Australian National Mountain Bike series finals, Tasmania.

Posted: Mar 5, 2009

Source: Josh Button

The final round of the Aussie nationals was held across Bass strait in the little town of Glenorchy, Tasmania. This club has previously held two national rounds in '05 and '06. But not long after the club went broke and they crossed the venue off the list. Luckily the club is back on its feet and we are back racing at arguably the best venue in AUS.

I Planned to race four cross as well as downhill in this event because both the tracks are so sick. Flying out with two bikes early Thursday morning was presumed to be a disaster. I was expecting to get hit up over $300 because of their new oversize rule. But! Luckily I booked these flights before the new rule came in, so John from behind the counter hooked me up with a race deal and sent me on my way with 59kg of checked in luggage at no cost. Yeow already $300 up on this trip.

So we bombed in Thursday midday to Tasmania. We picked up our Nissan Navara hire car, just out of sight from the hire company and the Navara was ripping compressionies on every down change. You gotta love downhillers haha. We got to our hotel, dumped off our stuff and cruised out to the venue. The place is amazing exactly like I remembered, Rad 4x track in the middle, DH coming down the side with 6 big moto jumps to the finish and the whole place littered with sick Dirt Jumps. We walked the track and sorted out some lines. A fair bit of stuff to look at and I couldn't wait to get into it.

After building our bikes and getting them race prep'd we decided to go and find some tucker. It was pretty late and the only place we could find was this rough as chicken shop on the corner called "Legs and Breast". They were closing up shop but with a call like "I wouldn't mind a bita legs and breast myself" to the overweight manager, she couldn't turn us away.

Friday morning, We got to the track nice and early. I had a play around on the 4X track all morning which was so fun. Its got a few big jumps in it where you can earn some style points.

Downhill shuttles got started and it was time. I punched out 4 or 5 runs with team mate Troy Brosnon and we both started getting the hang of things. I found this pretty gnar gap line in between this rock drop and a tree. It was really tight and I decided to save myself and hit it on Saturday when I'm a bit more warmed up.

A pretty tame night mounting Kerbs in the Navara and we were off to bed.

Practice started at 8am for group A on Saturday. We were out there early, got ready and started punching out runs. My first run I did a bit of a warm up. Second run I stopped and checked out this line. The main drop line was good but you had to scrub off lots of speed so you didn't land in the turn. Only a bar width from the side of the rock drop was a tree. I had a go at gapping in between the tree and slightly over the corner of the rock. First attempt I clipped my pedal on the rock and just rubbed my shoulder on the tree. Somehow I held on but I still came out with really good exit speed through the left hander. I kept doing it as the day went on and had it pretty dialed by the end of practice. The track was starting to get really dusty and blown out. It was so sick. After practice we had about a 3 hour wait until Four cross started. I did a few laps of the course and then had a little nap.

Four cross started. My first heat I had Luke Madill (BMX Olympian) who will be repping the GT International team at the World Cups this season. My good mate Cody Eichorn who is a demon 4X rider, and some other pinned BMX rider. Out of the gate they all hosed me and cut inside. I slowed up, let them tangle, pedaled flat out around the first berm and cased the S**T out of the first double. The crowd loved it. I followed the sketchy BMXer down but couldn't pass him. Cody took 1ST and Madill in 2ND

I forgot to bring my 4X race tyres down so I was running my rear training tyre which is a bald Maxxis Larson. It's so sick for drifting. Anyway second heat, I got a great gate. Went into the first turn in 2nd place, rear tyre steps out massively and I pulled a full 180 without crashing and somehow dodging the other riders. So another 4th.

Third heat, managed to pull it together and rode a solid lap. I chased my mate Cody down but was unable to get him. So 2nd in that one.
I didn't have enough points to make it to Semi's so I was done for the evening, I still had loads of fun though. Congrats to Luke Madill who went on to take the win and also the overall and my mate Cody for pulling off 5th and placing 3rd in the overall.

Race day it was, I was feeling flogged from such a big day on Saturday but still ready to get loose. We got out there just in time to do a practice run with team mate Broso. We were both riding really good and had such a fun run. I did another practice run, had a rest, and it was time for Qualies.


Due to some UCI rule, although I was still leading the points series, I was given #2 because Amiel had more UCI points than me. For qualies I had a really good run. Stayed smooth, saved my energy, and threw down some sideflights for the crowd on the finish jumps. I qualified 2nd with a time of 3:15. Amiel Cavalier quali'd 3rd with a 3:16 and Ben Cory smashed his run and smoked us all with a 3:09.99. Amiel and I had a laugh about how hard its going to be to pull out 6 seconds, especially with the track conditions by finals.

All other categories began coming down. I walked up the track to watch my mongoose team mate Troy smoke the U17's Div. He hit the bottom off camber root section off TAP!! It was so quick. And so was his time, he destroyed his competitors by 7 seconds with a time of 3:16.65. Good on ya Champ. Troy also took out the National overall series for U17's. Yeow!

My turn. I went up to the top, and got warmed up. I was feeling a little nervous but not as bad as I thought I would be. There are about 5 people that could take the series at this point. Beep, Beep, beep. Out of the gate. Got a nice smooth first section, stayed relaxed. The course was destroyed. I hit a turn and blew out the rut causing me to go low, I managed to hold my speed though. I came into the rock gap line really nervous, but I hit it the best I had yet. After that I relaxed a bit more because the hard part was over. Started getting really loose for the bottom fast off camber sections. The crowd was insane so I opened up the throttle. Sprinted over the last big jumps, I brake checked before the step down, still managed to overjump it but I just made it up the following step up. Big pedal across the line with a time of 3:11.45 and knocked Amiel out of the hotseat. The last rider left was Ben Cory, He was so quick on the last jumps and powerhoused it over the finish to take the number 1 with a time of 3:11.03. Good work Benny. I was super stoked to get 2nd in the race, but then I realized what I had done. I had beaten Amiel which means I kept the number 1 plate and took home the Aussie National overall series. Yeoww! I was so pumped. I had to hang around the finish to knock off some interviews with everyone. A few kids came up and got my autograph and let me know how I've inspired them, I got such a good feeling from those groms.

So a podium for 2nd in the race and then another one for the Overall. Team Mongoose taking out the Under 17's and Elite overall series on the 2009 Mongoose Boot'R. The bike works a treat.

It was a great season and I couldn't have done it without all the guys and girls from Mongoose bikes, SRAM/Rockshox, the pit crew was awesome thanks for helping me all season, everyone at Dee Why bike hub for helping me out with my bikes at home, Maxxis tyres, Adidas eyewear, Lotek shoes, Crankbrothers pedals, RB consulting group and of course my parents.

So off to Oceanias in two weeks and sometime after that I may be overseas for the UCI World Cups.

See you there,
Josh Button

-photos by Stephen Hillenbrand