UCI Masters Mountain Bike World Championships: Masters shred the trails with cross country kicking off Sunday
The world’s best masters downhill and cross country mountain bike racers are hitting the trails, racing against the clock and their competitors at Smithfield with Australians taking out seven of the downhill titles and eight locals stepping onto the podium.
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After three days of training runs and acclimatisation the worlds best masters downhill and cross country mountain bike racers hit the trails against the clock and their competitors as racing kicked off at Smithfield over the weekend.
The event, which had 640 competitors representing more than 20 countries, crowned champions in both downhill and cross-country events in ages ranging from over 35s to those aged 80-84.
Event director Nathan Bassett said they were expecting about 2000 spectators over the event’s five days, with more than 140 volunteers contributing more than 1400 hours of their time to make it all happen.
“We’ve had a fantastic day of downhill racing and just the right amount of rain for the track … there were around 500 people on the track on Saturday and the local mountain bike community has been out in force,” Mr Bassett said.
He said eight local riders were on the podium on Saturday, and seven Australian competitors walked away with rainbow jerseys after the downhill finals.
After a lengthy delay due to an injury during seeding, officials made the decision to go straight into finals due to the potential loss of light late in the day on course.
The first Australian to notch a win was Kellie Meehan in the Female 55-59, adding to her win at the National Championships earlier in the year.
Italy’s Tiziano Finocchio recorded the first sub 5 Min result, but it was West Australian Tanya Bailey in the 40-44 who claimed the fastest female time overall.
The Albany rider stopped the clock 4:33:356 in what she described as a scrappy run after messing up in the rock garden.
“Then I slipped a pedal on that first jump after the whoops.
“I just had to grin and bear it and pedal to the line,” she said post-race.
New Zealand and Austrian riders took the first of the male titles in 65+ and 70+ categories before Nicolas Rogley put the home nation back on the top step in the 60-64 age group.
Randall Huntington finally got his rainbow jersey after moving up into the 55-59 category, and was the first rider to break four minutes.
Robert Stone continued to Australian winning flavour in the 50-54 by one-tenth of a second before former professional rider Nathan Rankin claimed the 44-49.
It was also a moment for Brisbane’s Ryan Leutton who redeemed himself after finishing second last year in the 40-44.
“Kept a fire in the belly so worked out to be number one.”
Fellow Queenslander Cameron Allonby caused an upset by pipping the defending champion Mitchell Delfs in the final race of the day in the 35-39 category.
On Sunday all eyes were on the cross country track where endurance, climbing power and fitness reigned supreme.
Riders from across the globe battled it out across four laps of an approximately 4km track which took them up and down the now world famous trails.
Returning champion from last year in the 55-59 age category Palle Egeberg Jensen, reclaimed the rainbow jersey despite a crash in practice which left him with three stitches in his head.
“I crashed on the first day, not too bad, but a little hole in my head.”
The Dane said he loved the trails in Cairns.
“Great trails, but a bit hot,” he said.
“I like the colder conditions.”
Aussie Mark Leis from Hobart finished the race in just under 59 minutes winning the 50-54 category for the first time.
“I came here last year and came fourth so great to come back and win it this time,” he said.
“A great battle out there, the Brazilian took off like a rocket at the start but we caught him back at the top of the climb and had a ding dong battle.
This was Mr Leis’ first time winning a rainbow jersey having previously competed for the Australian team in the cross-country world series which took him to races across the world.
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Originally published as UCI Masters Mountain Bike World Championships: Masters shred the trails with cross country kicking off Sunday
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