Tuesday June 21
- New stuff, in date order:
The final round of the Tri-Cities Downhill will be held on the weekend of
July 2 / 3 at El Arish (this is the El Arish round, not to be confused
with the Cairns round...) This will also be Round 1 of the 2005 Club DH
Championship, so you'll be playing for two lots of points at the same time.
Practice on Saturday, practice and race on Sunday. Overnight camping available.
There will be a working bee at the Smithfield
XC tracks on Sunday July 10 commencing at the trailhead (McGregor Road) at
0900. According to Damian, there isn't a huge amount to be done, as he will be
going out there working over the next couple of weeks. This will be in
preparation for Round 1 of the 2005 Club XC Championship which will probably be
the following weekend, we'll let you know which day as soon as we finalise it.
The final round of the Tri-Cities Cross-Country
will be held in conjunction with the Paluma Push at Townsville on 24 July.
Check out
www.rockwheelers.com for more information.
Unfortunately, there will (at this stage) be no
Club MTX series this year.
Monday June 13
- Okay, the results of the wild and woolly El Arish (Cairns) Downhill
round of the NQ Sunshine Series are now available on the Results page. There is
also a corrected version of the XC results. And finally, the overall
points score has been posted for Rounds 1 & 2. Stay tuned for the
location/date of Round 3! Thanks to all who attended and made it such a great
day, and to Miles and his family for allowing us to use the property for the
weekend! Great to see some new riders there and hope to see them again soon.
Sunday June 12
- Results from the second round of the Tri-Cities Downhill run at El
Arish
today will be posted tomorrow (Monday) due to lack of time tonight. The pics are
up in the usual place, however. For those who need a quick fix, Expert
Men was taken out by the Mayor of El Arish, Miles Meade, by two seconds from
Dennis Beare, Carl Leitch took Hardtail, Tracey Hannah walked away with Expert
Women, Daniel Boyce won U15, Brian Boldiston took U17, Luke Matthews took U19,
Sean Wilmot won Sport and Luke McDonald was the top Veteran.
Saturday 11 June
- Results of the second round of the Tri-Cities Cross Country event held
today at Pilba Peak are now available on the Results page, and pics of the
event at www.gordong.com
Tuesday 7 June
- MTBA has released the 2005/06 calendar
(available here in PDF
format). Some aspects of the calendar include (in Tony Scott's words):
-
4 rounds in XC and DH - all to
count. 6 rounds in MTX.
-
All venues are high profile
sites which promise the delivery of awesome MTB competition.
-
First MTX competition to be
held in conjunction with the 2005 Australian Bike Show at a permanent
MTX track at Olympic Park in the middle of Sydney.
-
More events having both XC and
DH - better for the spectators and public.
-
XC1 and DH1 held in Tasmania
for the first time since 2000.
-
XC2 and DH2 held in WA, first
time since 1999!
-
XC3 will be the first
selection race for Australian Elite riders at the 2006 Commonwealth
Games, and incorporate the 2006 University Games. The 2006 Commonwealth
Games XC course will be used
-
Finals at Mt. Buller, XC will
once again be a long loop format (albeit with some minor changes to
remove some of the more technically challenging parts of the course)
-
National Championships split
to accommodate XC Commonwealth Games selection needs and to fit in with
other events already scheduled in Thredbo
-
National Champs are NOT part
of the Series
Sunday 5 June
-
Another Poker Ride run and done, with the
new track sections for next weekend's Tri-City round being race-tested for the
first time. Lots of hard work for Dan and friends to even get the extra bits cut
out. Lots of fun, later start, the rain showers held off and everyone had fun,
which is the main thing. Photos at
www.gordong.com as per usual, of course. See you at Pilba Peak next
Saturday!
Sunday 29 May
- Notes from Normie:
We have finished cleaning the El Arish
downhill and it is in prime condition. Most of the old track will be
used and it has been cleaned and groomed ready for the long weekend
race, with some bigger jumps and the return of the stutters. The course
has been changed a little with a new section on the lower part of the
hill that is going to test everyone's off camber riding skills.
The weather today was perfect, we are
hoping for more of that blue sky over what we think is the wettest place
in Australia (well it seems that way anyway). While we have no control
over the weather, it plans to be an awesome race and a good return to
downhill for the Cairns club after an extended break. We are blaming
the weather, not the fact that most of us have been carrying some form
of injury, racing national series races or just riding and having too
much fun.
Saturday 28 May
- The Cairns Mountain Bike Club regrets to advise
that we will not be hosting the planned round of the National Series in
October 2005, due to circumstances beyond our control. But we intend to be back
in '06!
Tuesday 24 May
- The next round of the Triple-City Challenge
(aka Northern Sunshine Series) will be held over the June long weekend,
split over two locations with details as follows:
Saturday 11th June:
Cross Country at Pilba Peak Mountain Bike Park,
Goldsborough Valley, Gordonvale. From the highway, turn up the Gillies
Range Road, turn right just before the Mountain View Pub at Little
Mulgrave Road, right at Beryl Ann Drive. Registrations will commence
at 1.00pm with racing to start at 2.30pm. Practice will be available
as soon as you've registered, but we will try to get the track open a
bit earlier if possible.
Sunday 12th June:
Downhill at El Arish, Miles Mead's track. Follow the signs
from the highway. Registration will commence at 9.00am Sunday,
with practice being available as soon as you've registered. 1.00pm
race start, with two race runs per rider. Practice will also be
available on Saturday for those who are only competing in the DH event
and won't be going up to Pilba Peak, and camping overnight is also
available.
There will be a working
bee (that dreaded term rears it's ugly head again!) at Miles's
track this weekend, both Saturday 28th May and Sunday 29th May.
Again, you can camp overnight if you wish. BYO tools, please.
Riding the track will be available late Sunday arvo...
ADDED 26 May: Yowie and the Club will be
organising a BBQ lunch at El Arish on Sunday for the workers.
Both events will be for
MTBA classes.
The next Pilba Peak 'Poker Ride' will be
held on Sunday 5th June. There will have been some new bits added by
then, and they will be used for the Triple-City round the following weekend, so
here's a chance for some cheap practice runs! Nominations at 10.00am,
ride starts at 10.30am. So you can sleep in for a change...
Wednesday 18 May
- Advice today that there will be an 8-hour XC race at Herberton on the
weekend of 13th & 14th August. Camping overnight, with the race on Sunday
from 0830 to 1630. Further details will be forthcoming shortly. This means that
a round of the Club Championship will probably be held on the original date set
down for the 8-hour, Saturday 25th June. Since the date for Herberton was
only confirmed today, we haven't had time to get together and sort out the Club
rounds. But you can probably reasonably expect a bit of shuffling to happen...
Sunday 8 May
- Another Poker Ride over, with everyone having a lot of fun (and scones
with jam & cream... Photos are up in the usual place. next ride in June, watch
this space.
Regarding the Club's calendar for this
year, please take note: NOTHING is guaranteed at this point! We
are having fruitful discussions with a couple of regulatory bodies, and hope to
have some good news very shortly. However, as you can imagine, we are now
working to a very tight deadline, and this may cause some major reshuffling of
dates and locations. We hope it doesn't, but there is already a good chance of
at least three changes over the next two months. We are doing everything
we can to bring all this to a final solution, but it's delicate and we are
not going to rush things. If we do the right thing now, a lot of our
worries may well be over. As above - watch this space...
Saturday 7 May
- A bit slow (my fault), but the points scores for the Tri-City Challenge
are now available on the Results page. Full times for each competitor (and some
photos) are on the Townsville Rockwheelers website.
The Cairns round will take place on the
June long weekend - location to be advised (it might not be Smithfield...)
Round 3 location has yet to be determined. Watch this space!
Thursday 21 April
- The first round of the Tri-City Series will take place at Townsville on
Sunday 1st May, with XC in the morning and DH in the afternoon. Check
www.rockwheelers.com for more
information.
The next Poker Ride at Pilba Peak will be
on Sunday May 8th, which is Mother's Day. Bring your mother. Dan will feed her for you
while you flog around the XC track for 30 minutes. Then there will be a
10-minute break while Dan reverses half the track... Then back on yer
bike and do another 30 minutes! Usual time, usual place.
Sunday 17 April
- Poker Ride #4 run and won. Lots of fun again, a lot better weather
and the track a bit firmer. Good to see people treating it as a fun ride,
which is exactly what it was. Lots of pics in the
usual place...
Tuesday 12 April
- Advice from the Townsville Rockwheelers for the XC guys - race
meeting this coming weekend. Tune up for the Tri-City Series. Check the Rockwheelers (new)
website for more
information.
Sunday 10 April
- Another Poker Ride at Dan's Pilba Peak MTB Park today, smallish turnout
but the weather would have scared a few people off, it varied from 'no problem'
to 'yuck', just like the mud level did... Good time had by all, pics in the
usual place! See you next
Sunday for the next Ride.
Monday 4 April
- All you Poker-playing XC riders, take note! Dan Foley's Pilba Peak MTB
Park will be running another two events in April. Sunday 10th and Sunday 17th,
nominations at 9.00am, start at 9.30am, finish at 10.30am. Same rules as before,
highest hand wins, solo or team. Also, the Park will be open on Saturday 9th
from 2.30pm until 5.00pm, and on Saturday 16th, same times.
Tuesday 22 March
- Congratulations to Club members Mick Hannah on taking out the
Australian DH Championship at Eildon on the weekend, and Tracey Hannah
for her Women's DH title! Please take the time to read today's letter from
Tony Scott, President of MTBA which can be found in Acrobat PDF format
here.
Saturday 19 March
- The Pilba Peak Bike Park 'Poker Ride' finally happened today. Numbers
were down a bit, but we have a contingent beating up the event at Alice Springs
and another group attempting to commit mayhem at the Nationals at Eildon, so all
up it was a successful event. Pics in the usual place -
gordong.com.
Saturday 12 March
- Just had a message from Dan Foley about tomorrow's Pilba Peak Bike Park
"Poker Ride". Due to what Dan describes as "high humidity levels", the ride
has been postponed until Saturday 19th, nominations at 3.00pm and ride at
3.30pm - 4.30pm. Of course, Dan's definition of "humidity" is sadly lacking -
the weather bureau is reporting 280mm of rain in the last 24 hours and the roads
are flooded!
Thursday 3 March
- Missing riding? Drag out your XC bike (or anything with two wheels that you
don't mind hauling around the bush for an hour) and get ready to enter the
Pilba Peak Bike Park "Poker Ride" on Sunday, 13th March.
For those who don't know, Pilba Peak is Dan
Foley's Bike Park up the back of Gordonvale. Heading south, turn right at the
Gordonvale traffic lights on the highway and head up the Gillies. Turn right
before the Mountain View Pub at Little Mulgrave Road, then right up Beryl Ann
Drive. Unless you're coming down the Gillies, then it's all backwards! The ride
is for teams or solo, nominations 9.00am, start 9.30am, finish 10.30am.
You ride, you get one playing card per lap, you
pick the best poker hand you can out of the cards that you collect, best hand
wins 25% of the money collected from entries. Also prize for the worst hand
(that'll be mine, for sure...), balance of the money raised goes to improvements
on the Park. Entries are $10 - $15, ring Dan for more info on 0439 930 128.
Everything from February 05 back to
November 1, 04 has now been archived
here
Everything from November 1 back to October
1 has now been archived here
Everything from October 1 back to August
28th has now been archived here
Everything from August 28th back to May has
now been archived
here
Everything from May back to the beginning
of this site is archived
here