Video: Kona Australia at Mt. Beauty

After a long season on the road, the Australian summer is slowly winding down and with that comes the conclusion of the Victorian Downhill Series. Finishing off the season in the sub-alpine township of Mt Beauty has its perks, providing one last road trip and one last visit to the alpine regions before it is snow capped and freezing (yes we have snow in Australia, to a degree!) mountains open up for winter. As usual, the high level of racing in the Victorian DH Series has brought the racing down to the line with many series champions not being decided until the final race run of the final race of the season. With Connor Fearon not attending the race (due to Sea Otter and WC commitments), we had Tegan Molloy, Sarah Booth, Chris Whitelock and Dean Lucas flying the Kona flag for the weekend.

Practice got underway on day one with the track quickly becoming blown out by lunchtime. Having endured a dry summer the majority of the trails we have raced on of late have been powdery and quickly blown out so the riders were used to it. The track in Mt Beauty is quite gravity fed and old school with some large jumps thrown in for good practice. Unfortunately, halfway through the day Tegan had an off in one of the steep rock strewn shoots and aggravated a recent shoulder injury. With continuing AC joint pain and some serious training blocks coming up for World Championship ambitions, Tegan will be sitting out racing tomorrow and returning home to continue rehab as soon as possible. After a nice dinner out on the town the team retired for the night.


Our lucky streak for the season continued on Sunday morning awaking to another amazing sunny morning. So far all season we have only had one wet race and with weekends on and off over the past few years it has been a bit of a relief. With sprinkles of rain coming through it decided to hold off and we had yet another bone dry race.


Riders hit the track for the mornings practice session and things soon turned to carnage. Rider after rider started coming down with injuries of all sorts, some unconscious, some broken in more than one place. With this trend continuing on into racing, qualifying quickly became final race runs as we were running out of light. Sarah Booth managed to clinch the victory and series overall in Elite Women, with Dean Lucas doing the same in Elite Male and sending out his time riding for Kona with a bang! Chris Whitelock unfortunately was amongst those making a trip to hospital with suspected broken ribs. We wish Chris and all the others who were injured the best of luck with their recovery. With countless podiums throughout the season, first and second overall in Elite Women, and first overall in Elite Male, it is safe to say we have had a very successful year.


Well, that wraps it up for us for the season! Thank you for following us over the past 6 months, and make sure you follow me for all the latest blogs on the Australian racing scene including World Championships news as it develops over the coming season. Thanks to our sponsors for their amazing support. I say it every race report but we really couldn’t have done it this season without the following companies who genuinely make good products that we are proud to use.


The following companies are amazing supporters of the industry so make sure you go check them all out! Kona, Mavic, Race Face, Maxxis, SRAM, Rockshox, Avid, Adidas Eyewear, Fox Head, GoPro, Evoc, Pedros, Straitline, NS Dynamics, Cane Creek, Revolution MTB Mag, Timothy Arch Photography and Torq.

See you all next season!
Lewis out…