Coffs Harbour Cycle Club will shortly announce the new date for the postponed GNaTPACK race, but in the meantime let's have a look at what went down on the uber fast Jack's Ridge trail at Nambucca Heads.

 In the open category, Joel Harrigan has showed that parenthood as not slowed him down at all and led the race from start to finish. There was a bit of a tussle for the minor placings though with young Gregory Manttan from Armidale overtaking single speeder Geoff Gilchrist on the last lap to sort out 2nd and 3rd place.  I'm not sure if ASADA have tested the Torq energy products, but Torq rider Emily Parkes is becoming very fast indeed and consistent for that matter. With only 24 seconds between her fastest and slowest of four laps, Em was also the 5th fastest rider all day beating half the open mens field!

The full results are attached at the bottom of the post and show that Coffs riders placed well in most categories, and there were some great sprint finishes to give spectators something to cheer over. The Nambucca crew put on a fantastic event on a beautifully prepared track.  The first lap or two were slightly greasy in a couple of places but the sun soon had the track turning very grippy. Congratulations to everyone who made the trip down to Nambucca and had fun racing against people from throughout the region.

Next up for Coffs is a Cross Country lap race at Cows with Guns on Sunday 21 April then round 3 of the GNaTPACK series will be at Taree on 19 May.

Happy riding

A perfect sunny day greeted riders and the trail crew had prepared a very fast, flowing course that had been immaculately groomed.

The day started off with the Dirtmasters event on a 600m course. It was great to see the kids hitting the berms on “Lock Stocks” trail and being cheered on by a good crowd.  The number of laps completed by each rider was: Amos Gibson – 6 laps   Corben Collard – 5 laps    Jack Virieux – 5 laps   Tamika Vogele – 5 laps    Harry Sinclair – 5 laps    Riley Sinclair – 4 laps.

The course layout for the main event was quite different to previous years with ‘Isengaard’ trail built to connect ‘Barking Spiders’ with ‘Mosquito Coast’ and then on to the creek line. It was also a slightly tougher finish coming up through ‘AJs’ to avoid the parking area. A massive shout out to Jeff Paul who has done a huge amount of work building higher, dry lines and drainage work to combat all the rain Coffs Harbour has been getting.

Race results are available at the bottom of the post and tell the tale of how the race unfolded for each category. There was a lot of close racing in each category which is great to see. Also good to see a number of Coffs riders who are more road oriented out on the trail – Convert to the dirt, you know you want to 

Thank you to the people who stopped to help an injured rider, the SES for their great work, timekeepers and Bonville School P&C for a fantastic BBQ.

Check out some PHOTOS of the day.

Round 2 for GNaTPACK is in Kempsey on Sunday 6th of May – there will also be a Super D race on the Saturday for those who like their riding pointed downhill.  In the meantime, there is the Port Macquarie 24hr on the weekend of 21/22 April – details on the race website.

And what a race it was. The folks at Nambucca had primped and primed the Jack’s Ridge trail to within an inch of its life. The sun was shining and a good crowd of riders had gathered to hit it out in what turned out to be some very close racing across the grades.

In the Open Womens grade, Emily Parkes used all her skill to get a gap on Belinda Green and Holly Harris through the single track and take out the win. Great to see a season on the National XC circuit has given Em the confidence to elbow her way into single track to control the race and extend it from there.

 In the Open Mens, Joel Harrigan made it a Coffs double by handing out a serving of pain on the climbs in the third lap and then extending his lead in the next two laps for a convincing win. Aaron Newman put all the miles in his legs to good use to takeout third place.

The juniors showed a lot of the seniors how to rail the corners and Coffs again was well placed. In the U15 boys, Drew Gilchrist 2nd, Ryan Gilchrist 3rd and Fergus Mcqueen 4th showed they will be a force to reckon with in future years. Charlie Watson had a good battle in the U17 mens but his endurance stood out and he dominated the 2nd half of the race to take the win.

Bregje Alders was missing competition in the Vetran Womens category and took the win with daylight second, but her consistent lap times would have also made her competitive in the open category.

The closest racing of all was in the Masters and Super Masters categories. I think it is safe to say that these guys have been doing some serious spending in the bike shops of late – there was more carbon fibre and high tech suspension linkages at Jack’s Ridge than in the pits of Mark Weber’s F1 team. In the masters mens, there was less than 30 seconds covering the first 9 riders on lap 1 which is pretty amazing for a regional MTB race. At the end of 4 laps though, Tim Cotsell just held out club president Adrien Thompson for 1st and 2nd place.In the supermasters mens Jack’s Ridge trail builder, Brian Cockbain, held out a very chipper Tim Parkes by a meagre 15 seconds for 1st and 2nd place.

Sue Weber showed that running the Port 24hr race has not slowed her down by having a very convincing win in the supermasters womens.

A huge thank you goes out to the Nambucca Valley Cycle Club for putting on a great show. It is through running events like the GNaTPACK series that the local clubs can raise the funds to build and maintain the trails that we enjoy. Thank you also to all the Coffs riders who continue to support these great races.

Full results can be found attached to the bottom of the post

Well, if you though Nambucca was fun, wait till you see what Taree has in store. For those of you who have not experienced the MTB Nirvana that Taree Tip has to offer, then get yourself to round 4 of the GNaTPACK series. With over 50kms of single track on offer it is a great place to spend a couple of days riding. Details will be posted shortly

Team Refusenix consisting of the Gillies, Sue & Trevor were first to arrive at lunchtime on Friday. The car had barely come to a stop before they’d unloaded and hit the trails. Next to arrive Friday arvo were the lads in Cottage 2 (Jeff, Simon & Pete) who had no idea of where they were going, but by heading away from the dark clouds managed to stumble across some great trailsSaturday morning arrived, the sky was blue and the few puddles on the trail had dried up so it was time for another couple of hours on the bike. This time we had the trail GPS (Drew & Ryan) with us so we were able to ride the trails in the direction they were built to ride. Highlights were the “Skull” & “Jonno’s” loop with some nice rocky sections, fast descents and flowing turns. “3x3” had our legs shaking from the crazy drop into the gully and then winding down through a dry rocky creek bed.

Lesson 1: If the boys don’t ride it, then it’s probably best if you don’t ride it.

Lesson 2: Just because the boys rode it, doesn’t mean that you should ride it.

Mark Wood joined cottage 2 just in time for lunch and was impatient to hit the trails for the arvo session so off we all went with the exception of Jaye & Sue who headed into town for a civilised meal. Best part of the day was seeing a very healthy Koala close up who didn’t seem surprised to see mountain bikes around. More new trails were ridden before we consulted the GPS for the best way to get to the “Jump Track”. Like all GPS’s this one gave conflicting advice and it almost ended in an argument before we decided that all the trails were magic so it didn’t really matter which way we went.

The Jump track is exactly that, a jump track which splits half way down so you can race each other to the end. The left split gets smaller jumps and a cool wall ride while the right split gets bigger jumps. Pairs were organised for racing and off we went – shame we forgot to warn Mark of “Armadillo” which is a cool drop off structure that could surprise you when sitting on someone’s wheel at speed... Doh!

After about 4 runs on the jump track, my ego was defeated too many times by kids under the age of 12 so we had some fun on the logs and gullies of the “playground” before heading to the race loop for another lap. Half way round the race loop we stumbled across team Parkes/Leahy who were out for a reccy lap having just arrived in Taree. It’s always good to see friendly faces when out on the trail – especially when away from home. From the worried looks on their faces though, I'm not sure if they trusted our excited trail descriptions..

Race day arrived and conditions were perfect, the coffee was strong, a live band was playing and the course had more flow than the mighty Clarence River in flood. Charlie Watson had apparently been in the area for a couple of days getting inside trail info off the locals. Peter Hawley & Graham Paterson had driven down that morning whilst Ryley Schultz, Craig Evers, John & Fergus McQueen must have snuck in under the cover of darkness and for some reason did not do a reccy of the 15km course before the starting gun was fired.

The race was a cracker but also a blur. So if you decided to stay home with a nice cup of tea and some milk arrowroot biscuits instead of having a great weekend but still want to know what went on then you'll have to checkout the results here. There are also some nice photos on facebook (a hint for some -click on the photo to see the whole image - the heads are only cut off when viewed in the gallery)

There are only 10 days until Pleasure & Pain and the track is in unreal condition - it's gonna be fast & furious.  Bring It On!!!!

The inaugural series in 2010 consisted of five rounds hosted by clubs in Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Grafton, Port Macquarie and Armidale with an average of 100 riders at each round and a prizepool of $4,500.2011 sees the addition of two more races at Nambucca and Taree and a rebranding of the series to be the acronym GNaTPACK MTB series representing each host club. On Sunday, round 3 of the series moved to the newly built 8.2km MTB cross country track of the Nambucca Valley and what a great race it was. 92 riders backed up after the mudfest at Kempsey and  were well rewarded with the driest and quickest course the coast has seen for months. The Nambucca course has it all with jumps, sweeping corners, switchbacks and the best uphill berm you will ever see. Fun was a big factor even for riders who were suffering from lactic acid filled legs towards the end of the race.

Coffs Harbour was well represented with 26 riders making the trip quick south. It was great to see Adrian Hawke racing again after a years absence and by hitting 60km/hr through the big dippers he demonstrated that he has lost none of his competitive edge or skills. Al Scotford could not be kept away from the track and was rarely seen without a smile on his face from the time the coffee van arrived until he crossed the line on his last lap. 

Jaye Gilchrist clawed back to the top of the points ladder in her category with the help of some good track knowledge whilst Bregje Aalders rode a strong race to take out second place at Nambucca in her category. There seemed to be a battle of the Tims as Tim Parkes and Tim Jacobs finished only 10 seconds apart after nearly 2hrs of racing, only to be outdone by Tim Cotsell who finished 5 minutes ahead.   Congratulations to everyone who made the trip down to Nambucca, I'm sure you'll agree it was well worth it.

Club racing returns to Cows with Guns on Saturday 28 May. Sign on is from 1.00pm for a 2.00pm race start. Keep an eye on the website for updates. 

Attached bellow are the catergory, fastest