Mount Beauty Downhill - huge gallery wrap up!

Photos: Sam Purdie | Words: Matt Rousu

Round 2 of the Victorian Down Hill Series (VDHS) took place on the weekend in the heart the High Country. Often referred to as the premier series in the country, the VDHS will always strive to deliver the best racing they can, the not for profit crew have locked in 6 rounds this season and Mount Beauty was the 2nd round.

With a rich 30 year history of hosting mountain bike events, the local club of Team Mount Beauty still have a passion to “make it gnarly” and riders from around the country descend on the small town in search of a good battle. Not only is the 300+ competitor field stacked in all categories, the options the trail crew have (with 3 DH tracks to mix and match) offer almost endless possibilities and fresh challenges every season. This year was a mix of a 2002, 2017 and 2024 trail creations with classic old school DH, awkward European off camber and scary high speed jumps. The track hit the sweet spot this year with almost universal praise of ‘just hard enough, but not over the top’. The 12m triple jump in the paddock was cleared by no more than 5 people!!!

Creating a challenging track brings its own risk, with crashes and injuries a certainty there are always delays, healing vibes to everyone who hit the deck, we hope to see you recover and possibly return to overcome some demons, big thanks to Race Day Medical! Thankfully there were only a handful of major injures which only delayed racing by 45 minutes, the transport was top notch with some riders stating they had 9 or 10 runs over the weekend.

A host of top level racers attended the event including World Cup top 10 racer Oliver Davis, King of Crankworx bronze medalist Jackson Frew and former DH National Champion Ellie Smith to name a few. There were a lot of new bikes, kits and #teamrumour secrets on display, the vibe in the village was all time with huge pit tent set ups from Australia’s top mtb industry and teams, a fantastic way to kick off the season with such great exposure!

By the time racing would commence the track was super dusty but not blown out as much as I expected, lines on lines had opened up with one rock garden producing 5 unique options, ruts developed on the typical Mount Beauty flat corners and high lines began to disappear off the camber. When the dust settled it would be Jackson Connelly and Ellie Smith who would take top honours. Both Jackson Frew and Oliver Davis would crash (yet still podium in 4th and 5th), while Josh Arcus and Luke Ellison would take 2nd and 3rd in Elite Men. Ashleigh Weinert, Jessica Sheridan, Connor Mielke and Rachel Hore would join Smith on the Elite Women podium.

The most competitive category by far was the U19 men, it’s going to be an amazing couple of years for Aussie juniors at World Champs and the selectors are going to have a tough job with the talent coming through. Lachy Roberts would take the win (he would have placed 3rd in elite) with Zac Bradley just over a second back and 2nd year junior Mitch Claxton in third. Chloe Tsimiklis would win the U19 women comfortably from Zali Miklas and Amelia Freeman, it’s worth noting that Sami Rothwell was on a winning run before having a huge crash into the bottom paddock. Other stand out performers were under 17 female Tilly Boadle and U15 female Indiana Lambert with dominating performances!

The crowd lining the bottom of the track in the famous ‘chute’ section created a sensational atmosphere and will keep Mount Beauty on the DH map for many years to come, I can’t wait to see what they cook up next year!!!