Tucknott takes stage 3 of Port to Port

The third stage of the 2015 Port to Port MTB saw riders head south to the quaint town of Cooranbong at the foot of the Watagans National Park. Anticipation was the call at the start line as competitors awaited the brand new stage designed to include both the nearby Awaba Mountain Bike Park as well as some secret single track at the back of Mount Faulk. There was also an air of expectation amongst the elite riders as many hoped that the varied stage of technical single track coupled with a massive climb might allow them to move into a spot on the podium.

After beginning with a controlled roll out of Cooranbong, riders soon hit the super sweet single trail of Awaba that flows through a creek line surrounded by plush rainforest. After a scintillating 12km of flowing trails a strong group of more than a dozen lead riders exited the park and turned into the massive climb up Mt Faulk. The group was headed out of Awaba by Andy Blair who looked keen to make a move to test yellow jersey holder Mark Tupalski, surrounded by Tupalski’s Torq team mates and the Trek Racing Australia Team of Peter Hatton, Reece Tucknott and Dylan Cooper.

The heat soon went on with Tupalski and his fellow Torq rider Tasman Nankervis repeating their efforts of yesterday to test the strength of the lead group as they broke away early into the Mt Faulk climb. The big pack was soon strung out down the climb by the Torq riders’ pressure, with Tupalski and Nankervis again breaking off the front. But this time they were crossed by teenager Tucknott from Trek Racing Australia who was hoping to bring his second placed team mate Hatton with him up the climb. It was a struggle for Tucknott to get onto the Torq team mates as they attacked his crossover with a number of bursts up the climb. But the youngster gritted it out and got onto their wheels to hang on for the super climb to the top.

“When we got to the climb Tupac and Taz went and I couldn’t quite go with their attack but then I got back to them, I dropped off, Taz started hitting. I think he thought I was Hatto and I just sort of put my head down and just kept chasing it,” said Tucknott at the finish line. “I got a rhythm and managed to catch them, then Taz was panicking a bit. He still thought I was Hatto and he kept hitting it but Tupac told him to relax. And we all rolled together and it was just a good day.”

The three leaders rolled over the top of Mt Faulk with a 90 second lead and into the Watagans Forest suddenly enjoying a series of fast descents where they regularly exceeded 60km per hour. Tucknott began to work hard with the two Torq team mates to hit the descents and adjoining pinch climbs before the final descent down Cut Rock Rd and into the secret single track at the bottom of the Watagans National Park. The single track could not split the three leaders and their lead over the chasing groups had stretched to over 2 minutes. It was then only three kilometres of road back into Cooranbong with the three of them hitting the attack button to get the stage win.

Entering the finish line, it was Reece Tucknott that crossed first to get the win over Tupalski and Nankervis. The win jumped Tucknott into third place overall as he edged ahead of his team mate Hatton. Tupalski extended his lead and claim on the yellow jersey with Nankervis jumping into second place. At the finish line a flushed Hatton summed up his race. “Up the climb, all you can do in the moment is go as hard as you can. At the crest I saw the situation with Reece up the road and I yelled I was with the other Torq guys and to go for it and hang on. At that point I just knew I was in for a pretty long and hard day.”

The riding of Torq youngster Nankervis has been a highlight of this year’s Port to Port MTB as he has regularly shouldered his highly rated team mate Tupalski. “Tupac is in a league of his own this weekend. He is just riding so strong on the climbs and then still riding with the best of them on the descents and singletrack.” Tupalski now only needs to cover the lead pack up the coast to Newcastle on Stage Four to match his win at the Cape to Cape MTB in 2014 with the 2015 Port to Port MTB title. “It was a classic stage. We had a chat out on course at the top of the climb. We decided to work together.”

“Taz was climbing like a beast. Yesterday it was me asking him if I was holding the pace okay, but today it was me asking him to back off a fraction, you’ll blow the legs off me,” revealed Tupalski at the finish. “Over the top we worked together then the rest of the trail was wicked fun, your just pumping the rhythms all the way. The fresh cut in section was that much fun, it was wicked.

In the female open category, stage racing veteran Jenny Blair again asserted her dominance, winning the stage and and extending her lead in the Overall Women. Blair played it safe in the technical singletrack of Awaba, to shine in her strength of climbing in the approaching ascent. “I was just thinking to myself ‘smooth is fast, smooth is fast’ so I didn’t push it too hard, I just kept it consistent.” recalled Blair. “Then up the climb, I was waiting for a wall, that’s what they had said, a wall with an average oincline of 13%, but I got to the top and thought, ‘is that it?’”, said Blair.

“There was so much undulation after that, I was blowing chunks. I didn’t believe it when a descent came, we were actually going down and not up again.”

The fourth and final stage of the Port to Port MTB begins at Cam’s Wharf, taking riders through the beloved Glenrock MTB Park, before making a beeline for Dixon Park, Merewether. Locals are encouraged to come down to Dixon Park from 10am to cheer riders across the finish line with live music, food stalls and activities for the kids on offer.