The second round of the Real Insurance MTB Gravity Cup/Aussie National Series has wound up at Mt Buller with Troy Brosnan beating out Sam Hill by 5.35 seconds to take the win, Bryn Atkinson in 3rd. On the women's side it was Tracey Hannah over Jill Kintner, and then Shelly Flood. Connor Fearon beat out Thomas Crimmins for the Jr Men's win, with Jack Moir in third. Connor's time would have put him in 4th place in the Elite Men's Category.
Weather conditions- Hot and sunny.
Track conditions- Dry, Square edge rocks, round rocks, few wooden bridges, mild slope, tight, narrow trail, lots of gum trees, and a couple fast fire road sections.
Elite Men's Final Top 51 Troy Brosnan 3:14.14
2 Sam Hill 3:19.49
3 Bryn Atkinson 3:20.36
4 Rick Boyer 3:22.31
5 Rhys Atkinson 3:22.99
Complete Elite Results
hereJunior Men's Final Top 51 Connor Fearon 3:20.68
2 Thomas Crimmins 3:24.59
3 Jack Moir 3:24.69
4 Dean Lucas 3:26.80
5 Henry Blake 3:27.97
Complete Jr Results
hereWomen's Final Top 5 1 Tracey Hannah 3:48.04
2 Jill Kintner 3:55.69
3 Shelly Flood 4:06.91
4 Madeline Taylor 4:18.86
5 Trudy Nicholas 4:29.56
Complete Women's Results
hereJill Kintner had this to say about the day:
Tracey put in another solid time. She is a former World Cup DH winner, and has been training flat out for her comeback. I didn’t really see her ride that much, but she will be a contender again.
My run went ok. Had a lot of positive stuff come from the weekend, so I am happy, not the run I wanted in a couple spots, little detour, but all good. I have made tons of progress with my riding and fitness, and will continue to improve.
Troy Brosnan seems to be on a bit of a roll, winning both the quali and the final here at Buller. I didn’t see him ride much, but from what I know of his style and how tight the track was, this place suited his style of floating through rough stuff with precision, bit of fire road pedaling too, which he nailed, such a racer head these days. He always says “My run was sick” so yeah, that’s all I got for you.
Sam finished 2nd with a pinned run. He’s looking really strong as well, and having a little ankle biter like Troy will surely motivate him to up his game a bit and have to work for it. He had a pretty good podium speech which made a few people chuckle. MTBA is kinda unique to do podium speeches for all 5 people.
Bryn finished 3rd, which is really quite amazing for his first race on a new bike, and after all that time recovering from the femur/ elbow injuries. Lesson to be learned about dedication to rehab!. Think he inspired a lot of people, I know I was really proud of him.
Ricky Boyer for the 4th. Also a solid racer, consistent and fast. Think he has some go-pro footage somewhere. Sure hope so, cause he was wearing a camera mounted to the top of his helmet 24-7. Found this link to some of his older footage to show some of the race tracks here in oz.
Big Cat- Rhys Atkinson rounded out the podium. Little bro has some serious talent on a DH bike, he is on the edge, really fast, and has incredible line selections. Think he’ll have a crack at a few World Cups and surprise some people. He’s now 3rd in the points battle for the series.
Our good pal Cillian finished 9th, well done! Stacked field for an Aussie national.
Honestly, I didn’t see too much this weekend to report. I was having a lot of fun riding, and just doing my own thing. Really chilled environment, not too many fans unfortunately. XC bandits were off completely separate doing their thing, we cooked our own food the whole time, watched tennis every spare moment, and just kept it mellow. Not a very social experience, even though everyone loves to hang out and have a few laughs. Buller is just not really the setting for it, very isolated, only a couple places to eat maybe. The closest town is 40 minutes away in Mansfield, but the majority of people have to get home for Monday workday. 
