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 9s.
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.