Bright, National Round 3, 2013

18/3/13

Bright is one beautiful town that never disappoints.  Most cyclists know Bright to be the perfect training location with so many surrounding mountains on offer. This weekend the knobby tyres had taken over with the last round of the National MTB Series.

I think most of the riders agreed that Bright MTB club had done a fantastic job in setting up one of the best courses of the Season.  The XCO track was certainly a true mtbikers course with some serious climbing followed by an awesome twisty descent through the pine forest. Some of the tight corners had to be negotiated carefully to avoid unwanted tree contact!

The weekend kicked off with the eliminator racing on the Friday arvo.  This eliminator course was a little more technical than previous rounds, with a few off-camber corners, stairs, drop-offs and a sketchy concrete platform that caught a few off-guard!  This course certainly called for skill as well as pure power and unlike many of the other courses there were passing opportunities so tactics also played more of a part.  Having us race in front of the brewery and along the banks of the Ovens River was a great idea and pulled a decent crowd of spectators.

bright eliminator out front brewery

Handy, having eliminator race right out front of Brewery!

In the men’s eliminator final, sprint power-house Paul Van Der Ploeg lined up alongside Luke Fetch, Cameron Ivory and Ben Forbes.  The race was a great one with the lead changing on a few occasions.  Luke Fetch was a little unlucky when he dared to make the passing move around Paul, only to have his chain drop and lose a few places.  So it was Paul who stormed to victory with Cam Ivory 2^nd and young talent Ben Forbes in 3rd.

Paul Van Der Ploeg powered to victory in the men’s eliminator final; Luke Fetch went for the pass only to drop a chain

Not known for my sprint power, I was quite surprised to reach the women’s final.  I wasn’t sure of my chances against the acceleration of the 3 young girls standing next to me though!  Bec Henderson of course has been invincible over this summer and Under 19 girls Em Parkes and Holly Harris are just getting faster with every race!  I did get a great start, nailing the important clip-in to the pedal, but then very stupidly, left a wide enough space on the first corner allowing both Bec and Em to slip past.  Bec went on to victory with Em hot on her wheel for 2nd and I was pretty stoked to finally get a place on the podium in an event I generally don’t excel in.

Holly Harris made it through to the women’s final; I was able to hold off a fast finishing Tory Thomas in the semi Final; Women’s eliminator podium

The next morning was the all-important Olympic XCO format.  It was going to be important to pace a little given the demands of the track.  Saying this, I was determined to put in a little more at the start as this is what has been letting me down of late.  I managed to get in 4^th wheel into the first piece of up-hill single track and then as soon as the track widened again I was able to pace Katherine and Tory.  I pushed fairly hard on the 1^st and 2^nd laps and still had Bec Henderson in sight; however I think she must have been gaining a fair bit on me through the bottom rhythm section and into the third lap she had gained almost a minute.  I continued to push hard and as much as I hated the long steep climb each lap, the single track descent put a smile on my face.  I was really quite happy to settle for 2^nd spot, given Bec’s fantastic form at the moment and Tory Thomas retained her local hero status by coming in 3^rd not too far behind.

Bec Henderson rode impressively all weekend; riding in the pine Forrest was loads of fun; women’s XCO podium

In the under 19’s event, PedalLab rider Holly Harris fought hard to finish 2^nd.  She had been training hard the week previous and probably had arrived at the start line with fairly heavy legs.  However with the main focus on Oceania Champs in 2 weeks’ time, things are looking good!

In the men’s XCO race, Dan McConnell took a convincing win ahead of current National Champion Chris Jongewaard and Paul Van Der Ploeg raced well to claim 3^rd.

The Point to Point race proved to be an awesome track also, with seemingly endless variety of single-track, creek crossings, a few fire road sections and even some tricky uphill stairs.  I started the day very tired and in hind-sight probably should have eaten a few more carbs in preparation!  I think I got about 10km in and started to get that horrible shaky feeling when your muscles are wanting fuel.  I managed to get them firing again once I’d downed some Torq energy drink and a gel or 2, but I guess the damage had been done and I could only watch as Tory pedaled away from me on one of the fire-road sections.  Both Bec and Tory rode super strong all day and finished 1^st and 2^nd respectively.  I managed to limp home in 3^rd, so all in all had a pretty solid weekend!  I’m really hoping that Bright will once again get a gig on the National circuit for next year’s Season.  The trails are awesome and the location is just so beautiful.

Thanks so much to those that have supported me through these National Rounds:

Target-Trek MTB Team; Momentum Energy; Torq Nutrition; Lifecare; Adidas; 4Shaw

My next Major race will be the Oceania Championship in Tasmania over Easter weekend.  Looking forward to racing those kiwis!