during the first. See you next time Jess!

This might have been the last time Ryder will have it so easy though, as from the next Gravity Enduro we’ll be introducing handicapping. Calculations are based on the first two rounds and should give many more a serious chance of a spot on the podium.

Here are the results and thanks to Tim Ross sacrificing his obvious chances of a win to take photos.

Next week is the second XC round of the season.

The tale of the Howes Creek Zephyr

By Baron von Sarous

A perfect evening greeted 11 riders at Lord’s Ground last Thursday for the MMBCC’s 25 km dash to Howes Creek and back — a course known for its rolling terrain and that ever-cheerful Howes Creek Zephyr, which somehow manages to be a headwind in both directions.

The Limit pair, Eisner and Jagger, set off first with a 14-minute advantage, followed by Dowd, Wilson, Curnow, and Appleton at eight minutes. The middle group — Chadd, Hall, Hammond, and Bakker — left at 4.30 minutes, while Simmons and Garrett in Scratch had the hard chase from the back.

The bunches quickly strung out along the route as the wind and hills took their toll. Hammond dropped from his group after strong early work, while Appleton and Curnow fought bravely before losing contact.

At the turn around, the group of Chadd, Hall and Bakker, knew they were a big chance for the win if they could hold it together and keep the pace up.

Meanwhile, the Scratch duo were flying, averaging around 40 km/h, slicing steadily through the field.

By the last of the climbs, Hall, Chadd, and Bakker caught the front-runners and the race was on.

With 400 m to go, Ryder Chadd launched his sprint early, to claim victory, with Bakker and Hall sprinting it out for second and third respectively.

Then came the Scratchies, right on their tail! Carl Simmons took fastest time at 51:01, just ahead of Garrett.

A tough but terrific night’s racing — big thanks to the volunteers, marshals, and the legendary Howes Creek Zephyr for keeping everyone honest!

Also a big thankyou to Simon, Heath, Andy and Carl for travelling to Mansfield to race. It makes a big difference to our club.

Here are the results and thanks again to Tony Copland for making us all look good.

Next week is a handicap road race along the Whitfield and around the Barwite Loop, starting at the Botanic Park and finishing on Graves Road.

MMBCC News - Sun 19 Oct - Events Everywhere!

Lots of events to let you know about this week, local and further afield. We’ll start with the local ones…

Hopwood and the Coombesberg make the difference

By Ben Ross

Thursday night's Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club handicap race was the Barwite Loop.

It was a small field of ten riders with the first person to start being Dave Jagger, three minutes ahead of Adrian Dowd and Tim Hall. Starting two minutes after that was Ben and Tim Ross followed by the ‘Block group of Ryder Chadd, Simon Hall, Steve Duke and Andy Garrett, with Josh Hopwood insisting that he go by himself off Scratch.

The dreaded Coombesberg climb claimed Jagger and Hall and only Dowd managing to hold on to the Rosses as they steamed past.

Meanwhile Hopwood had caught the ‘Block group with Chadd and Garrett holding on.

The Rosses and Dowd were preparing for the finish but at the last corner were caught by Hopwood and Garrett. It was a slow sprint up the hill with Josh Hopwood taking first, Ben taking another win for the Rosses in second and Adrian Dowd rounding out the podium in third (followed by Andy Garrett and Tim Ross in fourth and fifth respectively).

Hopwood claimed fastest time in 30.52 for the 21km around the loop, an average of 39.7km/h, doing the first half on his own!

Here are the results and many thanks to both Alex and Tony for their images.

Thank you to the volunteers who helped make our racing possible.

Next week’s race is Howes Creek Road; entries close at 8pm Wednesday.

Dirt crits Two-way time trial

By Kate Stonnill

The first XC Dirt Crits returned for the season under the direction of Cam Dobson in Damian’s absence.

The course was set by Cam and to avoid any misadventures by riders Cam took the riders on a lap first. The riders then all took off on a bunch start. Not surprisingly the lead was quickly taken by Ryder Chadd with Ben Ross close on his tail on the first lap.

Once back all riders waited for their second attempt at the course except Mika Chadd who decided to keep riding his two laps in quick succession, possibly needing to listen a little more closely to the race briefing at the start.

The winner was determined but who had the most consistent times over two runs. Ryder Chadd took out first and also had the fastest run time, however young Ben Ross stayed close enough to Ryder and proved just as consistent with coming equal first with only 4 seconds separating their two run times.

Second on the podium with a difference of only 5 seconds was Tim Ross, putting father and son on the podium together. In Third was Steve Curnow (+6 sec), 4th Luke Vivash (+8 sec) and finishing off the podium in 5th was David Bock. 

It was great to see a couple of new faces come along and hopefully return.

Nicole Hoegenben came through with the biggest improvement between runs by 17 seconds..

Thanks to Cam for the course and here are the results.

Dirt Critters Update

By Tim and Luke

Great to get started with Dirt Critters again for Term 4.  Welcome to some new faces and welcome back to our regulars.

For our first week we tried out some of the easier XC-style trails, next week we will do a bit of Enduro style riding.

Starting up NEXT WEEKEND is the Alpine Cycling Club Junior MTB Race Series. This is a great series of 7 races over the summer across North East Victoria (including a race in Mansfield for the very first time).  The races in the series are fun, relaxed and cater for everyone from 5 to 15+ years old; a great introduction to Cross-Country MTB racing.  Last year we had up to 20 Mansfield kids racing all or part of the series.  More details, and entries here.  

For more info or queries email Tim or call Luke on 0455 604 785. 

Upcoming Events

With the advent of summer there is lots of racing opportunities available for both kids and adults away from Mansfield. These include:

Alpine Cycling Club Junior MTB Race Series

A series of seven races across North East Victoria including one in Mansfield.  This series caters for kids from 5 to 15+, with predominantly XC (cross country) style races. The series is a fun and relaxed introduction to MTB racing, and a number of families from Mansfield have taken part over the last five years. And this summer it’s sponsored by All Terrain Cycles!

More details here.  Or contact Tim Ross or Luke Vivash on 0455 604 785.

Rookie Cup

Junior Downhill series aiming to introduce riders to the sport. A series of three rounds over the spring (two rounds have already been decided, with several Mansfield kids taking part). Caters for U11 to U17.

More details here or contact Luke Vivash on 0455 604 785.

Victorian MTB Championship Series

This series has 8 rounds over the summer in venues across Victoria (including in Buxton and Eildon).  This is the peak state-based MTB competition, and caters for riders from U13 to Masters 7+ (really old people). In recent times local riders including Bruce Halket, Ruby Dobson and Ben & Alastair Ross have ridden parts of the series. More details here. Or contact Bruce Halket, Cam Dobson or Tim Ross.

VICS (Victorian Inter-School Cycling Series)

A series of eight road-racing events over the summer aimed at school-age kids (upper primary and secondary).  All events are off-road/closed road, mainly Melbourne based. More details here. 

Victorian Downhill Race Series (VDHS)

Six rounds (round one has already been and gone) around the state, culminating in the Mansfield round in March 2026. Go to their Facebook page for more details.

Victorian Enduro Series

More details here.

National MTB Series

Four rounds for both downhill and cross country in four different states (territories.) Click here for more details.

National MTB Championships

Both XC and Downhill. At Mt Buller again this year in March 2026. A great experience racing at the highest level, and a worthy aim and so close to home! Click here for details.

Riders from Mansfield are expected to partake in all of these series, why not give one of them a go!?

MMBCC News - Mon 13 Oct - Hayden Fletcher, Australian Champion!

Hayden Fletcher wins the 2025 Australian BMX Championships

By Bruce Halket

Hayden Fletcher, formally of Howqua Inlet, has finally managed to win the Elite Men’s Australian BMX Championship after years of injuries, set-backs and persistence. Congratulations on a well-deserved win Hayden!

Hayden and his family, especially his dad Paul (and fellow BMXer Adam Baker) were the impetus behind the MMBCC’s push to get a BMX track built in Mansfield over 15 years ago. Venues at the Showgrounds, Mansfield Racecourse and Withers Lane (near the rail trail) were all knocked back in a frustrating attempt to improve cycling infrastructure.

And speaking of Shire decisions, has anyone seen any news on the new gravel routes that were meant to be published this summer after being delayed for public consultations?

Imagine how much sooner Hayden might have won this if Mansfield had a BMX track and he’d not had to travel to Shepparton for training?! And how many other kids might have been following in his footsteps?

Hopefully, if the impending pump track actually gets built, we might get some more people interested in bike riding.

Dirt Crits starts downhill

By Dave Empey

The first Dirt Crits for the summer season kicked off last Tuesday.

There was a brand-new course in place to entice Bruce Halket to race so he could pedal and even a tiny bit of uphill.

Racing was very tight with less than a minute separating the top ten.

Ryder Chadd took the win followed by Spencer Carmen with XC upstart Ben Ross rounding out the top 3 with a strong ride.

Next week is the first XC event. Your resident pain master Damian Grundy will be absent, so course honours will fall to Cam Dobson. Although, in defence of both Damian and Cam, this one won’t be painful for a change, just a bit of fun.

Here are the results and thanks to Tim Ross for the pics.

Bocky stays away

By John Eisner

For some, the traditional start to the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club season began last Thursday night with locating one’s bicycle, pumping up near flat tyres, charging that solid rear red light and selecting one’s favourite, retro cycling apparel.

And so it began, with a good looking start list, carefully constructed by new handicapper, David Jagger, who had considered individual’s average performances and integrated it into a series of starting groups.

Thus, off went Dave Bock, John Eisner and Dave Jagger.

And so followed: Craig Wilson, Tim Hall, David McDonald, Steve Curnow, Adam Baker, Adrian Dowd, the father/son duo of Ben and Tim Ross, Steve Duke, Darren Bakker, Ryder Chadd, Andy Garrett, Bruce Halket and Carl Simmons.

With a modest headwind heading out towards Tolmie, the groups were looking good with a largish bunch forming at the Scratch end.

With a pleasant tail wind on the way home however, most groups seemed to split up leaving each person to do their own thing.

Out the front though, David Bock had been doing some solid turns thanks to some off-season training in Europe designed specifically to drag Limit (particularly Eisner) along. And to be fair, in turn, Limit responded like a well-oiled machine. With four km to go, Bocky was directed to ride off the front, which he did to earn a well-deserved first place. David McDonald, similarly, rode well off his group to snap up second with Eisner, Jagger and Wilson (on a classy, new, steel bike) making up the top five.

Carl Simmons looked dangerous from the start and finished well up the field to get fastest time.

Many thanks to our helpers for the night and thanks to the Mansfield Hotel for dinner and sponsorship.

Here are the results. Many thanks to Tony Copland for the race pics and to Alex Green for the post-race pics.

Next week is the Barwite Loop. And a reminder that late entries (after 8pm Wednesday night) won’t be accepted any longer.

Welcome back to Dirt Critters for Term 4.

By Tim Ross

First official night is Tuesday 14 October. Potential new riders are most welcome to come along for a look and ask any questions.

Dirt Critters is for primary-school age kids who like to ride and learn new skills in a fun and social environment. We meet at Rifle Butts Reserve on Tuesday after school – 4pm for Grade 3 and younger, 4:45pm for Grade 4 and older (but flexible). Younger secondary school kids are welcome to join us, but are encouraged to move up to senior Dirt Crits which starts at 6pm (there are a number of teenagers taking part in this).

Dirt Critters follows a rough program designed to expose the kids to some different types of MTB riding; some nights it'll be XC (cross country), some will be Enduro style, and some will be Single Track rides. Riders also have the opportunity to participate in races outside of Mansfield if they wish.

Please note that a current Auscycling membership is required for all participants (but otherwise there is no charge).  Google 'Auscycling Membership' and choose 'Race All Discipline' (costs are $81pa for U7, $109 for U13 and $175 for U19). There is the option of a free four week trial for new riders who want to try before they buy. Click here for more details on MMBCC memberships.

For more details on Dirt Critters please email us or call Luke on 0455 604 785.

MMBCC News - Mon 6 Oct - Rrrracing!

Change of plans - Gravity Enduro this week.

Senior Dirt Crits starts back tomorrow Tuesday 7 October, 5:45pm to register, ready for a 6pm start.

Rifle Butts had a clean up yesterday and is ready to go!

This week we’ve had to swap the schedule around and start with a Gravity Enduro. This will be at Rifle Butts MTB Park. Next week Tuesday 14 October will be Cross Country.

Please make sure your AusCycling membership is current. There is no entry fee for the race but if you don’t have a valid AusCycling membership, you can’t start. More details and link to AusCycling here. 

See you all there!

As for the road…

AusCycling has come through with the Public Liability Insurance. Now we’re waiting for Vic Roads; the Police are waiting for Vic Roads too.

MMBCC News - Tue 30 Sep - Racing starts soon...

Ride and Scrape

By Damian Grundy

Ride and Scrape Morning, Riflebutts MTB Park, Sunday 5 October, 10am to noon.

This Sunday 5 October as Daylight Saving begins, don't forget to Spring Forward and enjoy one hour less sleep 🙂

But do come on up to Riflebutts any time between 10am and 12 midday for a ride, and a trail scrape. We will do some trail repairs ready for next week…

Racing starts next week!

By Damian Grundy and Bruce Halket

DIRT CRITS 2025 - 2026 SEASON

As per last season we will alternate XC and GRAVITY each week. Everything kicks off with an XC night on Tue 7 Oct at Riflebutts MTB park. 5.45pm race briefing for a 6pm start.

Tue 14 Oct will be the first Gravity night. Keep your eyes open for notification of the venue for this event. (Sign up for MMBCC News emails and join the club’s WhatsApp feed for the latest info.)

You can find all the details here on the Events Calendar. The first three weeks have already been published, the rest will be added shortly.

ROAD RACING STARTS NEXT WEEK TOO

So long as we get our permits (we’re looking at you AusCycling, Vic Roads) racing starts next Thursday 9 October with a Handicap Road Race on the Whitfield Road.

All the races have been published on the Events Calendar including the links to Entry Boss and the Duty Roster (available in one page here). Please check the duty roster to see when it’s your turn. There’s quite a few new names added to the roster for this season so it’s worth a look so you don’t miss your turn.

Just to let you know, the first race sees Dave Empey, Dave Moore and Cam Dobson on duty (although we know Dave Moore’s away so we’re already looking for a replacement) and the Commissaires are Tim Ross and Bruce Halket.

Club kit

The Ventou webshop for MMBCC kit is open until Sunday night. Here is the link.

If you’re interested, please email Bruce for the login code.

Still no word from John about replacing his old saggy, baggy knicks.

MMBCC News - Sun 21 Sep - UCI WC RR with TA at MH

Watch Talia Appleton in the Women’s U23 UCI World Championship Road Race at the Mansfield Hotel

By Janine & Jarrod Appleton

If you aren't on MMBCC Whats App, you may not know that Browny from the Mansfield Hotel is putting Talia's race on the big TV at the pub this Thursday.

Live from Kigali, Rwanda, the Under 23 Women's Road Race starts from 9pm (coverage start time yet to be announced) and is expected to run until 12.30am. It will be a fantastic opportunity to join with other cyclists and cheer Talia on. We already have a group of 20 confirmed supporters but more would be great!   

We don't have many social events, but we reckon this one will be memorable.  

Please RSVP to this email address if you are interested so Browny can have an idea of how many to cater for.  And feel free to tell your friends about this - they may want to come along too!  

Hoping you can make it…

Club kit

MMBCC Central has had some enquiries about ordering MMBCC Ventou club kit. And, as it happens, Ventou have just launched a new range of high quality jerseys and bib knicks.

As you might remember, we need at least ten pieces to meet the minimum requirements.

If anyone else is interested, please email Bruce and we’ll organise to get the Ventou webshop open to take orders.

Very surprisingly, MMBCC Central hasn’t heard from John about this.

Shifty Fifty Results

In the final round of the Shifty Fifty Series (the Warburton race in November isn’t part of the overall series) MMBCC members had a great day!

In the full Gippy Shifty Fifty at Blores Hill, Ruby Dobson was the first woman home and came 27th overall.

In the Shifty Shorty Ben Ross won! Cam Dobson was 4th and Tim Ross 6th!

Well done all.

Here are the results.