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Transition Racing's first 2010 podiums.
02/17/10 (by Lars Sternberg)
This past weekend was the Australian National series round # 3 in Thredbo NSW.
Bryn and Jill both debut their new digs, and it sounds like it was one heck of a first race. 8+ minutes of nasty mud, with intermittent rain all weekend. They both killed it, amidst a few mechanicals. All of which can be expected during such adverse conditions. Here's an update directly from www.jillkintner.com
THREDBO, AUS
Thredbo is part of the snowy mountains, which has the highest peak in Australia, Mt kosciusko-7,300ft. It's one of the few summer mountain bike venues that has a chairlift at a ski resort, so as you can imagine, it's a pretty popular place. (About 7 hrs drive from our place in the Blue Mountains, couple Hrs from Canberra I think), and open most of the summer. Really nice place, stream flowing though the village, ski lodges, nice trees and greenery, etc, most everyone enjoys this venue.
We are in the midst of Round 3 of the Aussie national series, had some really wet weather the last few days, all through practice, but a small break in the rain just for qualifying today. Visibility was a major issue all through practice, so it was about a thousand times better to actually be able to see. Dirt was decent, except in a couple spots, where the muck was deep and pretty hard to navigate through. The Maxxis cut spikes were the ticket, but I'm not sure that many Aussies would even own a set of wetscreams. Some were loving the conditions, and some were getting all slideways. Track is pretty well destroyed. Lots of holes, ruts, plenty of mud, super long effort 7min+....
This is Bryn and my first Dh race of the year on Transition. Kind of one of my first real national DH races ever. I have done about 5 or 6 DH races in my day, Crankworx, Hood, sea otter, Lisbon, Snowmass, Northstar, etc?? but none quite like this. I am really really enjoying it!! In any condition:) My Tr450 feels like it suits me really well, comfy geometry, everything feels natural, Crankbrother Iodine rims are holding strong as well, just gotta get my fitness and hand strength up to par for these long ass courses:). I have ridden mud more than dry as it seems, and been practicing ruts on my little dirtbike, so all those rainy days are paying off for times like these.
Anyway, we've been training super hard getting ready for the season, and were excited to gain extra race experience. There is solid competition at these rounds, over 12 women on the start list, and the Men's field has about dozen world cup quality racers; Bryn ,Kovarik, Josh Button, Amiel Cavalier, Will Rischbieth, Shaun o'Connor, Rhys Willemse, Ben Cory, soon to be Rhys Atkinson, Swiss rider Lars Peyer is here, former MadCat- justin Havukainen is here riding for some fun, and a few others. Good crew of people with common interest, so yeah,it's good to see everyone again and catch up.
Since the weather has been so crappy, and we are in a national park with erosion issues, and a big storm predicted for tomorrow, They told us to run qualifier like it was the final. So without ever doing a full run due to visibility and tiredness, we all prepared for this quali to be the final. Bryn and I did early practice, but the conditions changes slightly from sloppy mud to a peanut buttery texture by race time. So brutal to pedal through that stuff, and all the holes were no picnic either, this track was rough to begin with, but damn. We sat out the later practice to save energy and stay warm, but it didn't really matter, in these conditions it becomes a lottery, minimize mistakes, pedal in all the spots you can, stay outta the holes and try to flow.
u-19 groups went first then Elite ladies, elite men. I was back in the field, so had quite a few gals in front of me. Passed 5 of them in my run over the course of my 8 min 37sec effort. Enduro Dh here. Yeah, pretty nutty, had to sit down and pedal i more places than I would've liked, but it was really tore up, rough , and loose. Took top time, So that's cool. May or may not have to back it up tomorrow, we will see how they call it. Clair Kovarik was +11 seconds for 2nd, Clair Whiteman 3rd.
In the mens Josh Button edged out Kovarik both on a 7min08sec run. Ameil 3rd, Rhys 6th. Bryn was riding unbelievably all weekend. He was on a ripper of a run, till the last bit of wood, when he popped out carrying and running his bicycle about downhill to the finishline. Had a bit of a mechanical tragedy and broke some stuff, so he still finished 9th!! With that happening running his bike which was unable to roll for about 45- 50 sec downhill to the finishline 7min50sec. Troy Brosnan won u-19.
Back to the lodge.... clean shit, dry shit, Shower, eat, repeat . Getting worked.
Well no lightning, but it did rail all day, and the race was on. They allowed everyone one practice run, on a drastically different course. New lines formed everywhere, ruts were deep, holes were deeper, visibility not so good, pedaling slow, flat, and tiring. But I'll tell you what, I had an awesome time in the mud hitting ruts and learning all kinds of new skills.
First time for a lot of things, first tear off pulls, first 8min+ long course, first aussie DH race, first full mud race, and first DH podium of the new year:) My run was ok, but had major stall outs in some flat bits, pretty wild sliding through mud, and was blind thorough some big sections with mud all over my lens, didn't quite master the tear off pull. Claire Buchar-Kovarik had a solid run and got me:), so I finished 2nd and I was happy with the riding and the lessons learned. For example, I now know to wear my goggles a lot tighter when using tear offs.
DH WOMEN 
1. Claire Buchar
2. Jill
3. Indy Boer
In the mens, ol Willy Rischbieth was in the hot seat forever, he was the first one down from his deflated tire yesterday, then Bryn blitzed and took over with a 7.17? or 18. He spent all night jimmying up his bike, finding parts, adding washers, rigging an axel, and just made it work, so a bit of redemption for him. Kovarik, on dry tires came pretty good, but it wasn't enough- 4th. Josh Button, the top seed, made it all the way to the bottom woods and had a little crash. Not sure how Rhys ended up, top 10 I think, he sort of smahed a finger in practice but still did good, and Ben Cory, who has probably done more runs on this track than anyone, but fresh off a broken wrist, won with a 7.15. Track was quite a bit slower than yesterday 7 sec they were averaging. It's interesting how every person and every run has such a monumental story behind it.
DH MEN
1. Ben Cory
2. Bryn
3. Shaun O'connor
4. Kovarik
5. Ameil
in U-19 Troy Brosnan crashed and went off course, not sure who the winner was, Aiden something maybe?? Dunno. Serious weather though, taken a beating this weekend just holding on, glad monday is our day off. Soooo much clean up to be done...
TOTAL COMMENTS FOR POST (82) | (View/Add Comments)
Lars Sternberg starts off the race season in Fontana, CA
02/12/10 (by Brad Walton)
Last week Lars and I headed south to (supposed to be sunny) California to kick off the 2010 race season. It was a good opportunity to blow out the cobwebs and was my first experience filming DH racing.
A rainy practice day introduced us to the new race course, and sections of trail changed throughout the day as it was lapped by practicing racers in the wet.
Race day offered new trail conditions as the clouds parted and gave way to beautiful sunny 60 degree weather. Lars's race run was super solid up top.
The bottom 1/3 of the course was flat and pedally, and had Lars reconsidering the amount of effort he put in at the top of the course. I'm always of the impression that if you don't crash, you did pretty well, but Lars wasn't real happy with his 8th place finish in the pro class.
Looks like some painful training days ahead before Sea Otter! Keep an eye out for us on the race scene this season, and we'll keep you posted on our next endeavor. --brad
TOTAL COMMENTS FOR POST (39) | (View/Add Comments)
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