Age no barrier for Megan Patey as she prepares for Bike Buller MTB Festival(All events - Posted 11/03/2010)Sixty-year-old Megan Patey from Colo Vale, NSW is tuning her bike and packing her bags for the trip to Mt Buller in Victoria for this weekend’s Bike Buller MTB Festival. Patey is competing in the Sunday race only which is a tough 50km cross-country race over to neighbouring Mt.Stirling and back again. A big event for anyone let-a-lone someone who is considered a senior citizen! Patey discovered a love of mountain biking 3 years ago at age 57 after watching her nephew, James Williamson, enjoy the sport. After years of supporting him and handing many a water bottle to him during his conquests, she decided that it looked like a lot of fun. One of his mates offered her a bike he was selling and she gave it a go. She has never looked back. With a previous sporting background in road riding and bushwalking she has taken to the sport with complete passion and enthusiasm, which she now does with her husband who she converted a year later. Her home is about an hour south of Sydney in the Southern Highlands where there is fantastic cycling of all types. She has the support of a strong club and finds the sport very social. “The great thing about mountain biking is that you always keep learning and that you feel like you’re always improving", she said. She laughed at the fact that, “the good thing about my age is that there aren’t that many women in the races so I usually get a place". This is good motivation for her also. This isn’t her first interstate trip for mountain biking either, far from it. Last year she travelled to Alice Springs for the 5-day Red Centre MTB Enduro. “It was a hard ride but fantastic landscape and country. I’m going back again this May", she said, where she hopes that her experience will help keep her spot on the podium. Contrary to her relaxed attitude the Vintage category is hotly contested, particularly in the men where the competition is on par with the younger age brackets demonstrating that cycling really is the ‘new golf’. Although not handing out as many water bottles to Wiliamson anymore due to participating in the same events, she’s extremely proud of her nephew who went on to win the World 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships in 2008. I’m sure he’s equally as proud of her. Bike Buller MTB Festival – COURSE CHANGE INFORMATION and event updates(Bike Buller - Posted 10/03/2010)
The Bike Buller MTB Festival is coming up in a few days time (woohoo!) but at the last minute we have been forced to make some significant changes to the event structure due to reasons beyond our control. STAGE 2 HAS CHANGED It is with much regret and disappointment that we have had to re-design the Brakeburner Enduro stage. We were alerted on Tuesday afternoon that the Horsehill Chairlift that was integral to the event is out of operation due to an unforseen mechanical problem. This realisation was made evident during recent safety inspections and servicing by the Mt Buller lift crew who determined that the entire cable must be replaced. In fact poor old Mt Buller also copped a few lighting strikes in the storms on Saturday that toasted another lift as well! Without a chairlift at our disposal we have redesigned stage 2 to be longest possible cross-country / downhill course and set it up for you to race in a “Super D" format. Check this: 13km of trail descending nearly 1,100 vertical metres from top to bottom. This will most likely be the biggest descent of your life! So make sure your brake pads are new and we hope you enjoy this challenging and adventurous course (it also crosses the Delatite River 12 times!). We are confident that new Stage 2 – ‘The Super D Mt Buller Descent’ will still provide riders with the same wow-factor, memorable riding and value for money as the old race and the Mt Buller Ski Lift company will also be presenting all stage 2 riders with a significant lift ticket discount / voucher for you to return in winter as added compensation. Stage 3 has also changed a little as we are no longer able to get you up the mountain using the lift so it’ll be on the bike the whole way. The stage 2 and 3 course maps and information has been updated on the event website and on the event program and we encourage participants in this weekends event to check these out online. (We are also e-mailing all competitors with this update) We apologize for the last minute change and are very disappointed we cannot bring you Australia’s first ever Brakeburner Enduro but the circumstances were out of ours and Mt Buller’s control, but rather than just cancel the stage we wanted to still showcase some of what Buller has to offer and this course is pretty darn good! We are sure you will enjoy the ride. Weather Forecast: Many of us were very relieved that we did not conduct the event on the weekend just gone due to the wet weather experienced throughout much of Victoria but at this point the Bike Buller forecast looks pretty much perfect with the alpine area expecting clear skies and 17-20 degrees on Mt Buller (warmer down lower and in the sun!) making for pretty much perfect racing conditions! As another update: Saturday is World Naked Bike Ride Day – get into it!
That’s right, this Saturday March the 13th just happens to be World Naked Bike Ride Day (WNBRD) and as such, we thought we’d get into the spirit of things and lay down the challenge to competitors in the Bike Buller MTB Festival. WNBRD is an internationally conducted event that promotes bike riding and equal access to roads for cyclists and because we believe in the cause and think the method is a bit of fun too we’re happy to give anyone who does either stage 1 the 25km XC race or stage 2 - the Super D naked a free Bike Buller event jersey and free entry to next years Bike Buller MTB Festival! Mountain bikers don’t need much of an excuse to get their gear off and let it all flap in the wind so here is your chance to do it for a worthy cause and win yourself a free jersey! (Conditions, you can still wear your bike shoes, gloves and helmet but the rest must be missing and you must the complete stage course in the nude to qualify – go on there will only be a few koalas and snow gums to cop an eye-full!)
See yourself on TV – watch this.(All events - Posted 10/03/2010)We consider TV to be the next frontier for our Rapid Ascent events and we are continually trying to get greater public exposure for the feats of endurance, commitment and sporting prowess our competitors do. Power to the Pedal is a new cycling specific program that is just starting and who came and filmed the 2010 Otway Odyssey and also the 2010 Bike Buller MTB Festival. Click here for full story ... Spink and Douglas return to Bike Buller MTB Festival this weekend to defend titles’(All events - Posted 9/03/2010)The Bike Buller MTB Festival is on again this weekend and is bringing all that is great about mountain biking back to the one spectacular location. This year competitor numbers have doubled to nearly 400 riders from all over Australia, contesting four races in two days. The field is hot again with Murray Spink and Jess Douglas both returning with the aim of retaining their overall titles for the weekend’s events. Click here for full story ... Otway Odyssey Perfect Preparation for Adventure Racing(Anaconda Odyssey Mountain Bike Marathon, SW VIC - Posted 4/03/2010)Richard Old from Forster and Peter Fitzgerald from Sydney made the sizeable trek to the Otway Odyssey Mountain Bike Marathon in South West Victoria recently and used the tough event as preparation for upcoming adventure races they are competing in. Click here for full story ... Twilight 6 hour Mountain Bike event this weekend(All events - Posted 4/03/2010)Hot racing and high enthusiasm can be found racing at the Twilight 6 Hour Mountain Bike Race Sunday March 7th, 2010 from 3 pm - 9 pm Upper Beaconsfield, participating in 6 hours racing with your mates on some sweet single track. pair up, joined teams or go solo. Your race number can win you one of the 5 x $100 prizes at presentation you must be there to win. Click here for full story ... McCormack uses Otway Odyssey to reach goal of 40 Ironman triathlons(All events - Posted 24/02/2010)David McCormack is a legend amongst multi-sport athletes and revered by athletes of all backgrounds. With 31 Ironman triathlons, 10 of them in Hawaii and 57 marathons notched on his belt, this 57 year old has really earned the highest of respect. With his ultimate goal to win his age group in the Hawaiian Ironman this year he decided to alter his preparation and add a little adventure to his training regimen. Last weekend he competed in his first mountain bike race and like the true glutton Click here for full story ... From roadie to the tough tracks of the Otway Odyssey, Arndt proves her versatility(All events - Posted 23/02/2010)When it comes to road riding there isn’t much that Judith Arndt hasn’t accomplished with a formidable career of three Olympics, medaling at two of them in both the Road Race and Individual Pursuit. She’s one of the lucky few that have made a career from the past-time they love. The 33-year-old German spends the Australian summer in Melbourne with her long-time partner that she met 10 years ago when they were in the same professional team and the rest of the year touring with HTC Columbia ba Click here for full story ... Jackson and Arndt find form to win coveted Otway Odyssey ahead of accomplished rivals(All events - Posted 20/02/2010)The Otway Odyssey Mountain Bike Marathon lived up to expectations with the closest finish of its history in an exciting race that attracted one of the best line-ups in an Australian event. The sell-out field of star studded World Champs, Olympians and Aussie Title holders accompanied by excited weekend warriors grouped at Apollo Bay on the scenic Great Ocean Road as the sun rose to great fanfare provided by a 10 piece brass band. Click here for full story ... Jason English comments on his preparation for his first crack at the Odyssey.(All events - Posted 17/02/2010)With the Otway Odyssey MTB Marathon just around the corner we gave Australia’s reigning 24hr solo MTB world champion Jason English a call to see what he was thinking with the following little article prepared as a result: Click here for full story ... |
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