Bike Buller Mountain Bike Festival
Three-peat for Spink at hugely successful inaugural Bike Buller MTB Festival
Rapid Ascent / 03.04.2009
Blue skies and warm weather made for perfect race conditions in the beautiful High Countryresort, and there was no shortage of action on Mt Buller’s recently-updated trails. Murray Spink
and Lee Schultz proved their skills, taking out both the 25km cross country race and the 6km
Super-D cross country downhill events in the men’s and women’s events respectively. Spink continued his winning streak on Sunday while Schultz experienced setbacks forcing her out of the 50km race and overall point’s contention.
Spink’s previous Mt Buller experience came in handy, and he managed to take out Stage One
with an eight minute lead on the field. “I didn’t realise how far ahead I was and kept pushing as I was sure there was someone close behind me�, said Spink. “There was tricky downhill with some sketchy sections that made my arms sore towards the end of each descent from holding on�. Spink is a regular Mt Buller rider having already raced both National and State rounds there this year, and says he’s “very impressed� with the Glen Jacobs-designed trails that the courses over the weekend made use of.
Spink, probably in a similar position as most other cross country mountain bikers, hadn’t done anything like a sprint Super-D race before but showed he had some decent fast twitch fibres and plenty of skill to take that race too. The 6km Super-D cross country downhill saw groups of 5 riders pitted against one another in a roller coaster course with a descent of 500 vertical meters. There were thrills and a few spills as riders fought for the glory of being the Super-D champion. On Sunday in dominating fashion Spink demonstrated why he’s one of the best mountain bikers in the country by also winning the 50km Stirling Circuit by nearly 20 minutes to easily take the overall men’s win for the Festival’s three race premier category.
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