Club BBQ 2016 Summary
The beautiful venue known as the Vandeleur residence is a secret place nestled among the foothills of the Blackall Range. It is upon this lush canvas that Paul is painting his MTB masterpiece with trails such as Trump Hill (make climbing great again), Short White Cloud, and Instant Karma. It is upon these trails that the club restarted its racing pedigree.
The race loop consisted primarily of Trump Hill and Short White Cloud. In hindsight we could have made split laps and alternated between trails but we’ll do that next time. Race HQ was quickly established with the new transponder based timing equipment and radio equipment and we were ready to go. Once we were happy that people were registered and issued a club racing plate (thanks Terry!) the time trial could begin.
Terry sent each rider off in 30 second intervals with the Grade A group moving off first and consecutive grades thereafter. Chad was the first rider to go and hammered his first lap out in a great time – although unbeknownst to him he had three laps, not one, to ride. But he sucked it up and did the other two laps with what was left in the tank.
The race went well and the timing equipment did its job effortlessly and without issue. The only errors were that I couldn’t maths good that day and initially my calculated result outputs were incorrect. In future races I’ll make a point of nailing down the course and thoroughly briefing the volunteers on the run sheet – ambiguity is what really ruins an event.
Once the race was completed Greg and Craig got cracking on cooking the meat with Susie, Tania, Julie and Nakita sorting the food preparation. There was plenty to eat, drink and lots of conversation. After lunch a few of us took turns on Michael’s e-Fatbike. I fear that we may become a eBike club after the grins on everyone’s faces as they returned.
A huge thanks to Paul and Tricia for hosting us and doing a fantastic job of grooming the trails. We will definitely have to spend a few trail care days out there for any work Paul needs done.
Also a massive thank you to everyone who helped out on the day.
Race Results
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