Mat (Dodd) and I drove to Mt Buller for the 2nd round of the National Gravity Cup last weekend. We left Brisbane last Tuesday and headed south only to encounter flooded roads around Goondiwindi but managed to get through to Moree where we stopped and chilled out by riding BMX in the local skate bowl. We stayed overnight at Dubbo in Central Western NSW and did some more BMX riding before heading to Parkes the next day for more BMX riding and then to Mt Buller. We arrived late afternoon and after a chilly dip in the river at the bottom of Mt Buller, headed up the hill. Thursday was a well deserved sleep-in before heading out on the XC and All Mountain trails on our XC bikes - the trails at Buller are awesome and just great fun to ride. Later that day we met up with Nigel & Aaron of NSDynamics to move into our luxury accommodation for the weekend and wait for Tracey Hannah to arrive on Friday morning to complete the team!
Practice got started on Friday and everything was going pretty well but the tracks were well and truly blown out having had 350+ competitors racing them the previous weekend in a Vic DH Series round. Saturday practice came around and with it, problems!!! I smashed a new rear wheel (again) but no problem, Ty McLean of Group Sportif had just given me 6 new Mavic 721 rims and 2 pair of Straitline pedals as part of his sponsorship support program for me - thanks again, Ty! Seeding (Qualifying) race was held late Saturday afternoon and I managed to slip into 9th spot even though I had some issues in the top part of the track and really did not carry enough speed into the top forest and rock gardens. Mat put in a good run and brought home his Pivot in 25th place which was a good effort against some fast riders on the day. Tracey made short work of her opposition and qualified into 1st place as expected.
Race day (Sunday)came and I was quite chilled before heading up for my first practice run which was a slow roll down the hill to check out any track and line changes. Coming back up the hill on the chair-lift I noticed an odd shape to my rear wheel - it was smashed beyond belief but was still holding together courtesy of the excellent wheel building efforts of family friend, Paul Dymalla. I did not even remember hitting anything on the way down but the track had become really blown out and rocks were appearing where they had not been seen previously! Thankfully,the NSDynamics technicians (Nigel & Aaron) were hard at it building a new wheel from the previous day when I got back which was to become my race wheel that afternoon. Race time arrived and whilst I had a relatively smooth run I was conscious of the wheel problems I was having but did try to put it out of my mind (sort of!!). I managed to bring home the Santa Cruz v10 Carbon into 11th place Elite Men which was a bit disappointing however; the times were close so all in all - not a bad effort and I have retained 9th place overall for the Series to date! Mat had an excellent ride and came home in 15th place Elite Men which surpassed his goals and will spur him onto bigger and better things for the future. Tracey got the win with an excellent ride and is on track to contest World Cups and World Champs in 2012.
Once again I would like to acknowledge the continued support of my Sponsors, ForTheRiders.com, Santa Cruz Bikes, NSDynamics.com.au, Mavic, Straitline Components, Elka Suspension, Diverse Springs, Chunked.com.au, Maxxis and FreeLap Timing - thanks guy's!
