The You Yangs Mountain bike reserve hosted round two of the Victorian DH State Series early in December. Using the same track as previous years, most riders knew their way down this hill and for the newbies there wasn’t too much scary stuff for them to hit up. Still plenty of challenges all the way down with the big drops and roll downs and the more technical lower section with some descent rocks. Along the way was a couple of wooden bridges to provide something different, and the first sky bridge still has me feeling like I’m going over the edge.

As usual, dry conditions on the day (it looks like the driest place on earth), so the riders didn’t need to worry about getting muddy and were able to pull out the dry fast tires and even some semi-slicks.

Saturday practice went well with the organizers keeping everything running at full speed. Everyone had plenty of runs and not too many queues to wait in.
Sunday morning started well, but for me it was over very quickly. On the second major drop in the course I heard a rather unusual ‘crack’ on landing, so I pulled over to inspect, finding oil leaking from my rear shock. I continued carefully down the course thinking I had just blown my shock until I got closer to the bottom and things in the back end started to get real funky. I stopped to realize that, in fact, I had completely snapped my rear shock shaft and the whole back end was floating on the spring. My race was over. It was the only shock I had ever seen snapped and thinking how unusual this was at the bottom I was approached by another guy who had done the same thing!

Onto the racing. Everyone knew that Lincoln was going to be hard to beat because he was hitting the infamous, ‘Linc’s gap’, but by doing this he was forcing other riders to step up and commit to this feat. Some made it, some didn’t, and they got hurt!
Qualifying was fairly standard with Lincoln Verass topping Trevwah ‘The Wah’ Burke, and New Zealand’s Tim Nelson in close times. YVC rider Woody qualified 9th. I was out and Ash missed out on qualifying by blowing out big time.
Under 19 was topped by David Hetherington, Tom McNiven, and Toby Brainy/Breheny.

In the finals the racing was hot, and with me out I got a chance to check out some of the talent coming roaring down the hill. I positioned myself at the lower rock section with the switchbacks and the wall ride and could hear the crowd from above cheering and carrying on with each rider. Notable mentions must go to Under 17 riders Michael Bourne and Ben Barrett from Sale. These boys are 14 and a posting time competitive with Under 19 and even with some Pros in their first season of racing. Bourne took this race from Barrett and Sam Gallagher had a top result for 3rd. YVC rider Anthony Jones pulled a solid 6th place on his Kona Stab Deluxe.

Under 19 was stomped on by David Hetherington pulling in just one second off the winning pro time. His Astrix and Kermit outfit must be working for him. Toby did the second place and Tom McNiven was third by 0.13 seconds.

Pro Women was only Kristina Shiel but she did a rompin’ time to take the win. We need more girls. Don’t be scared you just had to finish and you would have got second. Kristina is always there to help out the girls and get them going in a male dominated sport.

Pro men was an all Lincoln affair, with his time 3 seconds clear from Sam Hocken fast on the comeback after his Worlds selection in 2005. Tim Nelson had a solid run and grabbed third and Benny Reynolds took home 4th for GT bikes and Monza imports. Trevwah Burke had a shocker and slipped back to 10th and Brendan Wood from YVC held in for 11th.

All in all it was a great weekend of racing with Geelong Mountain Bike Club doing a fantastic job and keeping it all silky smooth. Times were up quick, turnaround was good and the atmosphere was chilled. We also had to do the presentation for the previous race at Long Gully due to the dramatic incident we had there and so some people walked away with a double wammy of prizes. Even if it was only sticker kits!!! Hey, don’t blame me. Besides, it’s a love sport.
Peace out.