Another beautiful day up here at Mount Buller for the Australian National Championships. Saturday was all about the Downhill, after 3 days of practice and a seeding run on Friday most of the riders and the course itself was feeling fatigued. Very fine dust, huge loose rocks, corners that had moved a foot further back into the mountain and holes that could swallow half a wheel. It was dubbed one of the tougher tracks we’ve seen at National Champs for a while. Even the Elite male winning time today was a fraction slower than the seeding time!
The track itself has 3 main sections. The upper woods with tight corners, small gaps and 2 road gaps (although the second road gap was probably a fraction slower for the most skilled riders).
The second wood section was a little straighter and faster although probably a little more tech with some slow/awkward sections that were the most likely spots to lose time.
The bottom of the track is more flat out with long straights and wide open corners with multiple lines followed by the fast motorway. All up its 3+ minutes (2:58.981 was today’s fastest time) of rough, loose and flat out alpine track, a great place to decide our National Champions!
Some notable achievements today were:
- 11 year old Benson Archer winning the U13 boys title with a 3:35
- 74 year old Michael Benson winning Masters 9 men!
- U15 Women Madeline Lloyd racing a time of 3:40.863. The 6th fastest Women’s time of the day!
- David Tarling coming back from a shattered Femur 18 months ago to Win Masters 5 Men!
- U17 Tilly Boadle with a 3:29 and U19 Elleni Turkovic with a 3:27! Elite medalist times!
There’s stories of glory and stories of pain at every National Championships, but I think the happiest athletes today were our Elite Champions Sian A’hern and Luke Meier Smith, both a little worse for wear after a big week they were all smiles this evening on the podium. Sian claiming her 4th Elite title and Luke his 3rd (in a row)!
Elite Women Podium:
- Sian A’hern
- Sacha Mills
- Zali Miklas
- Ashleigh Weinert
- Bella Schofield
Elite Men Podium:
- Luke Meier Smith
- Troy Brosnan
- Kye A’hern
- Jackson Connelly
- Ryan Gilchrist
U19 Women:
- Elleni Turkovic
- Sami Rothwell
- Amelia Freeman
U19 Men:
- Oliver Colthup
- Zac Bradley
- Lachy Roberts
Full results can be found here: https://my.raceresult.com/330082/
Tomorrow is the final day here at Mount Buller and it’s all about the XCO! The weather looks to be rolling in with a predicted 20mm of rain forecast, at least there won’t be any dust…
Matt Rousu
