Aussie National Downhill Champs 2012 were held at Eagle MTB Park in Adelaide South Australia. I headed to Adelaide last Wednesday along with some mates from Brisbane (Mat Dodd, Liam Piaro, Rhys Willemse and Chris Kovarik) where accommodation had been arranged for us at the Mt Lofty Railway Station (MLRS), Stirling up in the Adelaide Hills. MLRS is fantastic as it has been converted to a full-on fully self-contained house and accommodates up to 12 people. We also had Aaron Cairns (NSDynamics) and Dad (Harvey Power) staying with us plus a couple of blow-ins during the week (Brent - Mavic Melbourne) and Tracey Hannah.
We hit up Eagle Park on Wednesday afternoon and soon learnt that the track was going to be a challenge during the week. It was loose, dusty, dry and really sketchy to ride but we just did some rolling runs to get used to it. Temperatures started to soar on Thursday and Friday reaching somewhere in the early 40oC which made riding uncomfortable and the track really started to blow out and become even more challenging!
Saturday rolled around and it was time for our Seeding Race in the late afternoon. I did not push myself or the V10 and was happy to seed into 13th position for the race on Sunday. We awoke to a weather change on Sunday with cooler temperatures and some cloud cover which was a great relief. Practice went according to plan as I prepared for the race late Sunday afternoon. I rolled out of the start gate and had a good run down the mountain eventually hitting the finish line in a time of 2:07:96 which was about 4 seconds better than my seeding race. It was a 'hot' field in Elite Men with the best racers currently in Australia including Troy Brosnan, Sam Hill, Jared Graves, Chris Kovarik, Mitch Delfs, Bryn & Rhys Atkinson and Rhys Willemse contesting the Champs. I managed to place 11th overall and was a little disappointed that I missed Top 10 but on the other hand, I was beaten by 9 current World Cup racers and missed top 10 by a mere .026 seconds!!
Now back home and tomorrow Mat Dodd and I leave for Awaba to attend the final round of the National Gravity Cup on a track which is rated amongst the best Australia has to offer - cannot wait to get onto it! I would like to acknowledge my Sponsors for their continued support in keeping me riding and racing - Santa Cruz Bikes, ForTheRiders.com.au, NSDynamics.com.au, Chunked.com.au, Mavic, Straitline, Elka Suspension, Maxxis, FreeLap Timing and Diverse Springs. A big shout out to Paul Dymalla for all of his skill in building my race wheels which keep me rolling!
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