Singletrack Mind Series

The Chocolate Wrapper - Event Report, Round 3

Dear All

With 3 rounds down and 2 to go, the SRAM Singletrack Mind series has been bolting along and while it's been gobs of fun we're happy to have a wee bit of a rest until round 4 at Mt Stomlo on August 29.

Round 3 at the home of Western Sydney Mountain Bike club – Yellomundee Regional Park was blessed by brilliant weather... once we'd warmed up after a very chilly start! Again everything went off without a hitch and on track behaviour was exemplary but for a few gel wrappers that were collected by one of our awesome roving marshals, Will Levy of www.mtnbike.com.au.

The lovely ladies from Adventure Medic had a pretty chilled out day, a few riders having physical disagreements with the rocks and trees but no serious injuries recorded. Their biggest task of the day was to present the very lucky Jasen Raymond with the early entrant’s prize of a 2-day Adventure First Aid course worth $350! Needless to say if you're thinking of learning or updating your First Aid qualifications talk to www.adventuremedic.com.au.

Our special solo category was again a highlight of the race, this time it was the Clydesdale’s time to shine! After weigh-in we had 7 riders qualify and with the formula of the rider’s weight multiplied by the number of laps they complete, the winner would remain a mystery until the end. There was around a 20% difference in weight between our burly lads, meaning the heavier riders would effectively get a bonus lap every 4 laps! In the end and with the sums double checked, the winner was a guy who's competitive all series even without a special category! With 1214.4 points Trent Moore was declared "The Biggest Winner", closely followed by Michael Smith on 1122 points and Ben Berghauser filling the podium on 893.2 points. Trent walked away with a K-Lite Racing light set worth $299!

All the regular categories were hard fought all day, the Open Threes saw an epic tussle between youthful exuberance and the experienced locals. The 2fast4U trio of young pinners from Nowra duked it out all day with the WSMTB all star team "The Three Sisters" which includes Club President Scott Ardron. After starting in 5th place the mountains men clawed their way to the front only to be relegated by the youngsters. Ten laps in and the Three Sisters again surged and held it …a gripping battle to the end, the margin less than a minute after 7 hours of racing!

The mens pairs was again hotly contested and while Craig Gordon and Josh Carlson were resting in preparation for big events later in the year, the elite ranks were ably bolstered by Olympian and multiple National Champion Paul Rowney who is back in fine form. With Yeti/Gu teammate Matt Potter they fended off Rockstar Racing's Troy Glennan and Dwight Woodforth and Brave Soldier's Garry Milburn and Mike Blewitt, but were under pressure all day from the Wollongong young guns Kyle Ward and Daniel McDonald. Yeti/Gu extend their series lead to 225 points over the Rockstars on 128.

There were plenty of solo competitors tuning up their racecraft for the upcoming World Solo 24 Hour Championships including the Womens winner Vanina Vergoz and Masters Men winner Garry James. We wish them the best of luck and we slipped them a large tube of Brave Soldier Friction Zone chamois cream... they'll need it! Jon Odams was back to show his win at Nowra wasn't a fluke, taking the win again in Open Men's over local rider David Ludenia and True Swain who still leads the series overall.

In addition to Brave Soldier we'd like to thank all our fantastic sponsors SRAM, Avid, RockShox, Truvativ, Leyzne, NZO clothing, Hammer Nutrition, Cannondale, K-Lite Racing, Kenda, Deuter, Mountain Biking Australia and Muc-Off for providing our winners and place getters with over $12000 of cash and prizes!

While it was getting mighty chilly at the race presentation it was well and truly worth staying back for as we gave away our awesome random draw prizes. First to go was the $1500 voucher from Cannondale! After the excruciating wait to find a winner at the last round this time it was a very quick affair as WSMTB member Michael Churchward was first to be drawn and it was very apparent that he was stoked with the prize! He's currently tossing up between getting a Cannondale Flash 29er Carbon hardtail or a CAAD 9 road bike, schweet!

If you haven't seen Avid's Elixir CR brakes you don't know how sexy the humble brake can be with carbon levers and their lovely low profile Elixir shape. As a bonus they work just a bit *awesome* too! The winner was very deserving, having done every round of the series and also hit the podium in the Clydsdales - Ben Berghauser went home one very happy man with Avid bling tucked under his arm!

Results, Photos & Reports

Results are up on the website, including the Clydesdale Special Category Champs results. We’ve also posted the current Series and Club point scores – don’t forget to nominate your MTBA Club when you enter to be counted!

Check out the awesome photos taken by the legendary Dave Bateman here.

Of course we'll have gobs of video, more to be uploaded this week, check the Singletrack Mind Youtube Channel for all the latest!

Also the very talented Robert Lee sent us a whole bunch more pics from Round 2 in Nowra, check 'em out in the gallery.

If you’re keen to read a couple of riders’ perspectives on their day out on the bike, see Jamie Bailey’s event report on Enduro Pulse. If you have a blog with a report on the event that you’d like to share with us, please send through the details!

Event Crew

  We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who came to or assisted in the successful running of the event:

• Western Sydney MTB Club - The 'mundee has been ridden and rated for years and it's all down to the dedication of this great club, next time you're out there thank the club people personally, they work hard to keep Sydney's only remaining race circuit open!
• Riders – yet another event where we’ve received so much positive feedback on the fun vibe and politeness of other riders. We can't do it without you, so thanks for coming and being excellent!
• Volunteers – We had a small but great band of vollies for this round, nothing was too hard (including servicing the dunnies!!). Thanks guys and gals you were tops!
• 1st Grose Vale Scouts - For providing great food, the pancakes were awesome!
• Yarramundi Rural Fire Brigade - They put out fires and they'll put out your thirst too, thanks for providing us with 1000L of precious water.
• Espresso Mobile - If creating excellent coffee was a superpower, Steve the barista would be pulling the espresso shots with a cape on! 
• Mechanical Support – A huge thanks to SRAM tech support and Lifecycles for keeping everyones bike purring all day.
• Castech Timing – for their state of the art, live to the web timing service. Don't forget to bookmark and send this link to your Mum: www.onlineresults.com.au before you come to the next round so she can track your progress. You can also log on to their service at the event with your internet or wi-fi enabled device.