National Champs: Day Two

Day Two in Bright for the Subaru MTBA Australian MTB National Championships, and it was all pretty good as far as a Friday the 13th goes. With a pretty cold morning to start affairs, the sun did hit its straps later in the day, but barely in time for the Masters, U15 and U17 women racing at 9:30am in the morning.

It was a pretty quick start to those races, and a whole lot of riders out on course spanning ages from under 15 to over 50. Zoe Cuthbert and Katherine Hosking claimed the U15 and U17 titles respectively, well clear of their rivals.

“I’m super stoked about the race and super happy,” said Hosking in her after-race interview.

“In the past few races her [Tucknnott’s] last lap has been her fastest so I really had it in my mind to just keep thinking she’s going to catch up, so I had to go hard for the whole race.”

Sharon Heap and Karen Evans took out the Masters Women 5+ and 3/4, with Tanya Faux cinching the Masters 1/2 title ahead of Eva Plessing.

The U15 and U17 men were on at Midday, and the pace was hot! Kian Lerch-McKinnon was a favourite, riding with birthday strength. Cameron Wright and Dean Cane put in a hot chase but Kian took the title. Charlie Todd rode away with the U15 title.

“It’s very nice on my birthday to win the Champs, I’m very happy,” said Lerch-Mckinnon.

“It was pretty hard, I didn’t have the best start going in to the first fireroad in third. But I managed to get past Cam and Dean and I just basically led from there.”

Masters Men were off after lunch, and possibly had the largest field so far. Russell Collett lit the wick and exploded off the line but faded after the first lap in Masters 3/4, Stefan Merriman took the lead – and then the win. Old man mountain Rob Eva was announced the winner but it was John Henderson who won Masters 5/6 with Tony Tucknott also taking a medal for the Trek family in 3rd. Nick Bird took the title for Masters 7+.

Full results for all categories are online.

Downhill

All reports from Downhill practice are of a course that is being blown to pieces. Bright is very dry, and ruts are deepening, rocks are coming loose, and riders are crashing and injuring themselves. With another day of practice and seeding, the course will be a completely different shape by race day on Sunday.

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