Former JWOC silver medallist Lucy Mackie made a winning return to MTBO at the weekend, taking out the ACT Middle Distance Champs on Saturday.
Lucy has changed her focus to enduro mountain biking in the past 12 months but joined her folks in the national capital briefly and took out W21 by two and half minutes over the 8.9km course at East Kowen Forest.
Newcastle pair Carolyn Matthews (W50) and Rhiannon Prentice (W20) won all 3 events while clubmate Tim Doman - who came from the clouds to represent Australia this year - had a welcome return to form in winning the M21 Long.
The weekend featured the first mass start event in the ACT - in a small area at the Arboretum in East Stromlo on Friday evening with butterfly loops to spread the field. There was plenty of fast fire trails, while the weekend events featured more single track.
It was good to see a couple of local MTB riders and adventure racers taking some races - hopefully we can convert them!
Rumour has it that Garingal's Ian Jessup rode the last 2km on Saturday with a rear puncture to take out the recreational Open 5 class - the bike shaking like a jackhammer across the open paddocks into the finish!
Congratulations to ONSW riders who won the following ACT MTBO titles and other classes at the weekend:
Mass start: W20 Rhiannon Prentice (Newcastle), W50 Carolyn Matthews (NC), E bike Tim Hackney (NC).
Middle: W20 Rhiannon Prentice (NC), W21 Lucy Mackie (Big Foot), M40 Hamish Mackie (BF), W50 Carolyn Matthews (NC), Open 5 Ian Jessup (Garingal), E bike Tim Hackney (NC).
Long: W20 Rhiannon Prentice (NC), W50 Carolyn Matthews (NC), M21 Tim Doman (NC), M12 Jonathan Nolan (Uringa), E bike Greg Bacon (NC).
A big thanks to organisers Marina and Fedor and OACT for a great weekend. Next weekend it's the Australian MTBO champs in Maryborough, Victoria.
Newcastle's next MTBO event is BOSS 2 on Sunday November 10 at Wyee Point.
