Every stage race has a Queen stage, and at the 2012 Ingkerreke Commercial MTB Enduro, Stage 4 is it. At 77km, and with some pretty rough going at the start and the finish, it takes a toll. The middle section is fast rolling and was windy today. An easy place to get stuck on your own, or to make up time if you’re in a good group.
The stage started right up hill from the Scout Hall, cresting near a motocross ramp that we thankfully didn’t need to go over. The pace was pretty settled early on. As we dove back into the suburbs of Alice Springs, no one was really hitting it enough to split up the front. Once back on the dirt and on sandy double track, the pace lifted a little. Strung out, but not yet splitting.
If you needed to describe today, technical trails may not feature that prominently in your course description. But there was plenty of rough stuff at the start, this finally caused thing to split a little, with groups of two and three or so forming at the front of the race. Some deeper sand sections played to race leader Andy Blair’s strengths. Deep sand requires smooth power, and wheels that float. A 29er with 2.2″ Maxxis Ikons helps with this. At 17km there was a KOM, but not one that would reward the first to the top – it would reward the first to clean it. In the end this was the first to the top anyway, as Blair cleaned the steep pinch, as did Jack Haig in second.
Personally, I was in no mans land until the first water point, where Bill Sewell had waited to get company for the next road and smooth sections. We pretty much swapped off until just before the 2nd feed, where we had the leaders in sight, and had caught Stuart Brown. Leaving that feed zone with a gap of 90 seconds to the leaders, it ended up as Sewell and myself again. The loose rock and sand, alternating with corrugations, did their best to reduce our will to chase, but we finally made contact with the front group that contained race leader Andy Blair, Jack Haig, Ben Hogarth and Nick Both.
Haig is strapped up after todays crash, but Hucker is out after yesterdays crash. Heal quickly guys!
Soon after, it was sandy and loose again and Blair used this to his advantage, splitting the group of 6. Turning onto the ridge line climb it was obvious who had used too much early on, and who had some reserves. I went backwards, Sewell powered on, and Blair, Both and Haig moved out of sight.
Coming into the Alice Springs BMX track it was news of another win by Blair, with Both in second after Haig had a bad crash on the last descent. Sewell moved up to fourth, and Hogarth had maintained a good gap on myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iYc3cywjFQ&feature=youtu.be
Naomi Hansen (Subaru-MarathonMTB.com) raced together with race leader Melissa Anset, but it was Hansen who crossed just in front of Anset on the line – both laughing. Paul Darvodelsky won the 50+ category, and Gary Harwood took the win in the Masters category – but unfortunately his closest competitor Marc Baechli had to abandon with mechanical problems.
The General Classification will be updated on the ICME website shortly, and there will have been some shuffling in the mens top 10, as Nick Both makes a charge up the rankings.
Full Stage Results can be seen here.
Tomorrow, we all tackle an individual Time Trial in the morning, then race the same course as a mass start night stage in the evening.