An energetic group of 28 riders and perfect weather set the scene for a great morning of racing. An 8.5km course of predominantly single track was laid out with the fastest lap time of just over 24mins.  The grades were quite spread out over the relatively long course with the closest result being in womens C-grade  with Sue Webber just edging out Alison Pope after an hour on the bike.   

Attached bellow are the full results.

A huge thank you to Gilly, T & Mark for all the work they've done in the past 2 weeks to get the trails in top shape. A big thank you as well to Lynn Rudder from Nambucca for jumping in and cooking the BBQ - next time we'll make sure we don't run out of gas.

Sunday was a big day for MTB with 22 kids registered for the first of the Junior Skills sessions. It's great to see people wanting to increase their abilities which will see smoother, faster & safer riding and hopefully more kids out having fun on the trails. Thank you for Sue, T & Geoff for running these great sessions.

Keep an eye on the results of the Subaru National MTB   Series   http://mtba.subaru.com.au/national-series/results/     as Torq team rider Emily Parkes is tearing up the trails around Australia. At round 2 in Thredbo, Em won the U19 Eliminator on the first day and was just beaten across the line by .4 of a second in the Point to Point. We wish Emily the best for the National XC champs in two weeks time in Canberra along with Drew Gilchrist who will be competing in the U15s for the first time and Geoff Gilchrist who will be racing in Masters.

The club has also been successful in securing a grant of $780 in the first round of the MTBA club grant scheme to assist with the financial cost of getting a club member accredited as a Level 2 commissaire so we can run open events such as GNaTPACK.  A big thanks to Trevor Creighton for stepping up for this important duty and making the trip to Canberra to under go supervised training and to MTBA for re-injecting funds back into grass roots club activities.

Nambucca cycle club will be holding a XC race on 3 March at Jack's Ridge. Checkout their Facebook page for all the details

Happy riding.

So it was a bit of an overcast and humid morning that greeted riders and the usual calls of sandbagging that accompany a teams race were echoing around the forest. 12 teams lined up and took off into what was still a somewhat greasy trail from the overnight showers. The sun made an appearance and the heat made us all feel like we'd ridden twice as far as we had, but it also dried out the trails. By the final lap, the track was extremely grippy which is reflected in most riders times getting faster as the race progressed.

It ended up being a very close finish with only 2 seconds between first and second teams and the top five teams all finished within 90 seconds of each other. Congratulations to Mike Day & Rob McDowell who took out line honours just ahead of Greg Howarth & Richard Lenhert and Rowena Stockton and Ryan Gilchrist in third place.

Thank you to all who came along on the day, particularly a few new riders - we hope you had fun. A huge thank you as well to all those who helped out including track set-up, timing and BBQ duties.

Full results are attached bellow.

 Have a fun and safe Christmas & New Year

It was great to see a small but dedicated crowd turn up for a 3hr night race at Cows with Guns on Saturday (03/11/12) night.  I guess the fact that you could choose to ride for just 1.5hrs before the sun disappeared if you wished made it more attractive for some, but it's when the sun disappears that the fun really begins.The results are attached bellow.

A massive shout-out to Hiran from Radical Lights who had some lights available to test - needless to say they put the headlights on most cars to shame!

Next up is the G Bomb 12hr  on Saturday 17 November - check out all the details and entries here. I hope to see you there.

Nowadays, most mornings or winter evenings you  see some impressively bright lights on the city’s roads and cycleways as cyclists fit in some early morning training or are on the commute home. Whilst 800 lumens lighting up a smooth road or path is all well & good, modern bike lights realy demonstrate their true qualities out on the trail on a dark night.

It was quite surprising then, that only 6 riders strapped their lights on for a night XC race at Cows with Guns on Saturday night. Those who did come out on a winter night were rewarded with a challenging course and good fire to keep them warm. A huge thank you not only to those who turned up to ride, but for Geoff for setting up and pulling down the course, Helen for time keeping and Ryley for keeping the fire going.

The course took in 4 sections of new trail which were all quite sticky after a bit of overnight rain and made riders work for the ground they covered. Bullroarer and Rawhide were ridden backwards, and descending on Bullroarer proved to be good fun with lots of tight turns and the trail is bedding in nicely. Descending what is actually the climb on Rawhide was a different story with some slippery ruts, but this only got the trail crew motivated as they were sighted working on this section of trail the next morning as well as building another solid bridge in a new section to be opened up.

The DNF’s on the results are due to the category being set-up for 5 laps instead of 4 – sorry. As  you can see, Joel smashed us all but interestingly, lap times were relatively consistent for all riders...

Attached bellow are the results.

Next up is the Bom Bom Bomb – the Grafton round of the 2012 GNaTPACK MTB series on Sunday 22 July. Enter online now! At  $20 entry is a bargain for a well prepared 14km course with more gullies than you can poke a wheel at.

Keep an eye on the calendar on the Coffs Cycle Club Website for all race activities.

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

Yep, it was a bit of a dusty affair (especially on the brief sections of fire road) and there seem to be more and more really cool berms on the Nambucca trail. It was also the first time we’ve managed three consecutive dry races this year and it only took until November.

So, the results will have to speak for themselves - my memory of the day is 1.5 hrs of having fun pinning along the single track, an hour wishing the pace would slow down a bit as I'll end up in the hurt box, and then disappearing into a bit of a dark place on the last lap. It’s great to see a lot of Coffs riders  making the effort to race at different trails. The only thing that concerns me is what the Coffs juniors are eating – Endura on the weetbix perhaps??. Charlie Watson was smashing it out at Cows last week, Ryley Schultz had the fourth fastest lap time overall at Nambucca on Sunday and Emily Parkes is racing in the first round of the National Series in Perth on 19/20 Nov. Great Stuff!!

Thank you to the Nambucca Valley Cycle Club for putting on a good event.

Just in case you hadn’t heard the good news yet, the Port Macquarie 12hr has grown up to become a 24hr race to be held on 21/22 April 2012 so start thinking about teams unless you are one of those hardcore 24 solo riders. I believe there will also be a traditional 12hr and a 6+6 for those who like to sleep.

Click links below for results...

35 riders turned up for a cross country race at Cows with Guns on Sunday and it was great to see that there were a number of new riders, particularly ladies who have capitalised on the MTB skills courses and recent ladies race.

A 7km course was laid out which saw riders using a new connecting trail from the bottom of Barking Spiders through Mosquito Coast to the G-out bridge (hope that made sense!!) which cut out the longer sections of double track and made it a tighter course overall. There were also a couple of nice new lines along the creek run - thank you to the busy trail workers.

There was no mucking about in men’s A Grade with Geoff Gilchrist and Nicholas Godfrey cracking the 17 minute mark on the first lap. Geoff pulled away halfway through the race to take the win while Nick held out Pete Marshall by half a wheel in a sprint for second. There was also a sprint finish between Liam Warburton (sorry results say Jake Bromley??) and Ian Porteous for fourth place with Liam just edging out Ian.

There was also some close racing in ladies A Grade with Jaye Gilchrist taking the win from Rowena Stockton who went on to do an extra lap just for the hell of it.  Demolishing kitchens as cross training has paid dividends for Helen Parkes as she finished only 2mins behind the winner and just ahead of Shona Walker who was fourth.  Sue Webber was the only taker for ladies B Grade and put in two fast laps that would have seen her at the top end of A Grade.

Charile  Watson seems to be getting faster with each race and took out men’s B Grade with Aaron Virieux within sight down the finishing straight for second place. Third and fourth was a real tussle between Richard Lehnert and Dave Brommel with Richard stronger on the open hills and Dave being quicker through the single track. This time though, Richard pulled away up the finishing straight to take out 3rd place in B Grade.

Rob McDowell took out men’s C Grade in a very respectable 1hr 19mins whilst Ryan Gilchrist smashed out a quick two laps in D Grade, but for some reason is missing from the timing results – sorry Ryan, it looks like you’re going to have to go back out for another two laps!

Thank you to Beth Richards for doing the timing, chefs Andrew Watson and Ryan Gilchrist  for cooking the BBQ and the Chicken Butchery at Toormina & Palms Centre for providing the sensational chicken snags.

A request to all riders though is that you must show your MTBA licence (or printout of it from the MTBA site) at rego. For all new riders, if you wish to join MTBA, you can join and get a race licence HERE which will save you having to pay that pesky $20 day rider insurance fee each race. It lasts for 12months from the day you join and can be used at any MTBA sanctioned event which covers about 90% of MTB races in Australia.

Thank you to all riders for a great day on the bike. Don’t forget there will be a Christmas MTB teams race on Sunday 4th of December at Cows with Guns so you better get your sleds ready. The Nambucca club is also holding a 3hr enduro (solo or two person teams) at Jack’s Ridge next Sunday 13th of November.

Attached bellow are the results

The weather was looking pretty grim in Coffs Harbour on Sunday morning, but after sticking my head outside and seeing blue skies to the south I thought that a club race at Nambucca was the best way to spend a sunday morning. Being an eternal pessimist, I threw some mud tyres on the hardtail and headed off.Only a small, but excited crowd turned up to race and then no-one seemed interested in leading us into the roller-coaster so it was all a bit leisurely and friendly. Then Nick decided to take action closely followed by Gilly and Ian Porteous with the rest of us struggling to keep up.  I must admit that the decision to use mud tyres was a good one for the 4 metres of track that were actually damp, but they were useless on the 8796 metres of trail that were firm and fast ...  The bit of rain that had come through prior to the start only damped down the dust and turned the surface into "hero dirt". On the last lap though, the rain came back and made a few of the corners slippery or 'interesting' as some might say..

The Nambucca trail crew have been hard at work and put nearly another 1km of single track onto their course and it's all gold. There are also some pretty cool berms appearing and/or growing in size.

Back to the racing - at the front of the race, young Nick and Gilly were playing cat and mouse until Nick didn't want to play anymore and showed us what he's made of by taking the lead in the final lap and the win. If we are looking for talented riders to nurture we don't have to look too far and I hope that we see Nick taking on the GNaTPACK series next year and either some state or national rounds. There were a couple of private battles further back in the field with Brian Cockbain just holding out to win over Mark Smith. It was good to see Tim Cotsell make a return to racing after injury and he has not lost too much form as he held off a hard charging Mark Wood.

If we can lay our hands on some results we'll post them here.

Looking at the calendar, the PHAT Wallaby 3/6hr enduro at Kempsey is next up on Saturday 15 October so I hope you've all been doing some training. On the same weekend, Nambucca are hosting a ladies only event on Sunday 16 October and I'm sure this will be as popular as last years Pleasure & Champagne.

Hope to see you on the trails.