BSMC Summer Series—Clubs keeping the sport alive!

Brisbane South MTB Club (aka 'the rats') has had a pretty strong history in the sport in southeast Queensland. In a time when XC appears to be a bit on the nose in Australia (my theory is that people want to ride really slowly for a 100km enduro race rather than turn themselves inside out and hurt like a mofo for two hours!) local clubs like BSMC keep the sport alive by staging events such as the BSMC Summer Series.

The Summer Series is a series of four short course XC races. While not short enough to be a true dirt crit, multiple laps of the purely singletrack 3km course is sure to hone cornering and speed skills on the bike. From A to D-grade, riders complete several laps of the course, usually finishing between half an hour and 50-minutes.

It was amazing to watch the start of C and D grade. There would have been over fifty or sixty people lined up to give mountain bike racing a crack in a friendly, non-elitist environment. B grade was also massive, with over 20 riders, and A grade had a respectable ten.

Part of the women's and B-grade men's start

Due to the 6.30pm start, the A and B grade races were under lights, which were only really necessary for the final ten minutes of the race.

While it wasn't quite the same as racing the Mt Buller National Series race (which I missed out on due to Prac commitments and general impoverishment) it was good old fashioned grass-roots dirt crit fun. Good training for Nats too, when tee'd up with the 33km ride out to the event and a bit of a trail ride before the 45-min hit out.

Hopefully the series will maintain the same momentum for the next three weeks of racing and more people will challenge themselves to give mountain bike racing a go in a fun and relaxed environment!

Bring on next week!