Lewis and Fay triumphant at final Capital Punishment
The final Capital Punishment MTB race was run in Canberra on the weekend. Shaun Lewis and Jenny Fay won the men's and women's races.
Marathon racing may have reached its peak a few years ago, and participation might be on a slide down hill. But that doesn’t mean that great events aren’t still running. On Saturday 7th March, the final Capital Punishment MTB race was run across the ACT (more or less) from Kowen Forest to Mt Stromlo.
As one of the last great point-to-point marathon races in Australia, it combined some of the better trails around the ACT, with enough fire trail to freshen up on, and a curious un-timed linking section through the suburbs. It was unique. It wasn’t just “another 100ker”.
The race took fitness, skills, planning, and strategy. And not just because you had to figure out the car shuffle so you weren’t stranded in Mt Stromlo.
The Swell-Specialized Team did that perfectly this year, with Shaun Lewis and Andy Blair riding a dominant race. The two riders lead from the front, and although Kyle Ward of Ward Brothers Racing was there, he was in the awkward position of being the only Ward Brother there, with no assistance to help counter the attacks from Blair or Lewis.
The three came into the un-timed section close, but Ward trailed by about 40 seconds.
This is where strategy comes into play. With 50 minutes to ride the 12 km to where the timing starts again, riders must consider when they leave. Obviously leaving right on 50 minutes is chancing your luck with timing. But they key is to monitor those who are already in front of you. In this case, many of the elite riders and leading masters riders amassed at the re-start. Some Masters shot off. Others who didn’t want to start too fast, and hoped to stay with a fast moving bunch, then left. Then most of the elites, save for Blair and Lewis.
Both riders bridged to the main group that had formed, putting themselves with a fast group, but ahead on time, as their race had restarted a little later than the others.
In the final kilometres, the duo were too strong for all others, as they went 1-2 over the line with Lewis taking the line honours. Troy Herfoss finished 3rd.
The women’s race had lower numbers than in previous years, and Jenny Fay rode a triumphant race, finishing ahead of Kristy Henderson and Susie Wood. Full results are online.
The evening before the race, elite women’s competitors were notified that the prize money was not going to be paid for their category. With quite low entry numbers, this can be seen as justified from a business point of view. But there are a few questions that get raised – why didn’t more women sign up to the race? How does cutting prize money help grow the sport? And if prize money is offered and elite women don’t sign up – what are the right steps to increase women’s participation?
