NEWS and INFORMATION

 

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Wednesday 11 October

Club Downhill Championships’ Rounds 3 and 4

• Location: El Arish, Miles’s Place

• Date: 15/16 October 2006

Saturday 15^th October 2006

• You will be able to practice the El Arish downhill on Saturday afternoon. There are no set practice times during the afternoon and all riders should have an annual or day licence before riding on the course.

• Camping is available onsite, alternatively you can contact Diggers Caravan Park (07 40685281) or stay at Mission Beach

Sunday 16^th October

• Registration 8.00AM – 10.30AM

• Practice 8.30AM – 11.00AM

• Racing from around 12.00PM

• There will be a 30 minute break between Rounds 3 and 4.

Entry Fees

• Nomination for Rounds 3 and 4: $25.00 (includes 2 race runs per round)

• Club Membership: $20.00 (for anyone who is not a current club member)

• Day Licence: $15.00

• Annual Licence: Junior $60.00 and Senior $80.00 – forms will be available on the day.

Notes:

• Full face helmets are now compulsory for Downhill events and must be worn at all times whilst riding the downhill course.
• Each rider must complete at least one practice run on the Sunday and please note there are 4 race runs for the day so conserve your energy and stay hydrated.
• Drinks will be for sale during the weekend and a BBQ will be available after practice and prior to racing.
• There are no prizes on the day, you will be awarded points towards the series.
• We will do our best to print out results shortly after each round as well as publish these on the club website within 24 hours.

A final note that we need volunteers to help make the day run as smoothly as possible and this includes transport (including 4WD vehicles if you have one), timing (start and finish), track marshals (wander the course with a radio), first aid (let us know if you can help out) and someone to get the BBQ ready on Sunday. Just come over and see Normie at the registration tent if you can help out on Sunday.

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Wednesday 27 September - I might as well abuse my privileges as webmaster here: some lowlife has stolen my yellow Mongoose Teocali Elite from off the bike rack on the back of my car at work today. So if you see someone riding around in Cairns on something that looks way too expensive for them (I'm sure you know what I mean...) please contact me or Cairns Police. Great start to my two weeks holiday! We are not amused...

There are a few Teocali Elites around, and they are all yellow. Please don't harass the wrong person. The serial number on mine is HAJNJ00735.

Sunday 24 September - And now for something completely different (almost). Click here

Thursday 21 September - The revised calendar can now be found on the Calendar page (it seemed like a good place to put it). Please note that there is now an additional (replacement) XC round, and the AGM and DH5 have moved. The whole plot is to get as many races in before the season ends, and make sure we're ready for the AGM. Any / all assistance with the running of these final rounds will be greatly appreciated by "the few" who are doing the bulk of the work. If you're only racing DH, come and help at XC. If you're only running XC, come and help at DH.

Tuesday 19 September - Final results for XC4 have now been posted on the Results page, as has the points score update.

DH3/4 will probably not move after all, we are more likely to move the AGM and fit in the missing XC2 that we forgot about...

Monday 18 September - Preliminary results for XC4 are available here. Preliminary results for DH 1 & 2 are available here. Photos from DH are available in the usual place. I'll try to get point scores etc up tonight, but no promises - it was a heck of a weekend!

Update - the results and points score for Downhill are available in PDF format from the Results page. I'll get the points for XC updated tomorrow night. (Told you it was going to be a difficult weekend!). Please watch the website for calendar changes - DH 3 & 4 is likely to move to 8 October.

Normie's wrap-up story on the El Arish event is here.

Thursday 14 September - Just a reminder about the times for the weekend races (please bear with us, it's going to be a difficult weekend for the organisers):

XC4 will commence at 3.00pm Saturday at the MacGregor Road trailhead at Smithfield. Race duration will be 1.5 hours (unless you decide to run for 2 hours)

DH1 & 2 will commence practice at 0900 Sunday at El Arish. If we can start any earlier, we will.

Saturday 9 September - SBS will be showing coverage of the Worlds at 11.00am Sunday.

Next weekend we have XC4 at Smithfield on Saturday, and DH 1&2 at El Arish on Sunday. If you can help out in any way, please contact us urgently! Don't leave it to the usual few to try to run everything at opposite ends of our territory on consecutive days...

Sunday 3 September - Update from working bee #2 at El Arish.

El Arish + Bikes = Rain, well that’s what most of us were thinking as we drove south into heavier rain and lower clouds. A bit out of place for this time of year, but I can assure you it was the type of rain you would expect at El Arish, bucketing down. Even so, the call for help had been responded to and another enthusiastic group of downhillers picked up the tools and got stuck in to the remaining sections of the downhill track.

After several hours of clearing, digging and grooming, the track is now cleared top to bottom and ready for racing in a few weeks. We will need a crew to go through and do a pre-race cleanup again on the Saturday 16^th and make sure everything is in order. The course follows much the same line as that used last year with some changes including:

• New start with a few more twists and turns before you descend into the rainforest.
• A good size jump drop that will quickly sort the men from the boys, and yes there is a B line around it
• A few new berms to keep much needed speed through those twisty sections
• Some good off camber stuff that will make sure you use all those riding skills.
• The re-opening of the creek line finish.

Thanks to those who made the trip today, including Rob, Dan, Oscar, Luke, Smitty, Charlie, Bettsy, Jordan, Shane, Grant, Simon, Miles and anyone else I forgot. Superb effort, much appreciated and a shame none of us got to ride it. At least my bike got a good clean in the back of the car on the way home.

Fingers crossed we get some fine weather in two weeks. Dry track will be fast and fun. Damp track will be slippery and fun.

Cheers

Normie.

Thursday 31 August - September 3^rd (Sunday) Working Bee on El Arish downhill, starting at 9.00AM. Bring your tools, water, gloves for working and your bike for some afternoon downhill runs. Miles will be putting on a BBQ for anyone helping out, and we really appreciate as much help as possible to finish off the track and get it ready for the race on the 17^th.

 

Sunday 27 August - A progress report from Normie on the El Arish Downhill:

 

An update for you all from the working bee at El Arish on the weekend. It ended up being a Sunday only working bee (no takers for Saturday), and we had a decent crew but certainly could use more help to make the work easier for everyone.

After a good days work we have about 2/3 of the track cleared and rideable and will need to run another working bee next weekend to finish it off for the race in a few weeks. Sunday 03/09 is the preferred day, but if you can make it down on the Saturday 02/09 afternoon, drop us an email and if there is enough interest we’ll get into it early. The sections yet to be cleared are the mid section about 100m from the top to the big drop and the lower creek line (this will be restored instead of using the mountain X track for the finish). There is still plenty of good work to be done and we do need helpers for next weekend if you want to have a race on the 17/09.

The plan is to start at 9.00AM and as long as we get enough people, we are hoping to get a few runs in later in the afternoon. The track which has been cleared so far is looking awesome and lots of fun as El Arish always is. So if you guys and girls want to race, get talking, organise some transport, bring your tools, water and gloves and head to El Arish.

Big thanks today for all who helped out, including Grant, Simon and Crew (thanks fellas for the work on the bottom, it looks sweet and we’ll finish it off first up next weekend), Dan, Russell, Tyson, Alec, Shane, Gavin, Benny, Gunter and Miles.

Hope to see all you keen downhillers out there next Sunday. Bring on the racing. It’s been too long.

Cheers

Normie.

 

Monday 21 August - Struan Lamont's RRR race report is now available on the RRR page.

 

Sunday 20th August - Dave Wood has taken out the 2006 RRR-Classic by 0.1 seconds from Wes Reibel, who in turn was 0.1 seconds in front of Struan Lamont! Full results and pics soon - and no doubt a story from Struan shortly thereafter...

Update 1: Results and finishing order now downloadable from the RRR page, thanks heaps to Normie!

Update 2: 233 photos now available at the Gallery, or just click here.

Friday 18 August - Okay, you can stop emailing me - the H8H positions and lap times are now available from the H8H page... Just remember that I'm not responsible for anything. Ever :)

 

Thursday 17 August - As noted previously, things are happening in deepest darkest El Arish. Here's the current program of what's going to happen:

Monday 14 August - The Herberton 8 Hour has been run and won, official results to appear here as soon as I get them. All the photos are up in the usual place (or just click here).

 

 

Sunday 6 August - Just had a message from Dean Boyce, direct from the Herberton 8-Hour track: "It's bloody cold, bring your winter woollies!" Apparently there is frost all over the airstrip and the temperature is at (or maybe even below) zero... You have been warned!

 

Tuesday 25 July - The RRR page has been updated with start times and registration times etc.

 

I spoke briefly to Miles yesterday evening about the El Arish Downhill Track and he told me that one of the minor hiccups was that the landowner had been on holidays. You can't help those sort of breaks. Anyway, he's been very receptive to our offer of help, and they will be getting the road cut repaired in short order. Miles has already been hacking the dead timber with a chainsaw so that once the road is navigable, he can get his bobcat over the other side of the gap and get the road itself cleared. Then we'll be hollering for help for the bits that the bobcat can't get to. So things are happening! In the meantime, go practice for the Herberton 8 Hour and the RRR.

 

 

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