Wow, another National Championships done and dusted (literally!), the record books look very similar to 2014 but more on that later. Rain actually fell over night Saturday but it was so minimal there was no real evidence of it come morning, it certainly didn’t alter the state of the track.
A final couple of practice sessions on Sunday allowed riders to see what state the course was in, really if you didn’t have your lines sorted by now you were in trouble!
Of course healing vibes to those riders that did crash, there were a few that were more severe than others but from what we have heard most people have been checked out of hospital and are just looking at a few days on the couch!
For those who survived practice there was racing, group B raced first and they were just after lunch, it was group A (the premier classes) who kicked off racing at about 3 O’clock. By now there were spectators lining many parts of the course, some mountain bike fanatics and some were locals who came to support the event!
Starting off with the Junior Women there were two finalists and much of that could be put down tot he track, it was very intimidating but it is national championships and it should test the skills of the riders. In the end Ellie Wale who has been riding well all season prevailed over Sian A’hern.
Next up was Junior Men and at the risk of sounding mellow dramatic as each rider came down the times dropped, this just kept happening, no rider was really holding the hot seat for too long before their time was beaten. Put this down to seeding that sorted out the majority of the pack, to be fair as well the riders that were in their last year as a junior rider and who have spent time overseas (hence have more high pressure racing experience) fared better but this was to be expected! Some notable exemptions were Jackson Frew and first year Junior rider Remy Morton (who admittedly has had plenty of overseas experience!). In the end it was Andrew Crimmins who took first ahead of Remy and then Max Warshawsky who had a slight bobble in third.
Keeping with our theme of results as per seeding Elite Women was much the same with rider after rider beating the previous time, with such a dominating performance last year it was going to be difficult for anyone to beat Tracey Hannah and she prevailed just (even with a crash on the first corner of the track) showing she is currently Australia’s fastest female on a bike!
Elite Men racing and there was much debate around the pits about who would make the podium, there was any number of riders who could make the top 10, it was going to be tight. Would it be A�one of the locals such as the Pannozzos or would it be an experienced world cup rider like Chris Kovarik or one of the new age of talent like Lucas, Moir, Fearon or Brosnan claiming the win?
As we saw all day times dropped as riders kept coming, despite the deteriorating track, riders would inch further ahead by a couple of hundreds of a second before a new group would come through and drop the time by a few seconds. This went on all race. The top five was Mick Hannah who had sustained an injury during practice, Jack Moir on his new bike in fourth, a confident Dean Lucas who excels on this type of track, a fast looking Connor Fearon in second and none other than reigning champion A�Troy Brosnan in first place. It was late in the day when champagne was sprayed and riders headed home after a great weekend.
See results below;
Results from MTBA (http://mtb.subaru.com.au/):
Junior Women:
Junior Men:
Elite Women:
Elite Men:
Plenty more pictures to come so check back soon.
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