2012 UNE 3 Hour - 21/10/2012

Post date: Oct 21, 2012 6:31:38 AM

Sport UNE Mountain Bike Track opens with a bang!!

On Sunday October 21 the new mountain bike trail at Sport UNE was officially opened with a three-hour race. The track has been developed by New England Mountain Bikers (NEMTB) in conjunction with Sport UNE. This track is a fine facility for all members of the public to enjoy. It consists of mainly single track meandering through the pine trees and farmland. There are a number of wooden and rocky structures along the way, with the highlight the difficult big rock roll-over. This is an A line which some brave riders take on. Most people happily go around the B line for that section of the track, which is slower but safer.

There were 58 competitors in the race on Sunday. The adults were in teams of two with the juniors in teams of three. Teams completed as many laps of the 5 km course as possible in the three hours from 10 am to 1 pm. There was a social atmosphere surrounding the race with many teams dressing up and decorating their bikes and bodies. Some of the transitions from one team member to the next were entertaining with dance moves, riding backwards and crashes featuring often under the big green blow up finish line.

For the record, the winning team and holders of the Vice Chancellors Cup for this year, was ‘Two Fast And Three Won’. This team was Isabella Hosking and Mia Tindale and they received this trophy for their spirit and performance. Nina Stone and Sonya Wrenford-Mobbs (Pink Chix) were named second, with Bill Platts and Luke Andrews (Uralla Schoolies) were third. The team who completed most laps in the shortest time was Sean Bekkers who completed 9 laps in a time of 2 hours and 44 mins. Sean rode the event on his own which shows his fitness. Also completing nine laps were Harry’s (David and Michael Harris), Educated Awesome (Katherine Hosking and Greg Manttan who rode in their school uniforms), RU4 Scuba (John Scott-Hamlton and Damian Schmude), Winona and Stephen (Winona and Steve Rumble) and The Benhams (Jo and Matt Benham).

A huge thanks goes to the Shotz Sports Nutrition team for providing a large assortment of different flavoured Shotz Energy Gels for the competitors to enjoy! You can pick-up the Shotz Energy Gels or their Shotz Electrolyte Tablets at Armidale Outdoors on 152 Rusden Street.

It was a great event and will grow to even more heights next year. The track received rave reviews with riders of all abilities enjoying themselves.