Dargle Freeride event

[wombat]

Western Sydney Mountain Bike Club put on the country's first club level freeride comp over the last couple of days, and even managed to pull riders from interstate. click here for full story and results (http://www.farkin.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=152168#152168 ).

[wombat]

Courtesy of Steve Humphreys:

Free Ride at Dargle February 22, 2004
Fourty four riders registered but only thirty eight finally took part in the event for the Free Ride at River Road, Lower Portland. Unfortunately Damien Fitzgerald from Expert Men was air lifted to Royal North Shore Hospital with suspected spinal injuries after a fall during the event. Get well soon Damien.

Riders practiced through the morning experimenting with various lines and styles. When the judges were in position at approximately 11:30 riding started with under 19 ladies and elite ladies only two ladies trying free ride both ladies taking the safe lines and Joanne showing her experience and riding ability. The track is approximately 200 meters long and 50 meters wide of a rocky sandy wooded hill side. Under 15 men followed with late arrivals at the start causing some riders to be out of order. Seaton Humphreys had a safe run but must impressed the judges with riding over a few drops near the end. Under 17 men followed Lucas Phrom impressing the judges in this age group. David Grupe took a safe line in the Veteran men group. Sport men were led by Alex Hendriksen impressing the judges. Michael Hicks was the best of Expert men and unfortunately Damien Fitzgerald was injured as the last rider of Expert Men.

Racing was suspended while Damien was given aid. After assistance was with Damien racing restarted but below the accident site, which meant two less judges. So the scores for Elite are low. John Dawe made the best of the short area with some spectacular riding on his hard tail. The rear wheel stand on the center jump impressing everyone of the large group of spectators and despite having a flat tyre from the landing he continued to impress all the way to the end of the course.

The judges points were tabulated at the registration tent straight after the event. The existence of two white nineteen bike plates and another rider not riding led to confusion and two riders in Expert were given incorrect points. The ten points awarded for walking the track was added a number of times so this has been only awarded once. Two errors in addition meant Dylan Phrom should have been 2nd and not 3rd sorry Dylan and Mark Dale should have been 3rd sorry Mark. Running a new style of event for the first time has a few glitches. Not to mention the amount of pressure that was exerted on the tabulation group for at the end of the race. The table below shows the corrected points but next to the riders name are the awards for the day which will stand.

Judges were Luke Strom start, James Woods, Brian Price, Timon Wagner, Lyn And Bruce Rennie, Ben Mason, Chris Phrom & Aaron Wiseman finish. Thank you for your time and effort. Also thanks to Andrew Mills, sorry we ran out of judging places. Brett Barnes helped out with commentary, great job Brett. Paul McLaughlin, Julia Humphreys and Donna Phrom registered the riders. Transport was provided to the riders in the form of two busses from Noel’s Coach Hire who also towed the trailers. Thanks to Thio Vanderberg, Ken Kirk and Jim & Sally Hatcher for their assistance in the event. Also thanks to the Grundy’s for bringing the Central Coast MTB trailer.


Number Points on Day Corrected Points
U19 Ladies
Bindi Hatcher 1st Yellow 14 151 121

Elite Ladies
Joanne Fox 1st Yellow 13 185 155

U15 Men
Dylan Phrom 3rd Blue 1 161.5 163.5
Josh Callaghan 2nd Blue 2 183 153
Seaton Humphreys 1st Blue 11 214 174

U17 Men
Lucas Phrom 1st Red 2 218 188
Justin Firth Red 5 163 121
Ashley Grundy 2nd Red 7 214 184
Mark Oliver 3rd Red 8 204 174
Peter Hawke Red 9 165 135

Veterans
David Grupe 1st White 18 184 149
Sergio Lavermicoccoa White (20) DNS

Sport Men
Evan Hoar White 7 194 164
Rod O’Hara White 13 184 163
Paul Davies 2nd White 14 206 186
Tim Williams 3rd White 15 197.5 167.5
Cory McGhire White 17 186 130.5
Mark Dlae White 19 194.5 168.5
Alex Hendrickson 1st White 20 214.5 186.5

U19 Men
Kane Macri Yellow 1 200 171.5
Shaun Ezzy Yellow (1) DNS
Bowen Douglas 2nd Yellow 4 214 190
Colin McLaughlin Yellow 5 195.5 161.5
Scott Grundy 1st Yellow 6 232.5 202.5
Andrew Bate Yellow 7 DNS
Eden Humphreys 3rd Yellow 8 205.5 177.5
Lee Watts Yellow 9 190.5 161
Michael Kirsten Yellow 11 201.5 167.5

Expert Men
Damien Fitzgerald White 8 DNF 61
Michael Hicks 1st White 9 200 173
Shane Berry White 12 DNS
Nigel Jordon 3rd White 18 184 DNS
Daniel Watson 2nd White 19 194.5 DNS

Elite Men
Ben Watkins White 1 199 159
John Dawe 1st White 2 213 183
Matt Carmzuli White 3 188 158
Travis Ashton White 4 202 172
Chris Eastwood White 5 194.5 165.5
Llewellyn Cameron White 6 DNS
John Odams White 10 201 171
Ricky Boyer 3rd White 11 203 73
Scott Pendergast White 16 DNS
Damien Reeve White 20 178.5 159.5
Ben Dagan 2nd White 21 203.5 175

[wombat]

I just got word on Damien; the injuries were quite extensive and he's not in a real good way; it won't be known for a little while yet though just how extensive and permanent the damage is.

Lou asked me to pass their thanks on to all the guys and girls that helped out yesterday, you were all great. And to everyone, spare a thought for Damo; this is the worst sort of accident and I hope I can speak for all of us when I saw our prayers are with you Damo.

[Scott]

best wishes for a full recovery Damien

[Wattsy]

watchin his crash was painfull, and especially where it happened to. hope he gets better. besides that, was 1 of the best events ive been 2, and i will have a vid up soon

[lloydgodfrey]

the kid damon is in bad order. i spoke to his girl friend and the doctors are sketched about whats going to happen next. i really hope he comes to a full recovery asap

[Daver]

yeah, it sounds brutal- lets hope it's not too bad

[Tomas]

I hope i dont have to have to buy another calender... That really cuts through me when stuff like this happens...

[fastrider gus]

bad luck about the crash, but great stuff to my bro johnny!!

[WOW182]

best wishes to you Damo we know you will make a full recovery and want to see you back on your bike again.

Best of luck mate, Mark.

[bazza]

are there any pics from this event by any chance? i didnt follow it really close.......and was wondering whats on it and what not

[oldbean]

Photos from the event can be seen at:

http://photos.dontyell.net/MountainBike_2004/Dargle-Freeride_20040222/index.html

[wombat]

If any of you guys want to send well wishes to damo, post them here http://www.farkin.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10398 and they'll be passed on. Cheers.

[Dale666]

Great event (apart from Damo's stack, all the best mate). Lets hope this doesnt put off clubs from running events of this type in the future. Just want to put out a big thanks to Steve Humphreys and WSMTB for the organisation of this event. Lets hope it wasnt a one and only.

[Lou]

hey everyone my names lou and i'm damiens girlfriend,

first off i'd like to give a huge thanks to anyone who helped out on sunday with damiens accident, and i'd also like thank everyone for their support and messages.. i have passed them all on to damo...

unfortunatley damo's injuries were and are pretty bad...

He crushed vertabres C4 & C5, damaged his spinal cord & dislocated his shoulder.. since then he has undergone surgery which successfully fused the bones back together in his neck..

.. yet i'm sorry to say, doctors told us he is a high level spinal injury and will end up in a wheelchair and may not regain movement of his arms but thankfully he can move his shoulders and has feeling from the nipples and up, so thats something to go with for now..

but it is still too early to say what is permanent, so we are all keeping high hopes, taking one day at a time and praying for a miracle..

.. as you can imagine this is a very hard time for all of us, especially damo, so please say a little prayer and hope for the best.

i will keep in contact, but any questions or messages you wanna pass on, feel free to email me..

THANKS GUYS
LOU :)

[wombat]

I'll paste this into the other thread Lou....