MEGA GALLERY: Hoskin and Gilchrist win Elite Enduro titles

Words and photos by Matt Rousu.

Click through the gallery above for all the photos.

We awoke to cool, cloudy conditions here at Red Hill and as one of the most southerly coastal points of Victoria it was predictably windy. The big bonus being there wasn’t a drop of rain almost all day long, not only creating hero racing conditions but a grateful change in conditions for spectators, volunteers and photographers. Catch the coverage from Day 1 right here.

73 Masters competitors aged between 35 and 65+ took off early to get the days racing underway and they were treated to drier roots and rocks than they would have practiced earlier in the week, however the tricky “Alien Tree” still caused havoc on Stage 1s Pins and Needles. By the time Stage 3 rolled around I saw broken levers, snapped chains, missing visors and a lot of weary riders. However, one of the fantastic characteristics of mountain bike racers is the grit and determination to battle on, these older riders had the same time limits to race their stages and ride their liaisons as the Elite racers and there wasn’t any complaining coming from them. In fact there were only 5 riders who had time penalties for being late to start a stage, obviously a massive change from last years event.

As the day wore on the Masters riders who performed best and took home the National Champs jerseys were Ben Murphy, Kathryn Visser, Cain Branston, Elsie Gretton, Pete Smith, Karen Freeman and Russell Parsons. Full results are online.

There were over 130 Elite and U21 racers who took off from 9:30am – 11am. Well spaced out to keep the event running along smoothly. As is always the case at these events it’s a juggle to try and capture every category on multiple stages, many decisions need to be made such as; are you going to shoot the Elite Women on stage 4 or the Elite Men on stage 3 as they are happening at the same time… It’s like a race of my own to capture as much of the days story as possible, I love it!

There were so many stories throughout the day that decided podium positions, Tim Eaton having a small crash on the “alien tree” on stage 1, Rachel Hore having a bigger crash there and I saw Tom Locke have one of the biggest crashes I’ve seen in a while on Stage 3 ‘Crits’, his hand bumped off the bars at about 45km an hour and he tomahawked through the shrubs, luckily he got up and kept racing the rest of the day.

The U21 categories were dominated by Taylah Sherriff and Bailey Christie both of who would have medalled in Elite (Sherriff Silver and Bailey Gold). Bailey was stoked saying it “is a dream come true”.

Bow Habermann took Silver in front of Jarrah Street. Shout out to Jack Ward who was also battling hard for the podium but a snapped chain on Stage 2 took him out of the running, he would be the only rider to take a stage win (stage 6) off Bailey Christie.

While Taylah Sheriff ruled top roost, the U21 Women’s podium battle between Connor Mielke (Silver) and Elle De Nooyer (Bronze) was separated by only 15 seconds.

Elite Women was dominated once again by Jess Hoskin, winning every stage. The defending champ clearly likes Red Hill and has a bright future ahead of her. Roxsolt riders Rachel Hore and Peta Mullens would take 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Elite men had the closest racing out of any category today, there were 5 riders who won a stage and going into the final run the top 4 were only separated by 7 seconds! Ryan Gilchrist opened it up on Stage 6 and took overall win by 13 seconds, after winning the U21 title last year he was happy to claim his first Elite title saying he would do the sleeve proud! Tim Eaton would finish with the silver medal just 1 second in front of Hayden Stead with Sam Walsh another second back in 4th! A super close finish!!!

Red Hill Riders put on an amazing show and Aus Cycling stepped it up this year, well done to all involved! Thanks for reading along, I hoped you liked my coverage of the 2023 Enduro National Championships.