Real Bike Insurance MTB Cruise

If you asked any of the 360 riders at yesterday's Real Bike Insurance MTB Cruise what kept them going I’m sure you would have heard 360 different reasons.

For me it was the sweet flowing berms of Mt Stromlo and one particular right hand, shoulder high, brakes off screamer that kept me hanging for the next lap.

With the eerie backdrop of Mt Stromlo covered in mist the MTB Cruise had all the elements covered during the day with light rain, mist, mud then the heat. With distances ranging from 10km to 100miles (actually 150km) the 360 entrants all found their own challenge and took on Mt Stromlo.

With Craig Gordon making a pre-race switch from the 100 mile to the 80km it left only 18 hardy souls in for the early start and late finish with 8 laps of the 18.7km course which included some favourite sections such as Blue Gums, Slick Rock Junction and Pork Barrel.

The more sensible crowd took the later start and headed off for 80, 50, 30 and 10km distances. In the 80km race it was Peter Hatton in a Rockstar Racing sandwich with Craig Gordon and Shaun Lewis all taking on the first climb together and quickly opening up a gap on the chasing bunch.

Halfway in and Hatton and Lewis were still riding together with Craig Gordon, who was using the race as preparation for next month’s Australian Marathon Championships, lurking a further 4 minutes behind.

Rocky Trail Entertainment pieced together some tough sections of track that had plenty of climbing and rough descents including the rocky and technical Pork Barrel descent. A just reward for packing the climbing legs, however plenty of little pinch climbs and undulating singletrack to follow left little room to recover.

Three laps in and about 50km’s done I was starting to feel sorry for the 100 milers who still had a long day ahead of them and some wise words from Mr T popped into my head “I pity the fool”.

After the climbing was done, and the rough descents navigated it was only a singletrack hop, big ring and crank away from my favourite section, the shoulder high, right hand berm from the mtb gods. In a snaking section of track that had you leaving the brakes behind it was a 90 degree lean back and pin it berm that broke a smile on my weary face every time.

At the 80km Male Open finish it was Lewis first in a time of 3 hours 28 minutes 55 seconds with Hatton finishing 1 minute behind and Craig Gordon a further 7 minutes down.

With the quickest ‘race finish to presentation ratio’ I’ve ever seen in the 80km Male Open class I crossed the line about 1 hour 15 minutes behind the winner and was just in time to see Lewis collect the oversize novelty cheque on the podium. Unsure of what position I finished in it certainly drove home the point that is wasn’t a podium!

As the day wore on it was Brett Bellchambers, riding a single speed who was the first 100 miler to finish with Hugh Stoddart (riding in masters category) the second overall across the line. The sole woman taking on the metric ton crossed the line in a time of 9 hours 29 minutes, only 1 hour 24 mintues behind Bellchambers.

More results can be found at www.rockytrailentertainment.com/