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The Jayco National Mountain Bike Series presented by Specialized rolled into the Victorian regional town of Shepparton for Round 2 of the 2010 season. With 3 disciplines of cross country on offer over the weekend, Rush Racing Specialized had seven riders on hand to tackle the new course at Mount Major. Friday’s practice session left many top XC riders scratching their heads about how to ride the technical sections of the course. Rocky climbs and tight dusty single trail was combined with fast off camber grassy descents and tough rocky drops.
Friday night was the 4X and Rush Racing was on hand to assist our good friend current world 4X champion and Australian champion, Caroline Buchanan with some last minute adjustments on her way to yet another national round win. Saturday morning and a strong field lined up for the elite men’s cross country Olympic race. Majority of the riders were in top form after last weeks National Championships especially Rush Racing Specialized’s Josh Carlson keen to add to his bronze medal from Adelaide.
Also lining up for the XCO were Rush Racing Specialized’s Stephen “Big George” Van Dyke and taking a break from team management duties Tim Chadd in his first elite xco race since 1996. Surprisingly Tim was joined at the back of the field by multiple national champion and Olympian Sid Tablerlay of the Sho-air Specialized team. Rico Rogers dusted off his mountain biking skills from a past life to join the team for the weekend. Rico is a former professional downhill mountain biker who made the change to road racing for the past seven years. “After the Bay Classic I was determined to keep doing as much racing as possible. The mountain bike boys from our team talked me into having a go at some off road stuff again, I said, OK this should be a bit of fun!”
Someone must have told Josh that there was a prize for hole shot, because he rocketed off the start line and lead the field up the first climb. One of the riders who couldn’t handle the pace crashed in the opening two hundred metres allowing Tim, with Sid on his wheel to jump from last to the top ten. Needless to say Tim waved Sid through fairly early on the climb. The course was proving more difficult as the race progressed with sections of trail becoming almost impossible to ride. All riders struggled to get into a rhythm. “Just as you think you are getting comfortable on a climb there would be a rock garden or a super steep section.” Said Josh. With a staggering 12 riders not able to finish Josh’s 6th place was a fantastic effort and Big George finishing in 19th was impressive. Tim Finished 5 laps before being caught by the winner and Rico decided to save his legs for the XC enduro the next day after 4 laps in road shoes making the walking sections hard.
Rohin Adams lined up in the XCO veterans class against a small but strong field. He had a great start and led the first couple of laps. Former Australian team rider Josh Flemming was out to drop the hammer on the last few laps. Rohin had a great ride to hold on for the silver. Sunday hosted the 4 hour enduro followed by the cross country short course. Matt Ligermoet and Sam Chancellor arrived Sunday to test themselves in the solo category and Rush Racing Specialized had two strong teams of Rohin and Big George in one and Tim and Rico in the other for the open male pairs.
The most technical sections of Saturdays XCO had been removed from the enduro course and some more gradual climbs and simplified rock gardens added in their place. Big George and Rohin lead from the gun showing the same form that has earnt them countless state and national level enduro titles.
The race to make up the rest of the podium behind was hotly contested between Rush Racing’s Tim and Rico, Team Wombat and Infared Racing. During the first hour Rush racing 2 were holding onto second place. The course allowing Tim to make up for his slower climbing by pulling back the opposition on the long and technical downhill sections. “I would hit the last downhill as hard as I could my DH friends waiting for the Downhill shuttles would go nuts when I aired past them each lap. Some of the marshals would tell me to be careful and slow down” laughed Tim. Unfortunately Rico fell during the 2nd hour and needed medical attention on his hand sending Tim out for a double lap. Unable to match the pace of team wombats rider fresh off a rest laps second place slipped away.
Rico returned from the first aid tent and pulled a strong double lap to keep Rush racing in the hunt for a podium. Completing his laps just within the time limit this allowed Tim to head out on one more. At the peak of the climb Infrared racing had punctured. assistance and a head to head DH race mechanical damage than expected so and Rush Racing stood in first and third on the podium. Matt and Sam had impressive rides in the solo class. Both using the race as more of a training exercise for some longer races Matt finishing in 5th and Sam warmed up when he crossed the line in 6th.
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