2016 National Series Rounds 3 & 4 Pre-race Report

Post date: Jan 17, 2016 11:55:45 PM

Jack Feltham - Whipping it in the Mt Stromlo Round 2 XCC

A group of 4 riders has headed to Pemberton, four hours south of Perth, Western Australia, to compete in the double header rounds 3 & 4 in the National Mountain Bike Series.

After testing her legs at the National Road Biking Championships in Ballarat Victoria, Holly Harris (team Torque Merida Australia) will again be back on the mountain bike, racing in the Elite Women and looking for another podium. Her road biking forte performance managed to secure Holly a position in the National Road Biking team Hogs Breath Café Tineli Women’s Race Team.

Team Round 3 will be particularly important for Holly as it carries Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) points which will earn much needed ranking points to assist in start seeding for the first World Cup Round to be held in Cairns in April and points for Olympic selection for Rio.

Michael Harris and Jack Feltham are racing in the U19s and will be looking to continue to build on their rankings. Round 3 will also be important for this UCI Junior Category with international points also available.

Emily Wooster will be racing in the U17 category and will be trying to move up the podium from her very consistent Bronze position.

Unlike the other National Rounds only the XCO (Cross Country Olympic format) will be raced with Round 3 on Saturday 23^rd January and Round 4 on Sunday 24^th January on a second course. The courses are expected to be moderately technical with reasonable climbs which should separate the field. The laps will be 4 to 5km long with competitors completing 2 to 5 laps depending on their category. Over the last year a significant amount of track construction has been completed in Pemberton which is expected to shake up the field in comparison to last year’s low technical nature.

Best of luck to all the local riders on what will be a tiring but exciting weekend of racing.