Inaugural Hill Climb Race Summary – 17/04/2017
Hello everyone,
Ouch!
So I don’t know about the other guys but I had been stressing about this race for a bit. The timing gear had been a little flakey, the storms had knocked down trees over the trail and the last race I helped in I was called particularly nasty names by some over-competitive twat.
But all this stress was for naught as everything went pretty smooth and the race was done and dusted in a little over an hour. Afterwards everyone headed off to their well-earned breakfast and coffee or did some more exploring of the nearby Cooloolabin trails.
The week before
The days before the race were hectic with QPWS quickly clearing the fallen trees from Cyclone Debbie. Ben and I testing the club radios along the trail (where Ben crashed, writing off his front wheel and ‘corking’ his leg). I also dragged Kim and Locky along for a “relaxing” walk up the trail to help place the bunting (force-marching a toddler up a dirt road doesn’t end well).
Race day
On race day Ben and I and our awesome volunteers got to the top of the track and helped setup the timing gear and put some drinks on ice for the racers. We had a quick marshal briefing, handed out the radios and then went to our posts. Jo and her hubby Ian came down with me to the starting line to help with setup, race plates and to be the rescue vehicle.
Greg was on checkpoint one at top of first hill, Di and Dave was on checkpoint 2 near the nasty water bars and Damo was at the bottom of the last hill. Julie and Ben were at the top with the timing gear and chocolate eggs. Rob Macdonald and the other volunteers took a heap of awesome photos too. Thanks for all your help guys, have I said how awesome you are?
Don was confident he’d get podium in his grade
The race!
So we ended up having 9 riders for the race with quite a few no-shows (I suspect there were a few people with bellies full of chocolate or grog still in bed). Boaz and Will were in category A with Boaz defending his KOM for the trail. Boaz bettered his previous time by a massive 55 seconds. Category B had 6 riders with James Harris being dragged along by Ben Harris on the day for a “fun” ride up a hill. Category C only had Don Moss who was pretty confident he had a good shot at winning his grade. Results are available here.
At the end of the day the feedback was good with the riders happy with the format and only a couple of small things where we can make improvements for next time.
Thanks to the riders and the volunteers for a fun morning!
Michael “How do I show seconds on my phone?” Johns
Club Secretary
