Australia is well endowed with quirky animals like this little bustard, but is lacking in large hills. The You Yangs are only 350 metres high but have a fairly decent DH track that was the venue for the latest round of the Australian National Series 2009, the You Yangs Australian National DH Round 3 2009.

Optimistically described as ‘pedally’, the course has been criticised for not having enough downhill, and has sparked a lot of discussion on what should be considered a ‘real’ DH course – some riders (including the Elite Men winner) were  opting for lighter bikes and beating those on big DH rigs.

Claire Whiteman took out the race in the pro women’s field,  followed by NZ National Champ Sheryl Macleod in second and Leigh Douglas in third. Claire is back in the lead for the series, bumping Leigh back to the number two spot.

Claire’s strategy for the race: “My plan was to pedal, pedal, pedal, I knew I sat down in qualifying so I knew I just needed to pedal even if I was falling over at the bottom.” It must have worked, she took several seconds of her qualifying time. Nice one!

Click here for full results

ELITE WOMEN

1 Claire Whiteman
2 Sheryl MacLeod
3 Leigh Douglas
4 Cara Smith
5 Emma Lewis
6 Sarah Booth
7 Leonie Picton
8 Jayne Rutter

UNDER 19 WOMEN

1 Em Hockey
2 Bec Kriss
3 Jasmin Rosa

UNDER 17 WOMEN

1 Katelyn Humphris
2 Chariee Atkinson
3 Danielle Ancunzo

Older: Another race for Tara

Fresher: Martha Hucker interviews Sheryl MacLeod

Published on 16/12/2008 by Martha Hucker.