Sitting inside rugged up looking at the raindrops rolling down your window? That's what DDCXHQ are doing as we clean our bikes after an ace weekend of racing in Adelaide with PACC and prepare for tomorrow's Melbourne Gravel Grinder out at Hurstbridge / Kinglake and next weeks Rapha Super Cross race.
Word from the people over at Big Hill Events is that the course for Dirty Gran Fondo #2 is wet, wet, wet. So they've made the call and postponed it to October 14th. If you can't make that date, get in touch with them and they'll arrange a refund. If you can make the date now, sign up!
Cyclocross just went (pseudo) mainstream when Cycling Central aired a segment on the first two rounds of the national series this afternoon.
In case you missed it, here's the vision. (dear SBS, don't issue a takedown, you read out our race report instead of writing your own script, so let us show your footage.)
In last night's event roundup we neglected to mention that the Queensland Cyclocross Championships are being held on Saturday the 18th of August.
DDCX CFO Blakey flew up for the first Ipswich CX race in 2010 and had a ton of fun, despite the shock of the blistering heat and knowing he had to back up the next day and race in Melbourne.
It's events like these that series' like DDCX & the PACC Crossfire Cup grow from, but only if you get out there and support them. So take any old bike out there and race it.
If your name is on this list, or you know these people, get in touch by email at dirtydeedscx@gmail.com as we have your licence and you have our numbers. Thanks to those that have already returned them.
After much data wrangling, interstate emailing of files, scrawl deciphering and checking we have the results for ALL grades posted on the results page (What, you didn't know we had a results page? for shame!)
Yes, there was an issue with pulled riders in B grade. Yes, we apologise (again). Many lessons were learnt over the weekend and all of this makes not only DDCX, but also cross racing in Australia better.
After that DDCXHQ will be road tripping over to SA to race Round #3 & 4 of the National Cyclocross Series with Port Adelaide Cycling Club on the 11th & 12th of August. Nikcee is chasing series points and will stop at nothing to get them.
Sunday August 19th is the next Melbourne Gravel Grinder. Things have been quiet over at MGG but Angry has something in the works that will leave riders tired and smiling, as usual.
Then Sunday 26th of August is DDCX Round #2 / Rapha Supercross. Dirty Deeds with added epic.
Sunday September 2nd sees the second iteration of the Dirty Gran Fondo, held up at Bunyip State Park, with the event village at Mortimer Picnic Ground. DDCXHQ attended the last one and had a fantastic day's ride even though we were surrounded by pinch flats, broken chains and seized pedals. We're looking forward to seeing what they put on this time. For the Garminers, here's the route file.
There’s nothing like the smell of
cross in the air to stimulate the senses and in Melbourne over the weekend
sensory overload was the order of the day.
After the first round of the ChampionSystem/SRAMAustralianCyclocrossSeries
in Port Melbourne, the eyes of the Australian CX scene turned to the
picturesque Darebin Parkland in the inner north for Round 2.
The weather was Melburnian to the
max, warm sunshine one minute, freezing and threatening with rain the next. The
surface was spongy and the mud, well you know, it’s mud and there was lots of
it.
One of the perennial crowd
favourites, the kid’s race kicked proceedings off and today’s was probably the
best yet. Sadly though, the big turnout led to tears at registration as the
race sold out quicker than you can repeat the eleven times table.
Open racing often leads to the
cross over to cross. In the past, people have attacked the terrain on unicycles
and home built BMX tandems.
Things are getting serious with
dedicated mountain bikers and spill overs from a sold out B Grade making the
competition strong.
Indeed the spirit of DirtyDeeds,
Tate came with more costume changes
than usual. Such is Tate’s dedication to physical purity he ditched the bike
and jogged some of the course.
DDCX design maestro Sime failed to watch the clock and rushed to the start, this was to be his downfall, having to take a 'nature break' halfway through the race. That number two may have cost him a podium number one. We'll never know.
B Grade cross today was as full
on as it gets due to the fact that many who race A grade had missed out on
rego. You’d think this would mean one of the semi-pros or cross veterans would
have easily taken control of the race huh?
Well, no. The greatest surprise
and thrill for us at Dirty Deeds was seeing 14 year old Liam Jeffries take
apart other more seasoned cross racers with a style that blew riders and
spectators alike away. To be fair Liam had won under19/C grade then backed it
up ten minutes later for a 3rd in B on Saturday.
Commuter Cycles’ Huw Vellacott’s
attempt to attack Liam while riding a single speed bike complete with porteur
rack proved fruitless. Perhaps Huw shouldn’t have dropped off a load of bread
to the catering tents mid-race. Nevertheless, he managed to hold off Snozz and
secure second place while Liam cruised through for the win.
By the time the Women’s Elite/
National Round was ready the crowd had grown to several hundred stimulated by
cowbells and burgers from our friends at Beatbox Kitchen.
The turf was well turned by this
stage so the racing was a lot slower than the day before which took its toll on
some of the riders who’d blitzed the drier course.
The race quickly split and Lisa
Jacobs, star of the national road series, established a dominance over the
field which was as impressive as it was inspirational to anyone thinking of
taking up CX.
The Women’s national series has
raised the profile of cyclocross and it will remain a fixture on the national
calendar as long as the quality we saw on Sunday remains.
It’s Lisa’s first attempt at
cross- she hit the course like a seasoned professional, taking the lead early,
gracefully tapping away on the pedals and tackling barriers with ease.
Lisa and Melissa Anset fought it
out for much of the race but Lisa’s unbreakable rhythm on the pedals saw her
come clear for the win. Diane Nelson suffered a mechanical and ducked off the course to grab Paddy's bike then rejoined in the finishing straight. Unfortunately this was right in front of the judges and she was DQ'd. Larry's Custom Cycles also saw this and awarded her a sweet new frame to ease the pain.
The Men’s National Round was
welcomed with hoots, heckles and...yep cowbells. It was one of the fastest
starts ever seen at Dirty Deeds. After a win on Saturday Luke Fetch was
expected to take it to the limit again but big things were expected of Dirty
Deeds favourite Lewis Rattray. After finishing
fifth in round one Lewis pulled out all stops in his home race.
In cross racing everything
sometimes isn’t enough , especially backing up one day’s racing with another.
(C) Brian Mangano
In the end Adrian Jackson soared
to the front of the pack leaving any competitors in a mud spattered wake. AJ is
another DDCX alumni and took full advantage of racing on his home ground. He
finished well clear of what was a ding dong race for second and third between
Lewis Rattray and Lachlan Norris. In the end Lachlan got the better of his
Giant team mate, after Lewis mistook the laps remaining and burned too many
matches a lap early leaving nothing to keep his engine firing on the bell lap.
This was one of the best cross
days we’ve ever seen. Our thanks to series sponsors Champion System, SRAM and especially the
folks at the Darebin Creek Management Committee and the Darebin Parklands
Association. Without their support there wouldn’t be DirtyDeedsCX.
We would especially like to thank our long suffering sponsors, who have been backing us since we first started getting rad. They support us, and you should support them so we can all continue getting dirty and smiling:
You may have noticed the lack of photos in the report, well never fear, here's a collection of albums for you to peruse while we choose the standouts to edit in later:
