Australian National Championships in Bright, the big event to close off the national racing for this summer and perfectly timed to give me a birthday weekend filled with MTB action. The town of Bright was already filled with the MTB buzz when Min and I arrived on Friday, making finding the race village easy, following the trail of bike laden cars leading to the outskirts of town.
After arriving and checking out the village, Downhill practice was the first point of call for me, to see for myself all the good things I’d been hearing in the lead up to the weekend. The track did not disappoint, steep loose and dusty from beginning to end, which made for a tough afternoon hike after choosing the option of walking up instead of catching the transport wagon to the top. It did however give me plenty of time to find a few favourite spots to take in the action, plus witness the amazing lighting produced by afternoon sun streaming into the forest.
Saturday’s schedule was a full one, starting out early with practice on the Downhill track for all competitors, something all riders took full advantage of as the track was always changing and the large number of natural lines through the forest needed to be narrowed down before seeding that afternoon. By mid morning I had all photo locations locked and a good handle on everything DH for the day, so it was time to move across to check out the XCO (Cross Country Olympic) racing.
The XCO course carried on the classic bright trail style, picturesque tracks winding through the pine forest, dusty fire roads and some open grass areas to finish off through the race village. The Quality of racing matched that of the trails with some of Australia’s fittest athletes’ putting it all on the line for a chance at the National Champions jersey for the next year. The results in both elite races going to the dominant Trek team, Bec Henderson in the women’s and Dan McConnell in the men’s.
From XCO racing, to lunch watching the Observed Trials, something you should check out if you haven’t seen any of it before and a real treat to watch over the weekend.
Back up the hill after lunch to watch the downhill seeding, an exciting display of all riders putting in their best race efforts to see where they stood for Sunday’s race. The added pace seeing many riders laying it down through loose, blown out sections of the track. The fastest time of the day went to Troy Brosnan by the slimmest of margins (0.2 seconds) to Connor Fearon, the only two riders to break under 4 minutes, placing them 7 seconds in front of the rest of the field.
Another action packed day was set for Sunday, morning practice for Downhill, Cross Country Eliminator (XCE) and short course racing through the middle of the day, Observed trials finals, then finishing off with the Downhill racing.
The XCE course had been set up to race right through the village and just inside the nearby forest, allowing the crowds to see almost all of each race from many locations round the trail and creating a great atmosphere for the riders. Starting from a field of 32 after the seeding lap, the heats narrowed down to the finals quite quickly and action packed the whole time. In the Men’s final, Past XCE world champ Paul Van Der Ploeg took the win with a display of unmatchable power in the final straits. Tristan Ward in second place, with Cameron Ivory third. The women’s final was action packed, a crash half way shifted the race order then a strong finish by Em Parks saw her take the win from Bec Henderson, with Peta Mullens holding onto third.
The downhill finals proved to very exciting through all the category’s with most riders improving on their times from seeding and setting the scene for the pro’s later in the day.
The U19 men’s started the fierce competition with all riders wanting to finish the Australian season strong in the lead up to their world cup campaigns. Andrew Crimmins held onto solid form through the weekend and took the win over Remy Morton (2nd), Max Warshawsky (3rd).
The Elite Women’s had reining champ Tracy Hannah coming back to defend her title and take the win ahead of Canadian Claire Buchar, in second and last years Junior world champ Tegan Molloy in third, a solid start to her first year racing in the elite category.
The final race for the day, elite men’s was a cracker. Race times were getting lower with every rider pushing it to the limits, trying to get them selves onto the podium for a piece of the glory. Coming down to the wire once again three riders managed to sneak under the 4-minute mark. Dean Lucas was the first to do so taking 4 seconds off his seeding time, enough to put him third on the podium. Connor Fearon posted a time 2 seconds quicker than Lucas, leaving him waiting for only Troy Brosnan to come down the hill. Brosnan gave it everything and crossed the line 1 second in front of Fearon, giving him the win and title of National Champion. An exciting end, to an epic weekend of racing.
