Chris ‘Hurricane’ Hamilton has unseated defending champion and 6 time winner Chris ‘Jblood’ Jongewaard at the 10th anniversary edition of the race. With the help of team mate Tasman Nankervis from Bendigo, the pair worked together to build up a sizeable lead over the chasing rivals. But, this was not the case for the entirety of this race, one of the most exciting editions of this classic Aussie XCM race. Jongewaard has previously won this race by going solo for nearly the entire 100km. He tried this tactic again finishing the first of the 3 loops around Forrest, VIC with 3 minutes on his nearest rival. Chris Hamilton with some serious miles and experience in the legs from recently winning the Australian U23 road championship and competing at this year’s protour ‘Tour Down Under’ in Adelaide. Chris is obviously in tip top form and takes home the handy winner’s cheque from the Giant Odyssey as he ponders wether to pursue his career on the road or still dabble with his roots in mountain biking.
Chris ‘Hurricane’ Hamilton takes the win
Behind the leading duo from the Torq-Merida team the battle for the remaining top5 positions was hot from the start. Adrian Jackson coming out as ‘best of the rest’ in 3rd. Having competed at this race many times and been a previous winner. ‘AJ’ was quoted as saying “this race never gets any easier”. AJ was working with the likes of Jongewaard and Paul ‘Van Der Plow’ Van Der Ploeg from Giant racing team whom would finish 4th and 5th respectively ahead of a fast finishing Murray Spink (Giant).
Not too far back in 9th and 10th was the new team duo from Cannondale Australia racing James Downing and Tom Ovens. James has been a long time result achiever at such races and says he relished in having a team mate alongside him. They worked well together to both net top10 positions. “These trails were great, we were able to work together and follow eachothers lines on the descents. we resorted to using tree’s as berms on the magic carpet” James remarked on racing with his new team mate for the 2016 season.
In the women’s event it was the defending champion Peta Mullens who took home the spoils ahead of former road pro and previous winner Renata Bucher. Jodie Willet from Queensland showing she has what it takes to run the national development program yet still be a top class athlete in her own right coming in 3rd to round out the podium.
Full results available here courtesy of ‘Multi Sport Australia’.
Another superb and flawless running of a timeless event by Rapid Ascent. Full race report and words from the trail from our own ambassador soon.
Elite womens podium from 2016 Giant Odyssey.