Saturday 19th March was not only the second running of the Capital Punishment MTB Marathon, but also the first round of the Real Insurance XCM Series, Powered by CycleNation. Both should be considered a great success.
The start was early and not too stressful. The seeded start had racers taking off in waves with a few minutes between groups. The Elite Mens group was still pretty manic, with a pretty quick pace of the gun, and the usual bottleneck at the singletrack once the first half dozen riders were through. Although the Oceania Championships in Shepparton kept some of the countries Elite away, the pace was high enough to force one rider to the side, heaving up his breakfast.
The bunch split in the singletrack, with various small groups forming, coming together, and splitting again. The trails were fast, and in good condition. However the terrain was varied throughout the race, especially from just before the first feed station. A long road section was followed by a climb up a rutted climb. The never ending grass section around the airport and across farmland to Majura Pines was certainly mentally tough. But that is all part of a marathon, especially a point to point race. You need to move a long way geographically, and doing so all on pristine trails is unrealistic. Besides, if you like racing, the terrain is of little consequence – it’s about the competition.
A KOM/QOM point was placed just before reaching Majura. This was decisive in the Elite Mens race, with the front group dwindling in numbers as the pace was forced over the top.
Soon after Majura, riders in the 100km event hit the untimed section. And this is where some thinking was involved. Riders had 45 minutes to make it to the next timing mat, where their transponder would start their time again. So if you came in, and waited, and headed out with other riders who had been behind you, you would be ahead of them on time. So it was important for those seeking to succeed to use their time wisely, and pay attention to who was around.
The last section of the course was fast, with a combination of gravel roads, cyclepaths, and Stromlo trails. The 50km and 100km courses had converged after the untimed section, and riders were amazingly courteous to each other in the more heavily trafficked climb up the back of Mt Stromlo.
The finish is never certain, due to the untimed section. Is the first rider over the line the real winner? Common sense is no match for competitiveness though, so there were many finish line sprints through the day.
Brief Category Results:
Elite Men
1. Dylan Cooper
2. Pete Hatton
3. Ben Mather
4. Ivan Rybarik
5. Craig Gordon
6. Matt Fleming
7. Marc Williams
8. Shaun Lewis
9. James Downing
10. David Shepherd
11. Graeme Arnott
12. Brent Miller
13. Mark Tupalski
14. Anthony Shippard
15. James Lamb
16. Chris Hanson
17. Jon Odams
18. Mike Blewitt
19. Julien Wicks
20. Nathan Versey
Elite Women
1. Jenny Fay
2. Vanina Vergoz
3. Bethany Thompson
Stay tuned for race reports from MarathonMTB.com Race Team members,.