2005 NSW State Round 7 & State Championships, 4th September 2005
CTMTBC – State Mine, Lithgow, NSW

The NSW State DH Series wrapped up in fine fashion at the State Mine track in Lithgow. The competition was close in most categories with competitors vying for overall series points and the title of State Champion in their respective classes. With WSMTB and CTMTB holding a joint club round the week before, at the same track, under beautiful sunny skies, and with the track in great condition with some timely maintenance, anticipation was high for a brilliant weekend.

Numbers for practice on the Saturday were a little bit down, but those that were there had a great day. The track was still very dry and dusty, but was holding together well. The sun was behind clouds, but rain didn’t look like much of a probability. Plenty of transport had been organised and the wait for a ride to the top was around 45 minutes, which wasn’t too bad. Plenty of people were here who hadn’t turned up to many other rounds, and there were a few new bikes and kit cruising past to keep the train spotters happy.

Expert Men State Champion Damien Reeve

The track was basically unchanged since the National Round there at the start of the year. A bit of maintenance had beefed up a few berms, but there wasn’t any surprises. The pallet drop was still to flat, the Generation Gap still had a few people quaking in their boots, and swearing, “The B line is definitely just as quick!” and the Rock Garden was still sketchy at speed. Some people say that it is too pedally, and there is a couple of flat sections that require a bit of effort in the race run. But this is racing, and you should be knackered by the time you get to the end of your race run anyway. To me, the track is very fun. The corners up the top, the Generation Gap, the open corners leading in to the Rock Garden, the Switchbacks, and then the run along the gully with the bus stops, little launches and flat out chutes all add up to a very fun track that has me smiling at the end of every run and eager to get back to the top to do it all again. Get out there and experience it for yourself if you haven’t already.

But back to the racing, or Saturday practice as it was. People were getting faster and faster as the day went on, and were pushing themselves to try new things. Steve Humphreys even did the pallet drop! Of course this also led to a few people pushing a little too far. Isn’t that right Eden?! As far as I know there were no serious injuries though, which is always good news. AS the day wore on, it did get a bit cooler and people began to worry about rain, but the day finished with it still dry, and people headed to their motel’s and caravan parks running through their runs in their heads, ready for the following day, hoping for sunshine.

If they had stuck their head outside before they had even gone to bed, however, they might have been disappointed. The rain started falling before too long and kept up most of the night, even if it wasn’t that heavy. By the time I got to the race site on Sunday, some people were putting mud tires on and the sensible ones were pulling on water proof jackets. The trouble wasn’t that it was raining, but that it was raining and cold. If you weren’t careful, your hands could get really cold and then pulling your brakes on and changing gear could get to be a bit of an effort. The secret tip was using the hand dryer in the toilets in the big shed at the bottom of the track to warm up cold hands and dry out wet gloves. The track itself wasn’t too bad. Most of the tracks surface didn’t get too boggy and slow. There were a few sections which got a bit slippery and the Rock Garden was understandably sketchy. The most affected section though was the Switchbacks, which got really boggy and chewed up. Each run had new roots and rocks poking through and these caught a lot of people out. Most of the Gully was OK, and the high speed chutes were hard packed and no problem at all.

Dropping out of the mist into the gully.

Practice progressed, the rain kept falling lightly, and people got muddy, but thankfully there were a couple of hoses supplied at the bottom of the track for bike wash purposes. These kept most people’s rigs running smoothly and were very welcome. By the time racing rolled around, most people were pretty comfortable with the wet condition of the track and were keen to get racing, if only to avoid standing around in the cold and wet.

The U19 men were off first with Dean Robson setting the pace, closely followed by Time Eaton and Eden Humphreys, who managed to stay on his bike for this run.

With Claire Whiteman at the Worlds and Emma McNaughton having a break, it was left to loan Elite Woman Joanne Fox. Joanne made her way down and did enough to become State Champion and Overall series winner, showing the dedication of getting to every round that was held.

Elite Men were off next and there was a lot of speculation as to who would set the pace. The conditions were such that mistakes could happen easily, but there is no point being in this class if you aren’t going to push it. But who was going to go fast in the qualifier, and who was going to leave a little extra for the final? Most riders seemed to take it fairly easy, conserving themselves a little for the final. There was a bit of tactics going on with Adam Smithson (GT) skidding almost to a stop just before the line, and Ricky Boyer (Oange) just cruising across the line. However, it was Brad Kelly (Specialised) who took the fastest time, and caused a few people to take notice. Smithson, Brock Newling and Boyer weren’t far behind. The big question was how would the final results affect the overall standings. Could Rick hold on to the lead he had had since the first race back in March? Would the fast finishing Brad Kelly cause an upset? We would have to wait and see.

The rest of the classes made their way down through the mist at the top of the hill with the women leading the way. Alisha Houghton, Alice Minahan each won Masters Women and Junior Women respectively and Melissa Hamilton took first ahead of Bindi Hatcher in Sport.

Brad Kelly attacks the Rock Garden on the way to victory

Shaun O’Connor took the U15’s with a very fast time of 3.31, from Oscar Lapstun. Make sure you stay on the straight and narrow, eh Shaun?

Under 17 Men was taken comfortably by James Brodie, in a 3.26, which would have been good enough for 6th in Elite. Samuel Ward and Dylan Prohm rounded out the top 3.

Drew Hamilton was al set to take the Masters 1 but an altercation with a tree slowed him down and held him back to third. Adam Reeve took the honours with Wayne Froggatt in second.

Masters 2 had English import Adam Fernyhough (Cove) taking a well deserved win ahead of Michael Chance and Brett Minion.

Sergio Lavermicocca stayed ahead of Mark Cranston in the Masters 3 & 4 and Steve Humphreys finally overcame his long time opponent Steve Coles to take the win in Masters 5&6 and the title of State Champion.

There were even a few hardcore hardtaillers which saw Duncan Nicholson win the Seniors and Cody Strickland take the Juniors.

One of the largest classes was Expert Men. Damien Reeve had been the man to beat so far in the series, already having won three rounds and with a comfortable lead. But there was some stiff competition breathing down his neck. Damien managed to hold on for the win, but only just. Only 0.04 seconds ahead of James Collins, with Ben Goff further back in 3rd. Damien was also a comfortable winner of the overall title.

Just before the start, trying to stay warm and dry, and your goggles free from fog.

Time for the Under 19’s and Elite Men to head back to the top of the hill for their second runs. Everyone up there knew what was ahead of them. Focus, skill and fitness would be the deciding factors, but there was no more preparation to be done. It was time for action. First off in the Junior Men was Ricky Lee. He took 13 seconds off his qualifying time to post a 3.34. A time that would stand up to most of the rest of the class. The first to beat it was Luke Gowan, and then Damian Perry snuck in front of him. Eden Humphreys was down next, but the clock ticked past the fastest time before Eden appeared. It turned out he’d had a crash and finished down the field. It was down to Tim Eaton and Dean Robson who had been fighting this class out all season. Tim was first down the hill with the cracking time of 3.20.63, 13 seconds faster than his qualifier. Could Dean match this and hold on to the overall title? The clock was ticking, and Dean sprinted into view, but he was too late. He only managed a 3.22.06. Tim Eaton took the win and with it, the overall title. And on a borrowed bike too. After his crank had spat itself against a rock, he’d borrowed a spare bike from Ricky Lee. Good on you Ricky. Congratulations Tim.

All eyes turned back to the top of the hill for the Elite Men. The first few riders predictably crossed the line a few seconds ahead of their qualifying time, with no major surprises. Bullet-headed (visor broke in a practice crash, he claims) Adam Dossetor was the first to go significantly faster stopping the clock at 3.24. The next few riders failed to break this time, until Ricky Boyer came into sight. Everyone was sure that Ricky had held back in the qualifier, but he crossed the line with a 3.16, two seconds ahead of Kelly’s qualifier. Did Brad, or Adam Smithson, have that in them. While Ricky tried to catch his breath, the rest of the crowd held theirs. Brock Newling was the next down the hill, and although he knocked 5 seconds off his qualifier, Ricky was still ahead. Adam Smithson was the next to arrive. Everyone knew how much Adam trains and that he wanted this win. He wasn’t going to be holding anything back. He sprinted into view and crossed the line in 3.12, 4 seconds ahead of Ricky! Adam was in the lead, but Brad wasn’t far behind. The tension was in the air as everyone waited for Brad to come into view. Could he smash his qualifier to take the lead? As Brad burst around the corner it looked like it. Those last few pedal strokes seemed to take forever as the clocked ticked over, but it didn’t get past 3.11. Brad had taken the win! And with it the title of State Champion. Ricky Boyer held on to the overall lead which he had held since the first race in Kempsey, and took the title of NSW State Series Champion.

The queue might have looked bad, but it moved fast, with plenty of busses, trailers and friendly drivers.

It was a fittingly exciting finish to the series. We had seen races from one end of the state to the other, with different people shining at different venues. Elite Men had 6 different winners from 7 different rounds. The organization of each race seemed to have stepped up a notch from previous years, with live timing at each venue being an obvious improvement. With plans already afoot for next years series, you can be sure that the quality will keep improving.

Full results from this round can be found here.

Keep an eye on the MTBA website for reports and results from each round, including overall standings and statistics.

There’s also plenty of stuff in the forums to check out.

The photos in this report were taken by Don Jonceski. You can get them, and many others on CD from him for $20. Email him at djonceski@bigpond.com.au

Some other photos of the event can be seen here: http://www.pixelpics.com.au/events.html