HMBA Dungog Round 2019 has been run and one – this is a race best summarised in numbers:

110 – Riders entered for the main race – massive!

3 – Hours of Riding  around Dungog’s finest trails (for most – we had 5 entries for the 1.5 hour short course)

7.1 – km Loop including some fresh new stuff

23 – Degrees of perfect riding weather – not a drop of rain despite the forecast

12 – Female Racers riding solo and in teams

15 – or so Kids having a go at the trails

9 – Laps completed by the race winner

4 – eBikes competing in the first ever HMBA eBike category

1 – Adaptive Cyclist braving the trails – another first for Dungog

167 – Rocks marked with a small yellow dot

6241 – Other Rocks!

Congratulations again go out to our winners – the speedster Mitch Lozinski once again held out Liam McGuire to take the big solo honours, with Trenton Day rounding out the top 3 for A-Grade.  For the solo females we saw Em Dreaper cross the line first from Laura Renshaw, both knocking out 7 laps, with Cassandra Thompson in 3rd.  Other Results of note:

Mixed Teams –

1st – “Twins” – Dean Megahey and Sean Mahony

2nd – “Tippies” – George Castillo and Dean Brame

3rd – “RCRC” – Waz Turnbull and David Morley

B-Grade Solo –

1st – Rodney Rae                  Olivia Gollan

2nd – James Saunders         Sarah Hunter

3rd – Scott Wevers               Hayley Thorpe

C-Grade Solo –

1st – Dave Tattis

2nd – James Sulzberger

3rd – Michael Bowen

eBike –

1st – Bruce Pain

2nd – Josh Bridson

3rd – Dieter Benischke

A huge thank you needs to go out to Alan Shrimpton and his crew for looking after the Dungog trails and setting up a fantastic course for us today (sure, some of the new bits were a bit sketchy to begin with but I think we started to bed them in nicely), and also to The Tinshed Brewery in Dungog for their donation to the event – if you haven’t called in to this place then add it to the list for next time you are in town – great food and some nice amber nectar to wash it down.

Final results can be access at this link:

https://my4.raceresult.com/138002/results?lang=en

Or download one of these documents:

HMBA Club Racing Results – XC – Dungog 3 Hour – 220919

HMBA Club Racing Results – XC – Dungog 1-5 Hour – 220919

Any issues with these results please email presidenthmba@gmail.com

We would also like to get some feedback from all Riders on how they felt that the inclusion of the eBike Category went – did it affect you in any way? Any constructive criticism will be gladly received – we want to keep it off the public forums for now so answer by emailing the Club President on presidenthmba@gmail.com

The “Farewell Winter” night race series wrapped up last night with Round 3 seeing 28 Riders enjoying the quiet darkness of the Watagans. A bit of moisture in the ground saw dust at a fairly low level and good grip for the most part – although there are a few corners out there that are still a bit sandy or skatey to catch out the unwary!

Once again Mitch Lozinski crossed the line in first place, this week putting almost a minute between himself and Bryan Dunkin in second, with Trenton Day rounding out the top 3 some 30 seconds later.  That pace was again fast and saw a few of us lapped before we area able to set out on our 4th lap – good news for some!

And like last week we had 3 ladies out on course tonight – Em Dreaper bashed out her 4 laps to cross the line just over 2.5 minutes in front of Laura Renshaw, with Tash Smith delivering a solid 3rd place.

Our next XC Race will be at Dungog on 22/09/19 – join us out there for the second of our 3 hour enduro rounds.

Final results are at this link:

https://my5.raceresult.com/134719/#0_80C6B8

Or download this document:

HMBA Club Racing Results – XC Farewell Winter 3 – 110919

Any issues please email presidenthmba@gmail.com

The “Farewell Winter” night race series Round 2 lived up to its name – whilst not quite balmy, the temperature was certainly up on Round 1 and saw plenty of Riders breaking out into a sweat.  Nice to see an increasing field of 34 Riders out in the dark circling the same 4.5km track as used last week.

The race was dominated by a freight train of A-Grade Riders that saw the pace of the event stepped up a notch and ending the race at 3 laps for several of the back markers (yours truly included 🙂 ). Mitch Lozinski crossed the line first but there was less than a 1/2 second in it – Trenton Day and Bryan Dunkin were 1st and 2nd “carriages”.

And we had 3 ladies out on course tonight – Em Dreaper took line honours from Georgia Majoribanks, and we also had a guest appearance from Jo Parker from Rocky Trail Entertainment, who was not officially racing but experiencing her first ever night ride – well done Jo – hope it all went smoothly.

Come along next Wednesday night 11/09/19 for the final Round of our night series!  Racing starts at 7.00pm for 1 hour.

Final results are at this link:

https://my5.raceresult.com/134719/#0_BBD287

Or download this document:

HMBA Club Racing Results – XC Farewell Winter 2 – 040919

Any issues please email presidenthmba@gmail.com

Another fun-filled night out in the deep dark woods of Awaba for the first round of our “Farewell Winter” night race series.  21 Riders tackled 4 loops of the 4.5km track laid out by our XC Coordinator, with A-Grade rider Bryan Dunkin crossing the line as first male, and Georgia Majoribanks doing it for the ladies.

For those that have not tried Night Racing it is something different again – with the dry conditions there was a bit of dust at times, which combined with the flattening of the terrain that happens under lights at night meant that you really needed to “listen” to the feedback you were getting from your bike in terms of the grip signals coming from both the front and rear tyres.

When you can’t read the terrain as well as during the day it becomes even more important to feel what your bike is doing underneath you to allow you to stay fast.  Vision of the track ahead and around corners is also reduced so you tend to get a lot of practice at being able to react quickly to avoid that tree / root / rock / branch – something that can carry over to daylight riding to help you select better lines.

Come along next Wednesday night and give it a go!  Racing starts at 7.00pm for 1 hour.

Final results are at this link:

https://my5.raceresult.com/134719/

Or download this document:

HMBA Club Racing Results – XC Farewell Winter 1 – 280819

Any issues please email presidenthmba@gmail.com

Sunny Sunday cycling in Singleton – Sweet!

A strong field of 92 Riders fronted up to the dry and somewhat dusty Maison Dieu “paddock” to tackle 3 hours of riding around prime country singletrack.  This course is always fun, with plenty of twists and turns to keep Riders on their toes, and not a huge amount of climbing to ensure that multiple laps were in reach of even the least-seasoned of the field.

The Teams format was taken up by some Riders helping to share the load and add to the community aspect of the club.  8 laps seemed to be the magic number for both Teams and the fasted of the solo Riders – almost 80k’s in 3 hours on a Sunday morning is not a bad effort!

Congratulations to our winners – young gun Mitch Lozinski and old dog Liam McGuire duked it out all morning and came across the line together to take top honours for the solo males – Tash Smith punched out 7 laps to take first solo female – Team “Fox” secured the first place in the Teams category with 7 laps, and youngster Camryn Moores pedaled his little heart out for 5 laps to place first in Juniors.  Well done everyone.

A massive shout out must also go to Captain Risky and the lovely Sarahann for helping with the course set-up and Rider Registration – it was cold out there first up and we appreciate you getting there early to help make the event run as smoothly as it did.

Final Category results from Sunday are at this link (this is the best one to look at as the data has been corrected here and not in some of the other links):

https://my6.raceresult.com/134090/#1_604209

Or download this document:

HMBA Club Racing Results – XC – Singleton – 180819

Any issues please email presidenthmba@gmail.com

(Not the best photos – but I was trying to race too!!)