State Champs Report

The 2006 Hi-Way Cycles State Downhill Championships have been run and
won at
WA’s all new, and first ever, designated mountain bike park, The Goat
Farm.

The Goat Farm’s reputation as a free ride area far exceeds its
reputation
for its downhill courses and with a brand new, yet untested, downhill
course
completed for the 2006 WA WAMBA State Mountain Bike Championships, it
was
with some trepidation that the weekend started. Whispers throughout the
paddock had some riders questioning what the quality of the course
would be
like.

They needn’t have worried though because no rain on the new course left
the
surface dry, dusty and loose and by the completion of the weekend even

2006 UCI World Cup and World Champion, Ironhorse rider Sam Hill, would fall
victim to what proved to be a challenging surface.
A small hill the Goat Farm might be but by the end of the weekend
barely a
rider would lay down two clean runs on what ultimately proved to be a
course
truly worthy of the state title crown.

In practice front wheel washouts were par for the course and even early
favourites Ben Bell, Joel Bain and Mitch Delfs all tasted the dirt as
all
riders struggled to come to terms with the loose slippery conditions.

Highway Cycles and Cannondale rider Joel Bain, fresh from competing on
the
US NORBA circuit and the UCI World MTB Championships said. “It’s dusty
but
its not bad for a Goat Farm track, they definitely made the most of the
hill, using all the berms and adding some good rock gardens along with
flat
and off cambered corners, its quite fast down the bottom so its good
for the
spectators all round.”

Joel said he thought the slippery surface would open the door for other
riders to do well and that it may be closer than some people thought.
“If
you have confidence in your tyres for laying it over on the dusty flat
corners then you’ll do good and if Sam decides to race hard he should
win
but it’s a slippery track so anything can happen.”

When asked for an outside tip Joel said. ”Maybe Ben Bell, Mitch Delfs,
Miikael or myself could go alright. It could be anyone’s game really
like
Sprague as well, I dunno we will have to wait and see.”

Joel’s prediction would hold true as most of the favourites managed to
put
down some sort of a decent time in the first run with just 0.02 of a
second
separating Yeti’s Ben Bell and Ironhorse rider Sam Hill. Both riders
felt they could improve their times after runs littered with small mistakes.

The
pair had a gap on the field of about three seconds but you could have
thrown
a blanket over the next seven riders with Miikael Kinnunen, Daniel
Sprague,
Joel Bain, Ben Shingler, Mitchell Lindschau, Mitchell Delfs and Glen
Ward
covered by about one and a half seconds! The last podium spot would
come
down to one last run.

While the second run would see the local riders earn respect against
the
world class field, the cream would indeed rise to the top as Sam Hill
shaved
three and a half seconds off his time laying down a sizzling 1:32.88.
Sam
had looked sketchy on his first run through the soft loose berms and
said he

had to slow in order to go faster on the second run.

“I just kept it a bit smother on that run and tried not to slide around
too
much.” Sam said.

“I was pushing it too hard on the first run but this dirt is too
slippery to
do that so I had to back it off a bit and that gave me a quicker time.
The
course was fast and slippery with drifty turns so it was good fun.” Sam
concluded.

Reining Australian Junior Champion Ben Bell was on a noticeably faster
second run bombing his way through the big rock garden only to crash on
a
straight section down the bottom of the course.

“Yeah I don’t know what happened.” Ben said. “I think I hit a rock. I
was on
a quicker run but I fell off, I still got second so I’m happy with
that.”

Back to back state champ and Hi-Way Cycles rider Miikael Kinnunen was
the
best of the rest and chased the world-class riders all the way to the
line
and into a very credible third place.

“My second run was quicker, no crashes, two clean, well, upright runs,
which
was good. It was good to get into third in amounst the big names and
keep
ahead of the other guys, I had a good day and I’m pretty happy with
that.”
Mick said.

With the state title decided the Perth Mountain Bike Club had decided
to up
the ante and put well over $2000 in cold hard folding ones on the line
for
the top 25 fastest men and women on the hill for one last run.

The slippery course wasn’t done claiming riders and it soon added
Hi-Way
Cycle’s Miikael Kinnunen and World Champ, Ironhorse rider Sam Hill, to
the
list. Yeti-Fox rider Ben Bell was keen to make amends for his second
run
discretion and make amends he did. He crossed the line taking the
fastest
time with a 1:36:42 and with it a pocket full of cash as Sam Hill took
a
digger on the second last turn of the course.

In the under 19’s junior men the Kalamunda Kid, Deon Baker rode his
trusty
steed off into the dust and straight into a state title win.

“That run was better than the first one, it was a bit cleaner until the
last
corner after the jump, I got a bit of a slide going and got a bit
sketchy
but I managed to dab a foot and get out of it. I did a 1:37 in the
first run
and a 36 in the second run, it’s always good when you get faster during
the
day even though the track is getting harder to ride as the day wears
on. The
track was wicked for the hill, like the hills not huge, it’s the Goat
Farm,
but the course was really well built.” Deon said.

The event went off without a hitch and spectators were truly treated to
a
world class field! Roll on 07……

2006 Hi-Way Cycles State Downhill Championships Results

Elite Men

1 Sam Hill 01:32.88
2 Benjamin Bell 01:35.30 00:02.42
3 Miikael Kinnunen 01:37.40 00:04.52
4 Daniel Sprague 01:38.19 00:05.31
5 Joel Bain 01:38.77 00:05.89
6 Ben Shingler 01:38.90 00:06.02
7 Mitchell Lindschau 01:39.77 00:06.89
8 Mitchell Delfs 01:40.44 00:07.56
9 Glen Ward 01:41.03 00:08.15
10 Adrian Walsh 01:41.70 00:08.82
11 Derek Price 01:42.79 00:09.91
12 Mathew Trigwell 01:42.82 00:09.94
13 Dwayne Purdy 01:42.97 00:10.09
14 Benjamin Kinnunen 01:43.06 00:10.18
15 Ben Smith 01:43.26 00:10.38
16 Jason Archer 01:44.20 00:11.32
17 Bryn Hawken 01:46.02 00:13.14
18 Trigg Mcauliffe 01:49.43 00:16.55

Elite Women

1 Melanie Mothersole 02:05.65
2 Steff Van Amerong 02:09.87 00:04.22
3 Kerrie Sercombe 02:15.10 00:09.45
4 Pauline Carr 02:18.84 00:13.19
5 Kate Crockett 02:19.64 00:13.99

Junior Men U19

1 Deon Baker 01:36.89
2 Jamie Dunlop 01:41.42 00:04.53
3 Fergus Milne 01:42.18 00:05.29
4 James Ross 01:42.73 00:05.84
5 Murray Dickson 01:45.78 00:08.89
6 Tom Powell 01:45.89 00:09.00
7 Luke Hearne 01:46.31 00:09.42
8 Hamish Burnett 01:58.54 00:21.65
9 Sebastian De Graaf 02:00.60 00:23.71

The boys from Launch Helmut Cams hookin Mitch Delfs up

Sproggys tent got belted

Hi Light Reel




Pics and report copyright 2006 Silver Rocket Productions “Ira Fehlberg”