In one of the most meteoric rises in any sport, Newcastle adventure racer and mountain bike marathoner Tim Doman is off to the MTBO world championships after competing in just a handful of events.
Doman made such an impact at the recent NSW MTBO championships on home turf in Newcastle – winning two of the three disciplines (Sprint and Long) that the national selectors had no option but to ‘have a chat’ to this complete stranger.
He was encouraged to back up immediately and flew to Ballarat last weekend to take on Victoria’s best MTBO talent – and streeted the field by 22 minutes, taking out the 29km elite course in just under an hour and a half.
That left the selectors with little choice but to name the 31-year-old rookie in the three-man Australian team to compete in Denmark in late July and early August.
He'll be joining WA veteran Ricky Thackray and Queenslander Joel Young who'll be attending his second WOC.
“It's a bit of a blur really - two weeks ago I didn't realise it was an option and now I've made the Australian team!,” Tim said on Wednesday as he packed for a wilderness holiday.
Doman first heard about MTBO in late 2018 through brochures in a mate’s bike shop promoting the Newcastle club’s monthly BOSS events. He easily won his first event in the casual category, then beat all the experienced riders in his two events in the elite class.
That prompted him to enter the NSW Champs. The rest, as they say, is history.
“I'm hooked,” he said.
“You have the freedom to choose how technical and fast you want to ride, and the race atmosphere is pretty relaxed and social. I've started doing foot orienteering events as well, but MTBO is definitely my preferred discipline, mostly because I can ride better than I can run!”
