Subaru National MTB Series Round 2 – Mt Buller, Victoria

By Scott Bowden.

Fresh off the back of 4 days of solid racing on Tasmania’s rugged West Coast, Tom and I boxed up our shiny new Giant XTC Advanced SL 0’s and headed off to the second round of the national MTB series on Friday. Round 2 of the series took us to Mt Buller, Victoria where we had competed in previous years, so we were excited in knowing what good trails were to come.

In the lead up to the race we had struggled to arrange transport to the airport due to both Tom and myself being unable to hire cars due to our age. Thankfully Norm Douglas came to the rescue and ever so kindly provided us with a lift up to the mountain. Having already unpacked our bikes in the airport while waiting for Norm, much to the amazement of Asian tourists who got down on one knee to inspect our bikes as though they were some foreign object, we were not long out on the track after arriving at our accommodation. Fellow Giant rider Nick Morgan had organised our accommodation at a ski lodge located under 300m from the start line of the XCO.

After completing 2 laps of Saturday’s relatively straight forward yet physically challenging XCO course we were looking forward to the test to come and interested to see how the legs had recovered from Wildside. We lined up for the Eliminator Friday evening and had a bit of fun.

Saturday morning soon rolled round and Tom and I decided it would be rude not to have a brew at The Corner Store – Buller, owned by Norm and Jess Douglas. Great decision that was as they provided a quality latte, kicking our day off well. Whilst sitting outside of the perfectly located shop we cheered on team owner Dion Shaw as he battled it out in the Masters category finishing a solid 5th.

The Elite/U23 Men’s race being scheduled at 3pm allowed us to return to the accommodation and put our legs up whilst listening to some questionable music on Rage.

Numbers pinned on, bottles filled with Torq Nutrition, SRAM XX1 chain lubed and we were ready to tackle the 7 lap course. After the start of the race Tom was sitting in a good position heading off the road and into the single track before being taken down by another rider amidst the carnage and jostling for position before the first single track descent. Managing to ride his way back through plenty of riders Tom finished a credible 9th in U23. I had a smooth race except for cramping badly on the last lap finishing 7th in U23 which I was pleased with in such a strong field.

Feeling rather cooked and coughing like mad after inhaling a kilogram of dust around the course we refuelled at the buffet meal offered slightly higher up the mountain from where we were staying. Sunday morning called for a trail ride out to Mt Stirling and back down the Stone Fly descent with a great group of people finishing what had already been a great weekend on a high note.

THANKS

A huge thanks goes to Norm Douglas for the lift to Mt Buller, and to Steve Cusworth for the lift back to the airport. Without either of their help we would have more the tripled our k’s on the bike for the weekend. Also a special mention to Giant Bicycles Australia for providing us with impeccable race machines straight out of the box in time for the weekend with neither missing a beat. We now look forward to Round 3 of the National Series in Echuca, Victoria in 2 weeks time.

Pictures courtesy of The Roost.