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…
