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Post date: Jan 22, 2013 5:24:36 AM
Photo: Emily Parkes, Holly Harris and Ella Scanlan-Bloor.
Holly Harris, Greg Manttan and Dave Harris headed to Round 1 at Mt Buller all set to strive for gold.
Holly, the defending National U19 Cross Country (Olympic format) Champion, was going to show everyone what another year of training could do and this she did!
The Subaru All Mountain Cup (AMC) is made up of three different styles of racing, Cross Country (XCO), Cross Country Eliminator (XCE) and a Point to Point race (XCP) where riders compete across three rounds during January and February to be crowned the national All Mountain Cup champion. The first format, the Cross Country Eliminator (XCE), is a sprint style mountain bike race over a short course of around 1 km. It is a real sprinters event and is run with four competitors racing each other. The first two in each round work their way up to the next round. The event is typical held in an urban environment with stairs and climbs found around the town.
The second event is the Cross Country Olympic (XCO) format which as the names suggests is the format held at the penultimate event. The XCO is raced on a 4 – 6 km lap course with Elite riders completing multiple laps normally around 6 to 7 which takes around 1 hour 40 minutes.
The final event for last weekend’s All Mountain Cup was the Cross Country Point to Point (XCP). This event like the name suggests is completed on a course that starts and finishes at different locations and does not utilise standard lap arrangement. These events are normally around 25 km long.
Holly performed very strongly in all the events over the weekend. Holly achieved 1st in the Cross Country Eliminator in the U19’s and came forth overall as she competed in the final with three other Elite competitors. She had a very strong finish in the Cross Country Olympic event on Saturday taking out 1st and sixth overall, which includes the Elite Women. On Sunday’s Point to Point Holly finished 2nd behind Emily Parkes by a mere 7 seconds following a couple of frustrating mechanical issues with her bike.
Greg Manttan had his first initiation at a National Series managing to take line honours in the Expert Class taking 2nd place in the Eliminator, 2nd in the XCO and 1st in the Point to Point.
Well done to Holly and Greg who both have taken the Round 1 Overall All Mountain Cup win in their respective categories.
On another note David Harris (Club Couch) also went to the National Round 1 not only as coach and support person, but also to complete his practical component of the Class 2 Commissaire Course which is now required to hold non-club events. This will allow David to fill the position of Chief Commissaire for our up and coming UNE 12 Hours In The Piney event which will be held in Armidale on 23 March 2013.
Photo: "The Tron"
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