Glenorchy in Hobart was the location for the first round of Australian Downhill Nationals, along with 4X and XC. To allow time for some sightseeing and lots of race preparation I arrived in Hobart a week before the race. My second day in Hobart and I was already riding the race track. The local MTB club (Hobart Wheelers/Dirt Devils) organised an open day for riders and provided shuttle vehicles for the steep and long track. I slowly worked my way down my first ride of the track and found it to be very technical and both physically and mentally challenging. The track had everything in it, including tight rocky corners, loose and dusty turns, steep drops, slippery roots, very large jumps, big berms and scary road gaps. There was no time or place on the track for your mind or body to rest. Before I knew it, the open day was over and shuttles had finished, yet I only got 3 rides down the track within the 5 hours I was there, NOT because of the shuttles but because it was taking me forever to safely get down to the bottom of the track.

 

After spending an easy day sightseeing in the city, Jarrah arrived in town. Thanks to my kind friend Elio, we were both staying at his place near the MTB Park. That afternoon, Elio organised for us to go ride some local downhill tracks at Mount Wellington, where numerous tracks start with a fast rocky fire road through a forest and ends roughly 30 minutes later at the Cascade Brewery. Just after one run down the mountain, Jarrah couldn’t wipe the smile of his face and I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. It was great to take my mind of racing for a while and just be riding some awesome new tracks with my mates.

Jarrah and I spent the next phew days at the MTB Park, scoping out lines and learning the track, before it got busy with lots of riders on course. With our bikes set up and working smooth we rode to the MTB Park, which was an easy way to warm up before practice. Working from the bottom of the track to the top, I was gradually feeling more confident and comfortable with the track. The jumps at the bottom of the track were something I really wanted to accomplish and knew not many, if any other female riders would do. If I could make all the jumps, it would have a big effect on my race time and result. So I decided to follow Jarrah into the first jump and aced it. I was ecstatic and it felt really easy than what I thought. However I still had another 5 jumps to accomplish. After some practice on the first jump I decided to just go for the second jump on my own, there was nothing hard about it, it was just very long so I needed lots of speed. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough speed and landed with my front wheel first on top of the landing, bouncing off to the side of the track with only one foot on the bike and fallen into a thorn bush. Luckily I only got bruising, lost skin from my right knee and walked away to work on a different section of the track. Later that day Michael and Jesse arrived at the park to practise with us. It was great to have team mates there for help, ideas and definitely support. We could share our thoughts on line choices and offer tips on how to achieve parts of the track. After much practice the hardest thing was pushing your bike up the mountain, covered in armour and under the hot sun.

Soon enough the weekend was approaching and the track was getting very busy with parts of it starting to get blown out (falling apart). Friday was just another practice day, except organisers were there to provide shuttle vehicles to riders J. It was only about 30 minutes into practice and the paramedics were already being rushed to the top of the mountain to help an injured rider. I then saw Joey’s bike but not Joey, get shuttled down to the bottom of the track, which made me worry if

he was the injured rider. Unfortunately it was when I also crashed on my first practice run that day, that I met Joey in the first aid tent. I came up too short on the first jump at the bottom and scraped into a berm of loose stones cutting my right elbow open. While paramedics took aid to Joey and me we shared stories about our crashes. Shortly I was driven to the hospital by an event volunteer to get stitches in my elbow. I’d been training hard for the race and practiced all week and therefore didn’t want to be told by the doctor that I couldn’t race. I was fortunate to get the thumbs up from the doctor and changed my focus from making top 5 to finishing my race run without any crashes. Sadly, Joey wasn’t as lucky and had to fly home the following day for some rest and care.

The next two days didn’t get any easier for the paramedics, more people were crashing and the injuries were getting worst. A rider had broken his leg on the step up, another rider was taken to hospital with spinal injuries and sadly on Sunday a young rider was put into a coma with serious injuries to his head, back and lungs. Despite all the carnage on the track, racing still had to continue. Seeding was on Saturday and all riders had to do their seeding run (qualifications) for Sunday. However, I was told by the doctor that I wasn’t allowed to ride until Sunday, so after a chat to the organisers it was agreed that I could do a DNF (Did Not Finish) and still be able to race the next day. I had the choice of rolling my bike over the start gate and then getting a lift to the bottom or completing my seeding run and seeing how my elbow managed. I decided to just toughen up and ride the whole track. I took all the B (easy) lines and felt like the slowest rider on course, but I was also happy to be back on my bike and still racing. I managed to cross the finish line without any crashes and was also surprised to see my name in the top 5. I came 4th with a time of 4:35.88, which was 9 seconds slower than 3rd place but I was just thrilled about making top 5 with an injury. Following the Elite female riders was the Elite men. Jarrah was riding really well throughout the week and seemed to have everything under control when he finished in 7th place at a time of 3:25.32, smashing his result from the previous year. Michael was the next Bikeology rider down the mountain. Michael was looking fast and on the tail of the rider in front of him, a good sign that he rode well, yet it also seemed difficult for him to overtake the rider. He crossed the finish line with a 3:39.81 putting him in 30th place. Soon after Michael, Jesse finished with a 3:48.21 which he managed to improve by a significant 12.13 seconds in his race run on Sunday.

 

 

 

Sunday afternoon riders were preparing for their race run. Many riders were putting fresh tyres on their wheels while the weather was changing every 10 minutes from rain to sunshine or strong wind, leaving every rider unsure of what kind of weather they were going to get for their race run. Leading up to my race run I was feeling rather relaxed, I kept repeating to myself that I was there to enjoy it and trying not to think about crashing, however that changed when I was on the starting ramp getting ready to pedal away. Half way down the mountain and I was trying to remember which spots I needed to change gears and stay off the brakes for a very tight right turn into a technical rock garden. It had taken me all week to be able to ride this section and while lining myself up for it my wheels got too close to the edge of the track which made me skid out and jump off the bike. I thought it would take me longer to rebalance myself on the bike for the tight turns, so decided to just grab my bike and run down the rock garden as fast as I could. With my feet back on my bike I managed to complete the rest of the track as planned and even made the jump at the bottom that I crashed on, on Friday, yay! I was directed into the hot seat after crossing the finish line but with 3 more riders left, I knew my time wasn’t going to keep me there. I finished in a happy 4th place with a time of 4:33.35. Soon enough it was Jesse, Michael and Jarrah’s turn to race. All 3 of them seemed to be riding very well at super fast speeds. Jesse finished in 31st spot with a time of 3:36.08, just 3 seconds faster than Michael at 3:39.46 in 37th place. Jarrah was left to beat his outstanding seeding time and with a small crash half way down the mountain he still managed to beat his time by 4 seconds with 3:21.49 and made the top 15 elite men in 15th place. It was a great effort by the Bikeology team and an awesome week despite crashing many timesJ. Thanks to my team mates for their words of wisdom throughout practice and the competition, and Jesse for picking me up from the Hospital :). I look forward to the next national downhill race at Mt Baw Baw and hope to see more people out there pinning it down the mountains.

Julie Berry