Armidale, halfway between Sydney and Brisbane in the northern tablelands of NSW, hosts this weekend’s Australian XCO National Series double header (rounds three and four). Double-headers are appearing more and more frequently on the XCO calendar in Australia, a welcome strategy for keeping costs down as riders travel immense distances to race in our largely empty country.
The man-made course at the University of New England campus has been built with aspirations to one day host a World Cup event, and is perhaps rivalled only by Mt Stromlo’s World Cup course for big, built technical features. Today this included some tricky climbing, plus a twisty rock garden made out of stones the size of white goods.
Just in case you didn’t realise.
Kim Hurst flew over from Wellington – all smiles in her warm up.
Briony Mattocks is jumping into the deep end of XCO to help boost her XCM racing.
Today’s course was the hillier of the weekend’s racing, with a decent singletrack climb early in the course, a technical climbing section, and plenty of flowy ups and downs. The trail could be divided into five sections of different terrain – the initial climb and descent, a technical section squeezed into a kilometre or so of anguish, a fast downhill flow trail, natural pine forest singletrack, and a final slog over rutted grass to the start/finish.
Holly Harris gets the hole shot!
Imogen Smith coming through the start loop.
Feed zone crew watch the action from afar.
In the Elite Women’s race, Bec Henderson set out to defend her number one plate against a stacked field of nearly 20 riders from the gun, leaving Holly Harris, Eliza Kwan, Anna Beck, and Katherine McInerney to fight over the rest of the podium. Beck soon emerged in second place, finishing just 20 seconds behind Henderson, with Harris in third, Kwan closing in in fourth, and McInerney in fifth.
Ward, on feeding duties.
Henderson was a clear leader in the race.
Hurst pushing through the corners.
Smith on the straight along the dam wall.
Em Viotto was in an excellent race with Smith, Williams and Mattocks.
Beck takes a final feed while in pursuit of Henderson.
Elite men in Armidale
The front line for the elite men’s race.
More smiles on the 2nd line, mostly from Ethan Kelly.
In the Elite Men’s event, Cam Ivory slowly pulled away from Brendan (Trekky) Johntson, with Jared Graves sitting just behind, followed by chasers including Dan McConnell, Tasman Nankervis and Ben Oliver.
Cam Ivory on the charge
This climb was tricker than it looked when cross-eyed.
After McConnell abandoned the race after a crash, positions changed little over the men’s eight lap event, with Ivory in first, followed by Johntson, Graves, Oliver, and Tasman Nankervis.
The main rock garden was negotiated easily by some, or avoided via the B line.
Callum Carson dives in.
Matt Dinham had another stand out ride in U19 men.
Sometimes it is faster to run!
Tomorrow sees riders tackle a flatter course that will favour efficiency and anybody who’s managed to bag a massage after today’s tough event. Want the full results? You can see them online.
Graves is certainly in shape, watch out EWS.
McConnell
Potter takes a feed.
Trekky rode to a super strong 2nd place.