Hodgo’s Roll of the Dice
An enthusiastic field of 56 riders fronted up for the Mountainless Bike Club’s “Hodgo’s Roll of the Dice” event last Sunday, under blue skies and perfect conditions for a ride. The track marshals had prepared a course just over two kilometres that was fun for both the new and experienced riders.
The event, in its third year, would see teams of two take it in turns to do as many laps of the course in 75 minutes. At the end of each lap the riders would roll two 12 sided dice to achieve a lap score. The winner of the event would be the team with the highest total score at the end of the time.
Following a race brief where the safety and race rules were explained to the riders, the field lined up for a Le Mans start. The Le Mans start was a novel way of starting an event which would see the first rider line-up on the starting line and on the starting siren run to their bike being held by their team mate. the first rider would jump onto their bike and ride out on to the course proper.
Thorrell Lee was in charge of the starting siren and sent the riders on their way. Matt Leeder’s long legs were an advantage as he sprinted away from the runners getting to his bike first and leading the riders out. The initial scenes were of pandemonium, with riders sprinting to their bike, trying to locate their partner and then get out on to the narrow entrance to the course with plenty of laughter filling the air. It didn’t take long for the quicker riders to get away and the field spread out a little.
For the next hour and a quarter participants rode laps and rolled dice. Consistently riding and rolling good scores was the secret to getting a win in this event. Screams of delight and frustration where mixed with constant chuckling from onlookers as riders who had ridden quick laps did not have the luck with them when rolling the die.
Rohan Hollis and Kevin Laird completed the most number of laps with twelve in the allotted time, Unfortunately Lady Luck was not on their side and overall highest score went to Steve and Genelle Baldwin who completed eleven laps and scored 198. Second place went to Glen Cummings and Peter Webley with 176 and third to Mark Stephens and Shaun Dwyer with 168.
Club Promotions Officer Grant Brooks said that the club could not have been happier with the event “Hodgo’s Bike Hub has been a great sponsor of the event for the last three years and the prize money was a bit of an incentive to have a go. We were really pleased with the turnout with a bigger field than last year. We had a nice spread of ages and really good number of female riders which shows that our plan of getting them involved is starting to pay off. This event was really about participation and having a bit of fun and by the smiles on everyone’s faces and the amount of laughing and good natured banter is was mission accomplished.
We will definitely look to include the Roll the Dice into next years calendar but if anyone would like to experience mountain biking, our next club event is on Sunday 23rd March with details on our calendar.
