If you were around the Armidale area on the weekend you may have noticed a lot of very serious “two wheel action”. The New England Mountain Bike Club in conjunction with Mountain Biking Australia (MTBA) and University of New England (UNE) were proud to host the 2018 MTBA Cross-Country National Championships.

Cyclists, who come from all over Australia and New Zealand, competed in two main disciplines:

Cross-Country Eliminator  - a new and fantastically exciting short course (610m) sprint race. This year the course took a surprising and unique metropolitan route through the main courtyard of the UNE. The usual risk factors of rocks, jumps and tree roots were replaced in this format by sharp corners, unforgiving cement edges, ascending and descending stairs, and a narrow race line.

Essentially, riders are arranged into heats of 4 according to qualifying time. The two fastest riders go through to the next round whilst the two slower riders are eliminated from the race.

This race was conducted on Friday 23 February, giving many of the riders a solid, quick hit-out prior to their XCO races.

The results will include 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd placegetters, followed by positions of each NEMTB member.

Elite Men, Under 23 Men and Junior Men (U19s) (combined 31 competitors):

1^st – Cameron Ivory (Elite)

2^nd – Charlie Brodie (Junior)

3^rd – Matthew Dinham (Junior)

NEMTB members:

4. Michael Harris (U23)

7. Fergus McQueen (Junior)

13. Jack Feltham (U23)

15. Nathan Whitehall (Elite)

16. Angus Apps (Junior)

21. David Cook (Junior)

26. Duncan Chalmers (Junior)

29. Sam King (Junior)

30. Harry Graham (Junior)

 

 

Under 17 Men, Under 15 Men, Expert Men, Masters 2 – 8 Men (combined 45 competitors)

1^st – Shannon Johnson (Masters 2)

2^nd – Matt Boulcott (Masters 2)

3^rd – Mitchell Snowball (Under 17)

NEMTB members:

11. Peter Harris (Masters 3)

13. Ben Harris (Masters 4)

19. Hamish Chalmers (U17)

21. Sam Davis (U15)

23. Jack Sewell (U17)

24. Archie Chick (U17)

28. Harry Wooster (U17)

29. Charlie Smith (U17)

30. Fletcher Jackson (U17)

43. Archi Lawrence (U15)

 

Women combined (Elite, Under 23, Junior (U19), Under 17, Under 15, Masters 3-5) (combined 23 competitors)

1^st – Charlotte Culver (U23)

2^nd – Zoe Cuthbert (Junior)

3^rd – Arwen Crampton (U17)

NEMTB members:

11. Holly Harris (elite)

21. Emily Wooster (Junior)

 

Cross-Country Olympic – This is probably the most common discipline of mountain biking. It is a longer course of approximately 5-10ks where riders do a designated number of laps depending on their category. The course at SportUNE has been highly praised by mountain bikers – many of its more risky sections (Mars Attack, Ducketts Way) being purpose built to achieve the high level of challenge and difficulty expected in this format.

The results are positions of each NEMTB member. The categories are kept separate unlike the eliminator.

Saturday 24 February

Under 17 Women (3 laps)

1.       Isabella Hosking

5. Sabrina Ho

7. Olive Tutt

11. Emily Meehan

Masters 3 Men (4 laps)

6. Peter Harris

Masters 4 Men (4 laps)

2.       Andrew Whitehill (The Dark Lord)

11. Anthony Chick

Masters 5 Men (3 laps)

3.       David Harris

10. John McQueen (The Beast)

Masters 8 Men (2 laps)

4.       Trevor Weston

Under 15 Men (2 laps)

16. Oscar Shepheard

17. Sam Davis

Under 17 Men (3 laps?)

20. Sam Fetham

32. Tumi Thorsteinsson

33. Harry Wooster

34. Hamish Chalmers

35. Will Schmude

36. Joel McIntyre

 

Sunday 25 February

Junior Men (U19) (4 laps)

7. David Cook

12. Angus Apps

20. Fergus McQueen

27. Sam King

31. Duncan Chalmers

32. Harry Graham

33. Mark Robinson

 

Elite Women (5 laps)

2. Holly Harris

Junior Women (U19) (3 laps)

5.       Emily Wooster

Under 23 Men (5 laps)

2. Michael Harris