Category: Event Reports
Round 2 Kona Victorian Downhill Mountain Bike Series – Yackandandah
Gippsland MTB Members Results
Last weekend saw 16 members of Gippsland MTB swelter in scorching temperatures at the second round of the Kona Victorian Downhill Mountain Bike Series held at Yackandandah. In total, 298 riders made the journey to the privately owned track 8kms out of the township of Yackandandah, for the event hosted by the Beechworth Chain Gang. The whole weekend ran like clockwork – the Beechworth Chain Gang did a fantastic job!
Forrest/You Yangs Weekend – How Hot Was It!
11 people turned up for the first ever Gippsland MTB Forrest/You Yangs long weekend on November 6th to 8th. The event was based at the Forrest Caravan Park which proved to be the perfect location with easy access to the trails, great cabins and a pub 20 meters away for post-ride story telling.
Once arriving on Friday and setting up in our cabins, we rode out to the western trails to do some exploring as most people had not been to Forrest before. These trails were a good taster of things to come with well benched in flowing single track for the green loops and more technical blue trails to add more of a challenge. Everyone found these sections fun with no major dramas.
GMTB Presentation Evening
The time has come to crown the first ever GMTB Club Champions, and we have decided to have the GMTB Presentation Evening at Turks Sports Bar Traralgon, providing free pizza and beverages at bar prices. We hope that all of our club members can attend the evening, which is essentially our end of year function prior…
Colquhuon Multi Stage Race Report – 27-Sep-2009
Fifteen dead-set nut cases actually turned up and then actually raced in weather that had to be seen to be believed.
Race directors Sharon & Stuart decided to alter the course in light of the conditions and utilise some of the less treed areas of the Colquhuon Forest as well as made roads & fire trails instead of singletrack through dense bush.
Using a different race format and scoring system to decide the days winner, competitors were required to do a 18km time trial followed by two short, sharp & nasty criteriums over a 800 metre course.
Photo Finish at Blores Hill Checkpoint Race
Julian Thomas broke through to score his first outright victory at Gippsland MTB’s first Checkpoint Race at Blores Hill on Sunday, August 23rd. It was a shared victory with Graeme Trewern reaching the final control at the same moment from the opposite direction.
The day was well attended with 40 riders, including 7 teams, arrived on the shores of Lake Glenmaggie to compete in the first Checkpoint Race undertaken by the club. In this event, competitors were given a map 10 minutes before departure with 9 Checkpoint locations marked throughout the Blores Hill complex. They then all departed at the start control at same time, and were given 2 hours to navigate their way to as many points as possible and then return to the finish control. To identify that Checkpoints had been visited, riders needed to find a specially placed punch at each point and punch their scored card with it in a designated place. If a Checkpoint was missed or stamped in the wrong place then time penalties were added to the overall event time, 10 minutes for a missed point and 5 minutes for an incorrect stamp.
Mt Hedrick/Blores Hill Social Ride – 8/9 August
11 people braved the unknown to venture over Mt Hedrick on Lenny’s Techo Adventure Ride on Saturday August 8th. More then half the group had not seen Mt Hedrick before. For those of you that have not had the pleasure, then imagine long, steep, loose rocky descents interconnected with flowing singletrack. If that sounds like fun then make sure that you come to the next Mt Hedrick ride.
There was a ride variety of bikes on display from freeride bikes, to a poor borrowed hardtail with cable brakes! I think that it almost goes without saying, but long, steep, loose rocky descents is not the place to take a hardtail, especially one with cable brakes. By the end of the ride Leonie had mastered the art of 4 finger braking.
Blores Hill “Bring A Friend” Pig Race Report
It was a sunny day at Blores Hill on Sunday, June 28. The perfect day for a pig race with a group of unsuspecting newbies to the sport of mountain biking. The idea of the race was fairly simple, everyone who comes is to bring someone who has never really ridden a mountain bike off-road competitively. The score was to be based of the basis of at the end of each lap, each member of the team rolls a pig each from the game Pass The Pigs and the score is given based on how they land. This opened the results up to everyone so the fastest riders only are not in the clear for a good score.
48 riders turned up, with about half being new to the sport as some teams stretched the newbie rule such as Adam Downes bringing some sort of Triathlon champion while Dean and Sam did not have any other friends so they rode together as per normal. There were a few rules given by the officials at the riders briefing, you were not aloud to “drop you friend” with a 50m rule strictly enforced, points were at the mercy of the scores with penalties awarded as they felt for whatever they thought of and a strict enforcement of Rule Number 1. Rule Number 1 being anyone caught taking it too seriously will do their next lap naked.
June Social Weekend Report
20 people turned up to Munjara camp on Saturday 13th of June for the first Blores Hill night ride. It was quite a good turn out considering that not everyone has lights as a part of their normal mountain bike gear. A few people bought lights to try out this night ride thing, so there were a few newbies to the wonders of night riding, as well as Johno giving the night riding “one last go” because he only tries it in the worst conditions.
Gippsland MTB Three Stage Race – 24-May-2009
Before we begin, some very important observations were made during Sunday’s race.
- The CROSSCO Clock is a thing of beauty.
- Some say the pen is mightier than the sword. I say the dim sim is mightier than the potato cake.
- Ben Blackman is a bit of a legend.
- The lycra boys had a win. All is right in the world again.
- If you think that a cycle computer put on with insulation tape whilst the briefing is underway might not work effectively, you’re probably right.
- When a woman gives you instructions, do you think it will be the easy, simple, short route or something a bit more gruelling & involving pain? You be the judge.
Glengarry Point To Point Race
A massive turnout of 37 riders attended Gippsland MTB’s first point to point race at Glengarry on Sunday April 26th. Considering the storms the night before and that the first round of Chase The Sun at Lysterfield was being run, this turnout exceeded our expectations. The day began with riders selecting to join either the short distance race at 20km or the long distance race of 26km. A majority of the riders chose the longer race option with 21 riders doing tackling the full distance and the remaining 16 riders attempting the shorter version.
VSS Rnd 3: Mt Baw Baw
Saturday practice had the 220+ entrants cramming runs thanks to the superbly organised transport. It has to be said that Gippsland MTB have raised the bar when it comes to transport; at worst, riders were facing a 10 minute wait at the bottom. Unlike some venues, Baw Baw definitely has the turnaround space and the access road to accommodate the number of vehicles GMTB supplied, and it’s encouraging to see a brand new club get it so right on their first attempt. Blue skies and temperatures in the low 20s made for great riding conditions.
Competition At Blores Hill Enduro Heats Up!
Sunday 22nd April was the running of Gippsland MTB’s 4 Hour Enduro Bushfire Fundraising Race at Blores Hill north of Heyfield. While the weather first thing in the morning was a bit doubtful with showers and storms in the area, once the competitors started arriving Blores turned on the good weather to show what this area is truly like with a sunny and hot day for the forthcoming battle for outright honours.
50 Competitors registered for this event to assist in this worthy cause with a good spilt between both Lycra racers and Baggy cruisers. The Lycra boys and girls were out in force to set right the upset of the last race where the Baggies dominated and took out the main point scoring positions.
The course was 10km of some of the best singletrack at Blores with switchback climbs, gully crossings and flowing descents with log jumps just to keep everyone on their toes. While the track was in excellent condition, it turned out that the heat was the biggest challenge to competitors with cramps taking a few victims in the final hour of the race.