Above: Warburton rider Brendan Wood in action at Long Gully Road on Tuesday night.By Kath Gannaway
MOUNTAIN bike riders poured into Healesville last week for a chance to meet the current world champion, Australian, Sam Hill.
Hill, 22, was a guest of the Yarra Valley-based Flat Tyre Flyers Club, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Local riders Matt Currie from Healesville and Brendan Wood from Warburton were among competitors of all ages, including many from visiting clubs.
They looked on in awe as Hill powered down the steep Long Gully Road track and flew over the jumps providing a glimpse of the daring and skills, which has seen him claim two junior titles and two consecutive senior titles.
“Most of the cycling media and competitors he is up against are in awe of what he is doing on a bike,” said FTF president Andrew Swan.
“He’s not just an enormously talented rider, he’s fit, has a great personality and is a brilliant role model for the up-and-coming riders.
“I did an interview at the event and the riders were in awe of what he was saying. A lot of the parents were also rapt with some of the things he said,” Swan said.
Wood, 20, is a relative latecomer to the sport starting just two years ago, but like his club-mate, Currie, who at 16 is a six-year veteran of the sport, lives and breathes mountain bikes.
“I work on them five days a week and ride on the other two … it’s all good,” said Wood, who competes in the men’s elite class and rates his confidence in cornering as his main strength.
Competing at a level where seconds can mean 10s of places, Wood was proud of his recent 24th place out of 82 competitors in a round of the national competition.
“The other guy I work with, Matt Swann, beat me by a second and he came 17th,” he said.
Currie, a Healesville High School student, will head off later this week to represent the school in the Interschool Sports at Mt Buller.
Competing against some of the best riders from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania on the rocky Mt Buller tracks, Currie says he will be keeping in mind the words of Hill, his hero since the day he started.
“The things he said out at Long Gully, which I think, stuck in my mind most, were to get fitter and to practice … just practice more and more,” he said.
With 280 members FTF is the largest club in Victoria and the second largest in Australia.
Swann said the club whose members compete in downhill, cross-country and trials has a huge rider base in the Yarra Valley.
“With the proximity we have in the valley to some great riding terrain it is becoming an increasingly popular sport.”
As the club celebrates its 25 year milestone, and with riders, young and not-so-young, showing such a passion for the sport, it looks set to continue to grow.
For information on Fat Tyre Flyers phone Andrew Swann on 9735 1483.
