Recent Results

The three rounds of the Dirty Deeds Cyclocross Series are done and dusted (or should i say mudded) for the year.

Sean "the man" Hurley donned the full white kit for the last race of the series and battled it out in the MTB category. He may have started with a kit as white as his calves but that is definitley not how he finished. The event saw a huge amount of entrants in both the MTB and CX divisions. Spectators who turned up were treated to the spectacle of riders careering their bikes through a very impressive mudpit. Bike control and technique came in handy, but persistence, determination and a gung ho approach were the key.

A huge shout out to Brendan Bailey for organising such a great series. Hopefully the momentum that was created with this event will get the sport of Cyclocross well and truly entrenched into the Australian cycling community. It makes for great spectating, is able to be staged close to the metro area and most of all it's a sport that all levels can involve themselves in.

Here you'll find Brendan's wrap up of the final round.

Congratulations to Scott Chancellor for taking out the win in the solo category at Round three of the Chase the Sun series.

In what seems to have become the norm for the series there was a Sunday once again that brought rain and wind to make endurance riding just that little bit more challenging.

Check out Scott's Blog entry about the race here.

 Congratulations to Tory Thomas for a clean sweep of the 2010 Bike Buller three race event held over the last weekend. Tory made it home with a cumulative time from the three events 45 minutes ahead of her nearest rival. Not only that but she also managed to come in with an overall position of 7th. 

Scott Chancellor also came home with a third in stage three, a 50km cross country race that went over to the top of Mt Stirling and return. By all reports it was a tough course with rough, doubletrack road with steep gradients and a road climb up to the Mt Buller to finish.

Read the Enduro Pulse Article Here

Congratulations to Tory Thomas and Justin Wornes with their wins in Bendigo at the Australian Mountain Bike Marathon Championships. Tory won in a hard fought battle with Peta Mullens to take home the Australian Elite Marathon Championships title. Justin won the Australian Masters Championships title in a similar battle of will against Brian Johns. The course consisted of 105 gruelling kilometres which included plenty of Bendigo's fantastic singletrack as well as a good wallop of fast fire road to mix it up. Congratulations also to Lisa Jacobs who donned the MTB shoes for the 50km race and took out 2nd place behind Nikki Fisher, and to Andrew Mock who took out the Mens Sport class Win.

2009 Australian MTB Marathon Nats from Darren Davis on Vimeo.

Most cyclists I know look forward to the Tour of Bright with a level of excitement usually reserved for Christmas or the birth of their first-born child. It’s one of the best (and toughest) weekends in the racing calendar, and Ross Walker and the Alpine Cycling Club just seem to make it bigger and better each year.

This year was probably the strongest women’s field ever assembled. ACTAS were definitely the team to watch, with Vicki Whitelaw, Bronwyn Ryan and Miffy Galloway among their GC contenders. Outside of that there were strong contenders from AIS, VIS, SASI, Prime Real Estate and R.A.C.E. Just seeing the line up made me extremely glad I had worn my brown underpants to race rego.

The way stage 1 panned out really took the pressure off for the rest of the tour. For a moment I thought I had missed the decisive break of the day as a group of 10 women disappeared down the road in the confusion after a crash before the first sprint point, around two-thirds the way through the stage. I was happy staying in the main bunch until I realised that all the teams were represented in the break and that I had no one to help me pull it back. D’oh! Pulling it back meant energy wasted but there was really no other option as there were some handy climbers in the break. By the time we hit Tawonga, we had regrouped, and at some stage early in the climb, a group of 4 – Vicki Whitelaw, Bronwyn Galloway, Steph McGrath and myself – broke away from the rest of the field. Maybe that fake moustache really did work. By the time we hit the bottom of the descent, our break was reduced to 3 (Vicki, Bron and me) with a gap of around 3 minutes on the rest of the field. For me, this was largely thanks to Dr Rudy’s descending tutorials (again, I’d tell you more, but…)

Stage 2 was the ITT, an event dominated by Whitelaw and Ryan. I limited the damage with a 6th place and remained 3rd on GC at the end of day’s play.

Stage 3 was the big kahuna – the Hotham ascent. It’s a testament to Vicki’s class as a tour rider that the rest of us were fighting it out for 2nd on GC even before the stage started. It was clear pretty early on in the race that it was game on for a stage win, with ACTAS and AIS/SASI launching a barrage of attacks and counter-attacks throughout the false flat part of the climb. I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to get away as I did last year, so my aim was to cover any break attempts and make sure that I stayed with the leaders for as long as possible. In the end, it all broke up after we kicked at the ticket box and Vicki and Steph kept tempo, with Bron and I not far behind… to start with. Slowly but surely they edged away, then Bron faded and I ended up climbing by myself in 3rd position. I kept trying to keep the distance between me and Vicki/Steph in check, but they were looking pretty strong. It wasn’t until 500m to go when I realised I had a real chance of overtaking Steph, which I did eventually in the last 200m aided by some most enthusiastic cheering from Dr Rudy on the side of the road.

Overall, I was stoked with the weekend – 3rd on GC, 3rd KOM and a 3rd, 6th and 2nd on the stages. To be honest, my lead up to the tour was less than perfect and although I had been trying to stay positive I was not feeling very optimistic about the weekend on Friday night! It was a huge relief to find our that my form was better than I felt. It's a good sign for nationals.

Big thank you to DC & Sean Hurley & Fitzroy Revolution, who made sure my bike was dialled and pimped to perfection, and to John Hill @ Fastgear for providing High5 sports nutrition. And to the lovely Andrew, whose support and general hug duties were carried out to perfection.

http://ridehappy.blogspot.com/