Round 4 of the Tassie downhill series and the sun was shining!
Last weekend the 4th round of the Tasmanian gravity series was held in the small town of Wilmot, about 30 minutes out of Devonport in the statea��s North. The track consisted of many flowy corners, with a couple of technical rock gardens and some big gaps thrown in to mix things up. Saturdaya��s conditions saw a sunny, dry day which allowed riders easy conditions to work out their lines and how to maintain their speed. Also held on Saturday was a super D race, although downhill bike numbers were low at this event, it attracted many cross country and all mountain riders.
Yeah boy! Wide open…Hang on a second…Whoops! Thankfully the weekend was relatively injury free, except for Saturday afternoon, when Sue Booker sustained a broken ankle in the steep rock garden. Get well soon Sue!
By the time Sunday morning had come around the track had worn out a fair bit and become a bit more rutted. During practice many riders picked up speed and got their lines dialed for race runs and were trying to gap the rather large finish line table top.
Ewan Faveretto putting a leg out!Dan Booker won Under 17’s.Brent Capel adds some style, second in Under 19’s for Brent.Second place in Elite went to Aaron Oates.
The Womana��s category was again won by Christina Sergeant, with Jill Brady coming in second. New Track X team rider Dan Booker took first in the under 17a��s, Jarvis wall in second and Connor Greatbatch in third. Ben Hill again took the win, showing impressive speed and style, on his way down the course Brent Capel and Jack Lynch followed in Under 19a��s. The hotly contested Elite category was again one by Kaine Cannon with Aaron Oates in second and Josh Fuller in third.
Ben Hill kept up his good from taking out Under 19’s.
The first chairlift at Mount Buller opened in 1949.
After a two successive races in a row at Mount Buller we thought we would put up a few photos along with some fun facts!
The elevation change of International is around 400m over approximately 2000m, to give you a comparison the 2012 World Champs track in Austria was a 484m elevation change over 2615m.International is made up of approximately 50 corners (depending on what lines you take and how it is bunted). If you could save just 0.15 seconds on each corner your race time would improve by 7.5 seconds, how much further up the results would that have got you?!We estimate (conservatively) that 2300 runs of the track were done over the weekends’ of the two races!That meant riders covered 4600kms! That is enough to go from Melbourne to Buller and back again nine times!Over the two weekends if you had to wait for the rider in front of you to finish their race run before you could start yours it would have taken just under 24 hours to get everyone downhill the course!Some of the stats are probably not good to think about, how many gear changes did you do? How many impacts did your bike record going down the hill? At least downhill bikes are made for it!Enough numbers, we hope you have enjoyed our Buller coverage, National number 2 kicks off at Thredbo in a few days, as usual expect coverage from one of Australia’s most famous race tracks.
The 2013 NSW Enduro series is about to kick offthis weekend here at Ourimbah!
The 2013 Flow Rollercoaster All-Mountain Enduro Series willA�feature four A�different locations for the official title of NSW State Series Winner and State Champion. Starting at Ourimbah MTB Park it will offer different race formats, including shuttled and chair lift transport or un-timed rides to the top and of course those timed Flow Rollercoaster race runs a��according to the organisers they will use whatever concept suits the race venue the best. It kicks off this weekend at Ourimbah and here is the orgainsers take on what you can expect;
Round 1 – Ourimbah(3rd February) This was the venue of one of the first ever all-mountain races in NSW early last year. It’s a great track where the top is DH heavy, with a middle bit where you will need to pedal and the final stretch on the track called the Rollercoaster where it’s all about being smooth and fast. We will use the actual DH start and ride on the top part of the DH track at Ourimbah. B-lines will be in place and riders will have all morning to familiarise themselves with the challenging technical sections. We will then turn off to the all-mountain track and after a few fast and technical berms there will be a short stretch to pedal to the top of the Ourimbah Rollercoaster trail section. From there it’s a smooth and flowy ride to the finish, which will be located near the DH finish on the fireroad. So in summary, for Ourimbah we’ll have 1 track – shuttled runs to the top – 2 runs each – better run counts.
Different race formats on different tracks should keep racing interesting and levelfor all riders.
For future rounds and the Championship event at Thredbo the plan is:
Round 2 – Del Rio, Wisemans Ferry (17 March)
3 tracks are at our disposal there: the old DH track – Del Sin, the new DH track – Bike or Box and the descent of our original JetBlack24 track.
The plan is to use either all 3 tracks or the 2 better ones. We will have B-lines on all the tricky sections of the DH tracks. To further test your fitness you will be required to ride back to the top. There is a short but steep climb that we used for the 24 hour race which will be marked for you. Once at the top it’s a relaxed ride to the start.
=> 2 or 3 tracks – climb yourself – 1 run per track – combined time counts
Championships – Thredbo (6 April)
The brand new all mountain flow track is open and we are hearing great things about it. It will be by far the longest track of all of them. We can’t give you an official estimated time because you will be the first ever racers on that track!
=> 1 track – chairlift to the top – 2 runs each – better run counts
Round 3 – Stromlo Forest Park (28 July)
We loved the tracks so much there last year that we decided to go there twice in 2012. In Season13 we will be back for more, much more: not only will be flying down the Skyline-Luge tracks but include a second one down the back of the mountain: Pork Barrel-Double Dissolution. Shuttles will be provided to take you from the event centre and main carpark to the top of Mt Stromlo but from the finish of Double Dissolution you have to make your own way back to the carpark or straight up to the start again.
=> 2 tracks – shuttled runs from the carpark to the top – 1 run per track – combined time counts
Well there you have it, a full Enduro series running in New South Wales proving just how popular this style of downhillA�racing is getting!
