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You are here: Home / Reports / Elite XCO racers grab AMB100 titles

February 9, 2015 By Mike Blewitt Leave a Comment

Elite XCO racers grab AMB100 titles

Related Event: AMB 100

It was a big weekend of mountain bike racing in Australia, with a National XCO round at Mt Stromlo, National DH at Thredbo, and the AMB100 marathon as well. As the marathon fell on sunday after XCO on saturday – and both were at Mt Stromlo – many wondered what the “spillover” from one event to the next would be.

As it turns out – pretty high! With close to 300 mountain bikers racing the demanding 28km circuit laid out by Rocky Trail Entertainment, there were more than just a handful who stayed on the extra night. Elite racers from Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales all opted to stay on to race in one of the events on Sunday.

Like many popular marathons, the AMB100 has many distances. It’s a lap based event, so while they are nominally called 33, 66, 100 kilometre and 100 mile options, the true distances are 28km, 56km, 84km and 140km. No one was asking for a partial refund for less kilometres.

Shaun Lewis

Mt Stromlo is one of the best multi-purpose trail centres in the country, but that doesn’t mean it can only cater for entry level riders. There are plenty of very difficult trails on the mountain, and the AMB100 course took in many of the best, and with almost 700m of climbing per lap. Factor in an almost entirely singletrack route, and the level of difficulty becomes obvious.

Soon after 8am the 66 and 100km racers took off – although the 100 mile racers had started at 5am to beat the oppressive heat of an Australian summer’s day. The 33km one lap racers followed soon after.

The pace was pretty high, with many of the countries best bar-to-bar up the firetrail start climb. Andy Blair, Scott Bowden, Tom Goddard, James Downing, Anthony Shippard, Shaun Lewis and others all trying to get to the singletrack first.

In the 66km race it was Scott Bowden who finished clear of Anthony Shippard and his own team mate Tom Goddard. In the women’s, Jenny Fay showed her ability to pace and rode clear of Jenni King and Terri Rhodes.

Scott Bowden won the 66km race.

Scott Bowden won the 66km race.

The 100km event saw Andy Blair home first, a with a decent gap on team mate Shaun Lewis. Troy Herfoss was 3rd and James Downing notched up another 4th at this event. Eliza Kwan won the women’s 100km.

AMB100 100k Podium

AMB100 Women's Podium

The 33km men’s race was won by Subaru-MarathonMTB.com racer Sebastian Jayne, and the women’s by birthday girl Sarah Tucknott.

Sebastian AMB100

The 100 milers had the heat of the day, some wind and cloud, and then heat again. With experienced racers feeling the demanding nature of the Stromlo course after 2 laps, doing 5 is monumental. Andrew Hall beat reigning champion Ed McDonald, who suffered a plague of flat tyres. Andrew Lloyd rolled in 3rd.

AMB 100 miler podium

The AMB100 also offers a teams category, where you race with your mate. It was won by the Ward brothers, looking resplendent in their new Trek kit, when they had it on. Jason Lam and Peter Fisher came 2nd.

The Ward Brothers

Jason and Peter

Given the dazed look many people had when they finished, it’s safe to say that Mt Stromlo has yet again delivered a demanding course. The AMB100 is a unique race, as it’s lap based. But that’s actually a UCI standard. With a couple of course modifications to allow for a more open start loop and some extra passing opportunities, and some more shade at the event centre, this could really grow to be a pre-eminent marathon in Australia for the 100 (or even 80km) distance.

Full results for all categories are online now.

A hard earned thirst...

A hard earned thirst…

Filed Under: Reports Tagged With: MTB, Rocky Trail, Stromlo, XCM

About Mike Blewitt

Mike loves all things bike, but marathons definitely hold a special place in his heart. He's the co-founder of MarathonMTB.com. He's raced extensively throughout Europe, North America and Australia and has represented Australia twice at the UCI Marathon World Championships.

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