Short movie when the Murray River was about 7.5 metres at Corowa.Video focus is the area around the rowing sheds,caravan park and football ground.Music is Johnny Cash "Bridge Over Troubled Water" I've also added a Gallery of Images and the Video to the Website  

Welcome to the 4th Mt Buffalo Challenge.Matt Clark has won the Men's Competition 3 years in a row and will be hard to dislodge from the top spot again this year.On the Women's side of the competition we've had a different winner each year. Verita Stewart is the current Queen of the Mountain and will be looking to go faster again this year.
But it's also a Challenge to ride your own best time or race your friends.It's great to see riders of all abilities submitting a time.  

                                                                           Details of the Competition.
The Mt Buffalo Challenge is a competition to ride up the main Mt Buffalo climb as quickly as possible.There are 2 perpetual trophies offered for the fastest time for both men and women.
The starting point is at the bottom of the mountain near where the little office/gatehouse used to be. See the stone wall on the LHS (this has a digital screen on it now) The Eurobin Creek Picnic area sign is on the RHS.Just start your time when you pass between the digital screen and the Eurobin Creek Picnic area sign. It will be based on the time it takes to ride from the starting point (see pic below) to the top of the main climb finishing at The Gap.(finish timing your ride when adjacent to "The Gap" sign), see image below.   

           Important Statistics. Distance 18km, Average Gradient 5.4%, Elevation Gain 1004 metres. 

                                               PLEASE READ THIS PART IN RELATION TO STRAVA. 

I have recently, Feb 2015, created a Strava segment that will the the one we use now for timing when it's done through Strava.
It's called Mt Buffalo Challenge Official and I've added it to the page below.
You should be stopped or rolling very slowly at the start so as not to get an unfair advantage by hitting the start line at 40 kmh.
It's been decided to NOT make this a Strava only competition as many people want to join in who don't use Strava.
It's pretty easy to time it manually on most bike computers or an iPhone.

There are many ways to submit a time for the competition and one way is to contact me via email. I'm also on Twitter so feel free to tweet a time in too.The 2013 results sheet can be seen below the current 2014 results for comparison.I will also need the date the ride was completed,your name and racing category or age so that information can be added too. 

                                                                             IMPORTANT NOTE.
I also think it's fair to the leaders of the competition, that anybody submitting a winning time be able to verify their time.Either on Strava,or taking a photo of your bike computer, displaying the recorded time.Or have somebody else that witnessed the ride be able to confirm the time. 

I've just added a gallery of images taken at Wangaratta Cycling Club's Ian Bullus Memorial Handicap. Click HERE to view Gallery.

Photo gallery of this years "Dawsy" can be viewed HERE

I've posted a gallery of photos from the 2014 Tour Down Under  Here

Every Wednesday a group rides from Wangaratta to Beechworth and back.It's been quite a while since I've joined in so today it was time to incorporate the Beechy ride and add a little extra.

It's about 35 km into Wangaratta and I made the Bunch start time of 7.30 am quite easily.All my overhead photos of the bunch riding were blurry so the next decent pic is the coffee stop in Beechworth. 

I'd done 80 km by our stop in Beechworth and from here I would part company with the group as they headed back to Wangaratta.The plan for me was to head home via Rutherglen.

Heading into Rutherglen I was ready for lunch.Parkers Pies had wonderful pies so it seemed only reasonable to indulge in two.No 1 a Tiger Prawn in  Thai curry sauce and the second one a Bobbie Burns which is beef in a lovely rich sauce made with Campbell's Bobbie Burns Shiraz. 

The last 15 km home went pretty quickly with a nice tailwind which was a nice change.All my rides lately seem to have had their share of strong head winds.

I've just added a small gallery of photos taken during Masters 1 and Masters 2. Click HERE to view.

It's time to wake up those climbing legs and start the Mt Buffalo Challenge for it's 3rd year.Each year the number of people entering is slowly increasing which is fantastic.With the "Tour of Bright" entries currently being taken, it seems fitting to launch this year's competition.Matt Clark has owned the Men's Trophy for the last 2 years and will start the favourite once again.The Women's event gets more interesting each year, with Clare Dallat the current keeper of the Perpetual Trophy.Rumour has it there will be times under the hour from the Ladies this year.

                                                                  Details of the Competition.
The Mt Buffalo Challenge is a competition to time your ride up the main Mt Buffalo climb.There are 2 perpetual trophies offered for the fastest time for both men and women.
The starting point is at the bottom of the mountain near where the little office/gatehouse used to be. See the stone wall on the LHS (I think this has a digital screen on it now) for another landmark,with the Eurobin Creek Picnic area sign on the RHS.Just start your time when your passing through this point and you'll be close enough. It will be based on the time it takes to ride from the starting point (see pic below) to the top of the main climb finishing at The Gap.(finish timing your ride when adjacent to "The Gap" sign), see image below.   

           Important Statistics. Distance 18.5km, Average Gradient 5.4%, Elevation Gain 1004 metres. 

                                             PLEASE READ THIS PART IN RELATION TO STRAVA. 

It's probably better to be stopped or rolling very slowly at the start so as not to get an unfair advantage by hitting the start line at 40 kmh.The Mt Buffalo segment on Strava is around 10 seconds shorter than the manual timed segment I've created for this competition, so you can use Strava to get your time.I will then add 10 seconds to all Strava times.It's been decided to not make this a Strava only competition as many people want to join in who don't use it.It's pretty easy to time it manually on most bike computers or an iPhone.

There are many ways to submit a time for the competition and one way is to contact me via email. I'm also on Twitter so feel free to tweet a time in too.The 2013 results sheet can be seen below the current 2014 results for comparison.I will also need the date the ride was completed,your name and racing category or age so that information can be added too. 
Feel free to leave your time in the comments section at the bottom too. 

                                                                    IMPORTANT NOTE.
I also think it's fair to the leaders of the competition, that anybody submitting a winning time be able to verify their time either on strava,taking a photo of your bike computer displaying the recorded time or have somebody else that witnessed the ride. 



                                                         2014 COMPETITION CLOSES WITH A BANG 
Many thanks for everyone who has been involved in The Mt Buffalo Challenge over the last three years.I enjoy running it and hope it keeps growing in the future.Making the trophies was great fun and I know the quality of them is appreciated by the winners.
  
With a week left to run in this year's competition,Verita Stewart completed the winning ride on the Women's side of the ledger.
Verita is improving all the time and has made huge gains in the last year,can't wait to see if she will be the first Female to go under 1 hour next year.

Not to be outdone,like the last minute bid on an Ebay item, Matt Clark once again proved he's the man to beat.Matt completed his ride on the second last day of the competition after Stephen Lane had been in the lead for most of the year.

I'm trying to work out how to get more competitors involved in future years.This year has been the lowest in the event's short 3 year history.I'm thinking about running a handicap event along side the current scratch race.Hopefully that would create more interest for those of us not gifted enough to get the fastest time.Just have to work out a handicap system!!

I've just added an image gallery of today's race to my website here. I had a great time today, chasing the race around the back roads, between Culcairn and Lavington.