2009 Gold Rush - Done and Dusted

Monday's Countryside Cruise was a real hit with participants. Here is the obligatory social ride group shot in front of some recently collapsed gold mine structure along the BNT.

Below: Proof there is light at the end of a tunnel, all of 192m away. No bats this year to add to the spooky experience.

After a top lunch at the Mount Perry Grand Hotel, I spent all of Monday afternoon and Tuesday packing up around Wolca Reserve and the track and finally made it home late last night. Thank you to the 220 riders that made 2009's Gold Rush the biggest and best yet.

Congratulations to all who came to Mount Perry and conquered the Gold Rush. A total of 11,300km (1056 laps) were ridden around the course and we saw some of the closest racing I have ever seen in the country with only seconds separating the podium across some categories.

In the premier solo elite mens field, we watched 3 riders swap the lead lap after lap for the first 5 hours. With an hour of racing remaining, 40 seconds separated Andrew Mallett, Andrew Fellows and Toby Boylan. It was truly inspirational to watch these guys test one another's resolve for the last hour. Mallett faultered and could only manage 3rd place. At the 5hr 44min mark Fellows led Boylan through transition by only 100 metres to start their 11th lap. Fellows showed his experience and class to ride away from Boylan with a 4 minute neat win finishing 11 laps (118km) in 6 hours 18 minutes. Mallett rolled in a further 9 minutes behind Boylan after being resigned to the fact 2009 would again be the one that got away.

In the solo womens, Naomi Hansen led from start to finish showing her true class. It was a dominant performance that had Hansen very close to lapping Gina Costly in 2nd before pulling up at 5hrs58mins with 9 laps (96km)completed. Costly managed to start her 9th lap just prior to the Hansen finishing, ending to with a credible 9 laps beside her name. Yoko Okuda rode a stellar race pushing herself and Costly, but finished exhausted with 8 laps on the board.

Meg Carigan was in a class of her own in the 40+ solo womens, riding a superb race to complete 9 laps in a time that would have seen her finish 2nd in the open solo womens. Jayne Ryeland and Carrie Prior filled the podium with a respectable 7 laps each.

Almost 30 men battled it out in the 40+ category with Al Wallace being pushed the entire 6 hours by Michael Norman. In the end they would finish separated by only 1min20secs with 10 laps (107km) each. Nick Mills rounded out the top 3 a further 4 minutes behind in a solid ride.

The Hell Cats win in the womens pairs allowed for bragging rights for Annick Mills getting to stand two steps higher on the podium than husband Nick. She paired with Helena Oloman and they completed 8 solid laps between them within the alloted time.

Mixed Pairs saw the husband and wife team of Les and Sharon Heap (Team Heap) lead from start to finish completing a total of 10 laps (107km). Team Heap were pushed hard all day by the NRG All Stars, also 10 laps, and MTBDirt Generation X with 9 laps.

By far the most exciting category was the men's pairs. With 30 pairs lining up including some quality state series racers, it was bound to be action packed. After 5 hours (10 laps) of racing, it seemed the lead team had changed every lap with as many as 6 pairs sharing turns at the front. Unfortunately crashes, mechanicals and flat tyres riddled some competitive pairs which left 7 teams fighting for 3 podium spots. In the end only 3 pairs snuck out for a 12th lap before the 6 hour mark. Redback Cycles rider Rooster Lucas snatched the win away from Team Stuc after he demoralished his competition on the first climb of the last lap. Both Lucas and Clint Pearce (Stuc) suffered rear punctures on the last lap, finishing on their rims and looking over their shoulders for the fast finishing youngster, Aaron Benson (Teebaa). The final margin, Redback Cycles 1st, 1min21secs ahead of Stuc and only 2 seconds further back to Teebaa in third.

Nine social teams also fought long and hard in the triples category with seasoned campaigners The Rogue Agents fighting off a consistant Pro-Am Avanti Plus team sporting a 2 generations of Duhs boys. The final winning margin was just over 2 minutes. Rockhampton's Dundabirds scored themselves some great goodies filling the 3rd spot on the podium with 9 laps.

All results and lap times have been posted under the "Results" tab. Including results from Saturday evening's Dirt Dash. Some awesome racing was witnessed and the event is sure to return in 2010 with the winners in each category as follows:
Men Elite: Dave Whitney
Women: Sharon Heap
Men Sport: Russell Davies
Junior: Byron Davies

Check out all of the results and a link to Astrovisual's event photos on our RESULTS page.

Thank you to all who helped and participated for making the 2009 Gold Rush an event to remember.

Mike @ Grindin Gearz