How good is it after a season abroad to come back and do the national races at home? This time I kicked the season off with National Round 2 at Thredbo.

Thredbo has long been a favourite place of mine. Totally laid back atmosphere, generally excellent weather, a super fun course, and of course chairlifts!

This year I made the road trip down from good old Toowoomba with 2 of the same crew from last year consisting of Commencal rider Lindsay Klein, and photographer bandit Pete Denyer, and we were by Farkin’s own main man with a plan, Scott Millett.

Getting to Thredbo always starts off with a very early morning for the road trip ahead and this year was no exception. We all got loaded and on the road by 5:30am, with the plan being to arrive in Thredbo by around 8:30 that night. The trip started well except for poor little Scotty, who was on his maiden road trip asking 4 times in the first 80km "are we nearly there?"

Scott Millett, pinner / whinger

I wouldn't normally throw in anything about the trip in a report like this, but I just have to mention the amount of locusts (or whatever they were?) in about a 150km radius of Dubbo. This is entertainment in itself, driving through a storm of bugs about to be obliterated by the windscreen was possibly the highlight of the trip! Yeah, I know that sounds a bit sadistic, but you know you'd find it riveting as well!

Anyways, we arrived at Thredbo a little behind time due to a few things along the way, not the least of which was the saga of Lindsay’s Ford Bravo / Mazda Courier, whatever you call it, and the little engine that couldn't! The thing goes like a champ on the flat, just don't expect any great uphill truck overtaking moves in it, 80km up any hill was as good as it got!

Thredbo once again turned on perfect weather and with the Thursday being my birthday I was looking forward to a nice day with plenty of chairlift assisted runs and sunshine and as usual, Thredbo didn't disappoint. I could tell you all about my birthday bash that night but the details are hazy at best.

After the perfect days riding on Thursday the tone had been set for the rest of the days there. Awesome riding, so much fun was being had and the track was holding up unbelievably well considering the 350+ riders that were there to race.

Yep, definitely tastes like dirt...

By Saturday there was more people there than I’d ever seen at an Australian race, the atmosphere was good and everyone looked to be having a great time, all except Lindsay, who had a monumental digger after a mechanical at 60km/h sent him over the bars.

I think “ouch” would be an understatement, a well-broken finger, broken rib, a few strawberry roll-ups worth of skin, and an aerial (chairlift) viewing of Sundays racing was his reward for "digger of the day"

Lindsay Klein, already back in "training" for the next race, what a trooper

Sunday came around before I knew it, and everybody looked ready to race.

A huge field was ready to go in the Elie Men, with many of Australia’s top riders making the trip, including, Mick Hannah, Nathan Rennie, Joel Panozzo, Bryn Atkinson, Jared Rando, Ben Cory, Justin Havukainen, and even Andrew Mills sporting a heavily strapped wrist was back for his first race since Ourimbah in January 2004.

Not to mention recently retired XC legend and Aussie Yeti importer Paul Rowney who made his DH comeback after a decade off and took 4th in Veteran men. After doing a couple of runs with him I can see he could still be doing well in Elite with a bit more DH time under his belt. Just one question needs to be asked...Is Rowney XC or Downhill?

The weather started to do some funny things on Sunday morning, Clouds were around and the wind was going nuts, luckily it all died off fairly quickly and normal programming was resumed.

Qualifying started pretty much on time, I was way back in the start order after not going to round 1 in Cairns, but all was good.

Got Braaaaaap? David Taylor looking pro...

I wanted to have a solid qualifier but leave some in the tank, as everyone does. Some went easier than others, Mick Hannah must have stopped for a cuppa mid run, but everyone knew he'd be up there come finals, whereas I probably did a little too much in my qualifier, I thought I took it easy, but I was a bit tired rolling across the line and managed to qualify 1st just ahead of Panozzo and Rennie.

Times were super close and I was worried I’d out a bit too much energy into qualifying but after a bite of lunch and a sit down, things were feeling better.

In the meantime all the other classes were going on. The Farkin Battle of Mikhail (Squidly Didly) Chai, and Scott (Scott) Millett was on for all money, with Scott coming out trumps, and taking home 12th in Expert Men, not bad for his first national round, and 3rd ever race. Squid was most gentlemanly in defeat though and besides, who needs to ride fast when you have a new commodore that shiny!

Junior Squids (under 19's) was once again a close fought battle, with Team Panozzo of Liam and Chris up against Amiel Cavalier. How bloody quick are the juniors getting these days? Damn kids!

Amiel took the win by a couple seconds with a 5:55 after qualifying 1st, ahead of Liam and Chris Panozzo, but all 3 of the little pinners were under the 6 minute mark which I think less that 15 people managed all day.

A rider I’ve never heard of, Tim Eaton took 4th nipping right at the heels of the top 3, and another 2 seconds faster would have seen him in 2nd, definitely a rider to keep an eye out for down the track. Rounding out the top 5 was Darren Pokoj, little Daz has been around for years now, and he’s getting damn fast as well!

In the Elite Women’s Tracy Hannah was out on her own, taking the win by a huge margin ahead of GT's Emma Mcnaughton in second and Helen Copus in third and even though their weren’t huge numbers of Elite Women racing there were quite a few girls spread through the categories, which was really good to see.

Tracey Hannah, on her way to a commanding victory

I also have to give a mention to under 17 winner James Maltman, who creamed the rest of the field and won in a 6.05! That’s crazy fast! If anyone out there is looking to sponsor a young up and comer, this is your kid, he’s about 5’6” of pure pinner!

It was time for Elite Men’s final after everyone else was done. It seemed as if only 10 minutes had gone by and all of a sudden I was in the start gate for my run. Being the last rider down is kind of cool, but at the same time it’s kind of crap, because you feel some extra pressure.

All week I was more worried about just having fun and not too concerned about the race, but in the start gate I found myself getting quite nervous. I did my normal trick of counting he rocks on the ground in front of me to take my mind off the run and calm down. Works every time, and before I knew it, I was away!

My run started well, I got through the new top section well, and through the section of the track just after that I really hate, which consists of a mega tight turn after an extremely gravelly fire road, then dropping down some steps into another couple of gravelly berms.

Obligatory lifestyle shot...

I was stoked to be done with this section; as from there it opens up into some rocky sections and then into some flat out and rough bits, which I think is the best section of the track. By the time I was midway down the run and heading into the trees I knew I was on a solid run, no stuff ups so far, just had to keep it going.

The bottom half of the course at Thredbo is all about maintaining speed, with linking sections together well being vital to a having a fast run. It’s all quite fast and some decent sized braking bumps form come race time to add to that whole body tired feeling.

I got through it all well and I had some legs to pedal hard near the very bottom. Everyone was going nuts in the very last tree section before popping out into the finish straight. I knew it was going to be tight because I heard a few people shouting "pedal f**ker!”

I came across the line absolutely spent and I had the win by half a second with a 5.47, so close after almost 6 minutes of racing! Mick Hannah took out 2nd after having the lead for quite a while on the back of a slow qualifier. Rennie took 3rd a second behind Mick and Bryn was in 4th, right on Rennie’s backside with Panozzo in 5th. Only 4 seconds separated the top 5.

3 of your top 5 Elite Men, Hannah, Graves, Atkinson

It was just as close as well for the rest of the top 10 which included, Rando, Havukainen, Mills, Ryan Lennox and "pinner of the day" Adam Dossetor, Dossy unfortunately had a couple of issues in his final but his qualifying time would have had him right on the top 5.

And that was that for the 2004 Thredbo National Round. An awesome week away was had, big thanks to all the organizers that made the event run so smoothly. Just one bit of advice to the track markers, go easy on the stakes on the inside of turns, some were just too close and many people were missing quite a bit of skin on knuckles after a few runs.

Big thanks to my personal Sponsors...Yeti Cycles, Fox Racing Shox, Troy Lee Designs, Oakley, WTB and SRAM.

Until next time,

Jared Graves

Editor's Note: Don't forget to check out Peter Denyer's full gallery of 300+ Thredbo Photos!