mtbv

18 Jan 09 Round 3 VSS 2008/2009, Forrest Trail Head, Forrest-Apollo Bay Rd, Forrest

Club – Geelong Mountain Bike Club – http://www.gmbc.com.au/

105 riders started for first Victorian State Series XC race for 2009.

Well GMBC really put on an excellent day, running both an XC Olympic and followed by an XC Criterion Race. The day starting with a Kids race! Hooray!

The Forrest MTB trails are legendary, but this was the first time a Victorian XC race has been run at Forrest, and about time too.

If you have never ridden, let a lone raced at Forrest, as an MTB Rider you are really missing out on some excellent trails.

Whenever traveling to a new trail, built more or less by one man, there is often a thought of some skepticism of what one might actually find. Will the berms be so tight there is no flow, are the down hills only suitable for hardcore Down Hillers, will you leave the day exhausted and the bike requiring a major over hall.

Fear not for the Forrest trails, hand crafted to follow much of the natural land contours and features, by local Jeff Fox and a great XC course mapped out by GMBC.

This has got to be one of the most beautiful trails in many years. Smooth comes to mind. There was none of those bone-shaking sections that some terrains tend to create. The trails were superb on the nice summer day, not sure they would have been so good come heavy rain.

It was great to have km’s to the start/finish line posted around the course and good clear warning of difficult descents. And water at the top of the course for those who may have been suffering a little.

Race results are available on both GMBC’s own site and on mountainbikevictoria’s site.

Peter Pink(Super Masters) and Andrew Hall(Masters) continue their dominance of their respective categories.

Well done to GMBC on setting good distances/laps for each category, which paid off with significantly less DNFs this race. Saturday night rego was great for those who had traveled down the day before to take advantage of the local accommodation.

A suggestion might be to start the Masters men a little further up the list, possibly in front of the Veteran Women.

If you get to Forrest, take the time to get an excellent meal from the local pub’s dinning room, which is suitable for and caters for families.



AB