Day 2 at the Australian National Mountain Bike Championships
Day 2 was all at Awaba, with XC racing for Adaptive, eMTBs and the quirky team relay.
Photos: Matt Rousu/AusCycling
On a scorcher of a day at Awaba MTB Park, titles were decided in the XC eMTB category, XC Team Relay and Adaptive XC. It was a great day for XC racing!
Catch up on Day 1 of the Australian Narional Mountain Bike Championships
In the fight for electronic supremecy, it's actually still all about power to weight. What's the peak power on your eMTB? What's the system weight (bike and rider)? How many Watt Hours do you have (the range)? And, as often decides and XC event… how willing are you to fully send the descents? In the end it was defending champions Jon Odams and Jess Hoskin who defended their titles.
But the racing was not without drama. Such were the temperatures that Hoskin's motor shut down in the middle of her eMTB race. Cue extraordinary scenes of the race leader pouring water on her bike to cool it down!
Regardless, Hoskin led from start to finish with a 4 minute lead over Connor Mielke, who collected a second silver medal in as many days.
In the men's e-bike race, not even going too fast could stop Odams from another electrifying title. After picking himself up from a crash, he soon caught and passed Shannon Johnson to regain the lead. While Johnson stayed in touch he suffered a crash of his own around in the middle of the race. From there, Odams managed his effort and had plenty left in the (400Wh) battery to take the win.
“I didn’t know what the competition was going to be like," said Jon Odams post-race. "I knew it was going to be pretty tough. But the conditions on the day being so hot and dry certainly made it interesting. I was worried that the course would probably not suit my tactic of the lightweight bike and lightweight battery, but it worked out pretty well, so I’m pretty happy.”
Jess Hoskin said: “It was a bit tougher this year; it was a challenge. My e-bike overheating, and all the challenges of the heat. It feels good to work for it this year, and it means a lot more.”
XCO E-MTB – Men
[��] Jon Odams (Southern Cross CC) 1:16:17
[��] Shannon Johnson (St Kilda CC) +0:58
[��] Thiago Boaretto (Greenvalleys MTB Club) +4:20
XCO E-MTB – Women
[��] Jess Hoskin (Caloundra Off Road Cycling Association) 1:25:33
[��] Connor Mielke (Greenvalleys MTB Club) +4:23
[��] Emma Stevenson (Hunter Mountain Bike Association) +7:44
Cross Country Relay (XCR) titles
In all honesty, the XCR racing is a bit odd. It's not in the huge fanfare of In the cross-country racing, but every year it is still all action. NAd if you look at the XC Team Relay at World Champs – it's incredible! .
The unique format sees teams of four riders each completing one lap of the XCO course. It's a pretty handy test for riders who get to then see the course at race pace ahead of their XCO races. Teams must include at least one female, junior and masters rider, but deciding on the order is up to them.
Zoe Cuthbert’s teammate Connor Wright set a blistering first lap to gain an early advantage. However, Cuthbert’s strength proved a key difference, lapping nearly a minute faster than any other female rider to set up a convincing victory.
Zoe Cuthbert said: “The team is obviously super important, and coming up with a good team becomes a big part of it. It just makes it a lot more fun being able to race with other people and feel like you're part of something a bit bigger.”
Adaptive cross-country
At the start of the day, the Men’s 1A adaptive XCO race came down to a sprint where Patrick Best pipped Clint Pickin to add to yesterday's downhill win.
In the 2B race, Grant Allen and Renee Junga went toe-to-toe, pushing each other to the line and taking out their respective men’s and women’s titles.
While a small mistake cost him crucial time in the downhill yesterday, Dean McSporran was a man on a mission from the start whistle, and carried it through to win the 1B title.
"I just put my head down and just went," said Dean. "Once I got into my rhythm, the track was just so good. It was so fast, unreal, and good little technical bits. There was a couple of little corners where your back wheel dropped away into a rut, so you had to be really careful on that."
“It was great to do, and to see so much variety of bikes and classes, the sport is just going to grow. To only having a few riders last year to this year, the sport is definitely growing.”
XCO Adaptive
[��] Patrick Best (Mersey Valley Devonport CC) – Men 1A
[��] Dean McSporran (Hunter Mountain Bike Association) – Men 1B
[��] Gordon Broome (Hobart Wheelers/Dirt Devils) – Men 2A
[��] Grant Allen (Port Adelaide CC) – Men 2B
[��] Dalene Pretorius (Dubbo MTB Club) – Women 1A
[��] Renee Junga (Gravity Girls South Australia) – Women 2B
XCR
[��] Zoe Cuthbert, Harry Doye, Jay Gibson, Connor Wright
[��] Levi Dougherty, Adrian Jackson, Ruby Taylor, Jack Ward
[��] Joel Dodds, Charli Edwick, Russell Eggins, Darby Gaebler
