Saturday 16th October 2010
I never realized until the day that it had been a full year since we held a Coffs Downhill race on Mt Coramba. We’ve had some crap weather since then but nothing like what we had last year to put an end to shuttling the fire road for a race meeting. Many people voiced their concern with regarding the lack of racing and I had to weather the storm (no pun intended…….) and get things back on track. I’m sorry it has taken a year but we have proved that good things never rest, Coffs Downhill is back!
Riders were entering a bit of an unknown with plenty of new lines to test their skills on. The emails and messages and phone calls had been running hot all week with many doubting the weather. I knew it’d be wet in the shade but the sun did its thing and lit the place up! Many areas on the Mt Coramba track turned a little slushy but the bulk of the venue became our favorite type of surface: tacky!
A couple of hardened, seasoned and courageous trail crew dudes invented a new section before the run into the Wasteland (formerly known as the table top) to ease the amount of braking needed to bomb down the rough section before entering the wasteland. One of the drops in this section proved to be a nuisance more than a pleasure and it took the hint. The log decayed in the space of five minutes and simply…….fell out of the way! Thanks to the guys for their effort on that area, it improved the following and preceding sections even more.
The Wasteland is a “work in progress”. We have simply put a couple of lines in it to get you through it for now. We will improve that section as time goes by so stop worrying about your poor little legs from those extra two pedal strokes.
As the morning shuttles progressed I watched the dust start to appear instead of mud on the rider’s legs and wondered how fast the track was getting. I did a “course inspection” just before lunch time and thought about calling the race runs off so I could join in the shuttles. The track was simply awesome! The rain in the previous days backed by the sunshine on the day made it the place to be.
Race runs kicked off early in the afternoon with riders promised two timed runs. We had a record amount of 29 riders on the day and a fair few spectators / hecklers hanging around to catch the action. The start area had the usual pre race “talk yourself up” session with the local younglings showing everyone from out of town that they’d been practicing their methods of red lining the bullshit meter to the max in the off season. All had a few laughs but the focus was definitely on their run to come. I encouraged a few guys to use their start line technique as instructed by Josh Button a few weeks earlier but they obviously hadn’t practiced it much as the “out of towners” smoked them off the line. It was evident from the start that our local boys need to think about grabbing some extra seconds by nailing the simple things like starting.
As the riders rolled up for their second run I listened to who did what and who beat who on their first run. The phone call came through letting me know who had eaten dirt and / or knicked off to sharpen grandma’s shovel. We were down a couple of riders but the remaining guys knew what they had to do to beat their times. I again suggested riding off the line a bit faster but a couple of the local droids thought their time would be better spent beating their chests. Next round we will have Matt and Korean Collon having a punch up to prove who is the manliest of them all! Boneheads…………
The riders settled down and results poured in with only two locals grabbing spots in the top five of the open class. The three locals who entered the junior / sport / hardtail / not in the open category filled the top three spots, who would have figured that to be possible! Awesome effort guys, great times and good laughs. The open category saw some pretty red hot times considering I added a good twenty seconds to the course. Zac Buckley nailed a good run to finish first with local punter Sam Collins finishing second. Third was Tim Wynan with Joesf Murray fourth and Captain Troy Bromley racking up the fifth best time of the day.
The idea of our club days is to have a good time, relax and enjoy a good day out with good people riding bikes. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what time you post as long as you pushed yourself to your limits and rode as best as you could. Every rider out there can improve in one way or another but the main point of competing is to be the best you can be. You should all be happy and smile after looking at your time, you all did a great day of riding.
Our next event is on Saturday November 27th. I’ll get more details out closer to the daybut as always feel free to throw your ideas at me for upcoming events or ways to improve the best track in Australia.
Thanks to all who came along, thanks to the good guys who drove the van, thanks to Al at Ventoux Cycles for the van and the BBQ and thanks to the generous Bromley crew for the always awesome trailer. You younger guys should also stop what you’re doing now and say thanks to your Mum and Dad for getting you around each time you want to ride your bike, they’re awesome!
Results!
Zac Buckley 4.10.20
Sam Collins 4.13.68
Tim Wynan 4.17.00
Josef Murray 4.20.74
Troy Bromley 4.22.86
Jesse Gleesen 4.23.17
Will Hickman 4.23.99
Hayden Elks 4.24.00
Hayden Pootie 4.27.43
James Murphy 4.28.00
James Price 4.28.55
Peter Young 4.34.17
Jordon Collon 4.34.74
Jonathon Nash 4.39.80
Mick Sherwood 4.56.77
Matt Wright 4.58.80
Tom O'Connell 5.00.00
Jarrod Garner 5.01.46
Matt Reid 5.10.00
Dug Black 5.15.24
Richard Anderson 5.38.00
Fraser Short 6.37.00
Blake Johnson 10.51.77
Sam Ball
Robert Townsend
Jake Bromley 4.46.20
Laurie Poole 4.56.46
Joel Anderson 5.28.86
***Please help me get in contact with Peter Young, Jarrod garner, Sam Ball and Blake Johnson. They have the number plates in their posession (numbers 5,6,7 and 8). Failure to return the plates within a week attracts a knock on the door from the the Sheriff.
I never realized until the day that it had been a full year since we held a Coffs Downhill race on Mt Coramba. We’ve had some crap weather since then but nothing like what we had last year to put an end to shuttling the fire road for a race meeting. Many people voiced their concern with regarding the lack of racing and I had to weather the storm (no pun intended…….) and get things back on track. I’m sorry it has taken a year but we have proved that good things never rest, Coffs Downhill is back!
Riders were entering a bit of an unknown with plenty of new lines to test their skills on. The emails and messages and phone calls had been running hot all week with many doubting the weather. I knew it’d be wet in the shade but the sun did its thing and lit the place up! Many areas on the Mt Coramba track turned a little slushy but the bulk of the venue became our favorite type of surface: tacky!
A couple of hardened, seasoned and courageous trail crew dudes invented a new section before the run into the Wasteland (formerly known as the table top) to ease the amount of braking needed to bomb down the rough section before entering the wasteland. One of the drops in this section proved to be a nuisance more than a pleasure and it took the hint. The log decayed in the space of five minutes and simply…….fell out of the way! Thanks to the guys for their effort on that area, it improved the following and preceding sections even more.
The Wasteland is a “work in progress”. We have simply put a couple of lines in it to get you through it for now. We will improve that section as time goes by so stop worrying about your poor little legs from those extra two pedal strokes.
As the morning shuttles progressed I watched the dust start to appear instead of mud on the rider’s legs and wondered how fast the track was getting. I did a “course inspection” just before lunch time and thought about calling the race runs off so I could join in the shuttles. The track was simply awesome! The rain in the previous days backed by the sunshine on the day made it the place to be.
Race runs kicked off early in the afternoon with riders promised two timed runs. We had a record amount of 29 riders on the day and a fair few spectators / hecklers hanging around to catch the action. The start area had the usual pre race “talk yourself up” session with the local younglings showing everyone from out of town that they’d been practicing their methods of red lining the bullshit meter to the max in the off season. All had a few laughs but the focus was definitely on their run to come. I encouraged a few guys to use their start line technique as instructed by Josh Button a few weeks earlier but they obviously hadn’t practiced it much as the “out of towners” smoked them off the line. It was evident from the start that our local boys need to think about grabbing some extra seconds by nailing the simple things like starting.
As the riders rolled up for their second run I listened to who did what and who beat who on their first run. The phone call came through letting me know who had eaten dirt and / or knicked off to sharpen grandma’s shovel. We were down a couple of riders but the remaining guys knew what they had to do to beat their times. I again suggested riding off the line a bit faster but a couple of the local droids thought their time would be better spent beating their chests. Next round we will have Matt and Korean Collon having a punch up to prove who is the manliest of them all! Boneheads…………
The riders settled down and results poured in with only two locals grabbing spots in the top five of the open class. The three locals who entered the junior / sport / hardtail / not in the open category filled the top three spots, who would have figured that to be possible! Awesome effort guys, great times and good laughs. The open category saw some pretty red hot times considering I added a good twenty seconds to the course. Zac Buckley nailed a good run to finish first with local punter Sam Collins finishing second. Third was Tim Wynan with Joesf Murray fourth and Captain Troy Bromley racking up the fifth best time of the day.
The idea of our club days is to have a good time, relax and enjoy a good day out with good people riding bikes. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what time you post as long as you pushed yourself to your limits and rode as best as you could. Every rider out there can improve in one way or another but the main point of competing is to be the best you can be. You should all be happy and smile after looking at your time, you all did a great day of riding.
Our next event is on Saturday November 27th. I’ll get more details out closer to the daybut as always feel free to throw your ideas at me for upcoming events or ways to improve the best track in Australia.
Thanks to all who came along, thanks to the good guys who drove the van, thanks to Al at Ventoux Cycles for the van and the BBQ and thanks to the generous Bromley crew for the always awesome trailer. You younger guys should also stop what you’re doing now and say thanks to your Mum and Dad for getting you around each time you want to ride your bike, they’re awesome!
Results!
Zac Buckley 4.10.20
Sam Collins 4.13.68
Tim Wynan 4.17.00
Josef Murray 4.20.74
Troy Bromley 4.22.86
Jesse Gleesen 4.23.17
Will Hickman 4.23.99
Hayden Elks 4.24.00
Hayden Pootie 4.27.43
James Murphy 4.28.00
James Price 4.28.55
Peter Young 4.34.17
Jordon Collon 4.34.74
Jonathon Nash 4.39.80
Mick Sherwood 4.56.77
Matt Wright 4.58.80
Tom O'Connell 5.00.00
Jarrod Garner 5.01.46
Matt Reid 5.10.00
Dug Black 5.15.24
Richard Anderson 5.38.00
Fraser Short 6.37.00
Blake Johnson 10.51.77
Sam Ball
Robert Townsend
Jake Bromley 4.46.20
Laurie Poole 4.56.46
Joel Anderson 5.28.86
***Please help me get in contact with Peter Young, Jarrod garner, Sam Ball and Blake Johnson. They have the number plates in their posession (numbers 5,6,7 and 8). Failure to return the plates within a week attracts a knock on the door from the the Sheriff.
