Congratulations to Siena Vivash - Under 13 Women Australian Downhill Champion!
Scroll down for more on the AusCycling MTB Nationals at Mt Buller on the weekend.
Dirt Crits Irish Handicap
By Damian Grundy
Ben Ross lays down a marker and sends a message for the National Championships!
Once again the rain gods have smiled on MMBCC Dirt Crits and sent some rain which settled the dust and had the trails in absolute mint riding condition.
As is the case with Irish Handicaps everyone is on their own mission, with individual lap numbers and staggered start times. But everyone is in the same race so the objective is to complete your target number of laps and get to the finish line first! Simple.
First out of the gate on this occasion were 2 5 lappers, Damian Grundy (the real old fart) and Cam Dobson (the younger old fart), followed by the rest. Last at the start line was Scarlett Darcy some 19minutes later, on her 2 lap mission.
Bruce Halket arrived a little late and had one lap trimmed from his original 5 laps with an appropriate adjustment to his start time.
Ben Ross was clearly on a flyer rounding up everyone at a rate of knots.
Riders circulated, people were caught and passed, Cam Dobson had a forced stop to loosen a tight back.
Heading into the final lap it was the two Ross youngsters heading up the hill at the front of the race with Alastair doing everything he could to hold off his older brother Ben.
In the end Ben, clearly on great form heading to the National Championships on the weekend, caught Alastair at the top of the course and rocketed down the final descent to take a well deserved win in a personal best overall race speed.
Alastair Ross finished a strong 2nd, Eliot Leatham 3rd also in a personal best race speed.
Willem Morphett 4th, Jasper Watts 5th.
A special mention to the night’s final finisher Cody Stephens for racing a warm and humid race in jeans and a long sleeve cotton top. Nothing like adding some additional challenge to an already hard sport! Well done for finishing Cody.
Thanks to Tim Ross for managing the timing. Great to see everyone out for the race.
Here are the results. Next week it’s the final Gravity Enduro night of Dirt Crits.
Biking and Boating
By Craig Stannard
The Eastern Cycling Club boys (Craig O, Dean T, Dale W [who was withdrawn from the race due to BA syndrome] and yours truly Craig S) have arrived for our annual March sojourn to Mansfield/Bonnie Doon for a bit of biking and boating.
First thing is the biking.
We arrive on the Thursday for the 24 km Whitfield handicap. It’s perfect weather with a bit of a slight cross/head wind for the leg out so it will be a fast return with the help of the slight downhill. We get our numbers and I’m in the 13 min Scratch group with Steve D, Simon H, Darren B and Dean T.
Limit (David J) is away & we begin the agonising wait. Next away is David B at 2 min then the 7 min bunch of Janine A, Craig W, Tim H & David Mc, next bunch away at 11 min is Simon M, Craig O, Jock & Tim R.
Then we are away & we quickly settle into a nice rolling turn tempo, negotiate the first big pot hole (come on Vic Roads get your act together!) & top the first hill. It’s not till we have done about 9km that we see a distant tail light that gives us a bit of boost to power on.
At about 10.4ks Limit passes by us on the way back & I try to do the calculation of time & distance required needed but give up and look for the turn around as the other groups pass us by.
We are all back on after the turn & head home but the cohesion is a bit ragged. We start mopping up a few stragglers, first one bun, then the next at about the Barwite Road intersection. We are down to three of us doing turns on the front.
Heading on down the last downhill Darren & Steve do a big turn and roll off which leaves me on the front. Dodge the last pothole and into the left hand turn into Mt Battery Road. Put the power on and open up a 20 metre break on the bunch. Can’t see the limit rider up the road so second place is available, hit the sprint button and head home not realising just how far uphill is the line! Manage to maintain the gap to take 2nd and fastest time
Good fun race and, as per any handicap, full on from start to finish.
Thanks to all the Marshals and Commissaire on a great race, can’t do it without you.
Strava says 26.27 km in distance in 41.10 minutes at an average 38.3 km/h but here are the official results.
Now it’s boating time!
With only two races to go for the 2025/26 Summer Road Race Series, the point scores show a very tight finish. With only the best 12 results counting for each rider, Steve Duke leads the way with 97 points ahead of a tie for second with Simon Hall and Dave Bock on 91. Next comes Wil Wilson on 88, Ryder Chadd on 83, Dave Jagger on 78, Adrian Dowd and Bruce Halket tied for 7th on 75, Darren Bakker on 71 and Dave MacDonald rounds out the top ten on 58.
AusCycling Mountain Bike National Championships
13 MMBCC members raced on Mt Buller over the last few days, in various disciplines, resulting in a couple of podiums and an Australian Champion! Congratulations again to Siena on her win. (She even jumped the first road gap in her race run!)
SHORT COURSE CROSS COUNTRY (XCC) - raced on Friday
Ben Ross - 19th, U17 Men
Ryder Chadd - 24th, U19 Men
Ruby Dobson - 3rd, U23 Women
Here are the XCC results.
DOWNHILL - Saturday
Sienna Vivash - 1st and Australian Champion, U13 Women
Cooper Hoebergen - 14th, U15 Men
Shannon Rademaker - 9th, Masters 4 Men
Ewan Rogan - 21st, U17 Men
Blake Riley - 53rd, U17 Men
Spencer Carman - 38th, U19 Men
Jake Terry - 46th, U19 Men
Matt Empey - 30th, Elite Men
Here are the downhill results.
CROSS COUNTRY (XCO) - mostly Sunday
Ant Bateup - 5th, E-Bike Men (raced on Thursday)
Ben Ross - 15th, U17 Men
Bruce Halket - 3rd, Masters 7 Men
Ruby Dobson - 7th, U23 Women
Here are the XCO results.
Upcoming Events
Seymour Broadford CC Road Championships, graded scratch - Sat 28 March, Avenel.
Northern CC Ian Bishop Hcp - Sun 29 March, Seymour.
Shifty Fifty Round 1, The Wombat Classic - 29 March, Woodend. There are 7 rounds, 5 in Autumn, 2 in Spring.
Northern CC 46th Benghazi Handicap - Sat 25 April, Lancefield.
Finally…
Even if you don’t usually watch much Men’s Pro Road Cycling, take a few minutes to have a look at the highlights of yesterday’s 2026 Milan-San Remo - 298km and honestly, most of it is a snooze-fest. But the last 35km or so are brilliant with a win by the world’s best.