NSW has retained the OA MTBO Plaque after an Australian Championships that will long be remembered for atrocious conditions due to the big wet on the east coast.
Victoria and NSW were neck and neck in the points tally, swapping the lead after each event, but - pending official confirmation - it was the home state that came home strongly in Sunday's Long Distance race at a muddy Neath to win 121-117 overall.
Courses had recovered fairly well from the summer's La Nina drenching... until Wednesday when a further 60-80mm ruined any chance of a dry ride. By that stage all the interstate riders (from WA, Tas, Qld, Vic, ACT) were here and the carnival proceeded.
There was water at least ankle deep on pretty much every single track - and some much larger waterholes, along with lots of mud - at all four venues near Cessnock in the Hunter Valley.
Some riders were on course more than four hours for the Long on Sunday and km rates were way higher than what we would expect in drier times. So congratulations to all the competitors for slogging it out in very draining circumstances.
NSW riders to win multiple championship events over the weekend were:
* W50 Nicole Haigh (Newcastle), Carolyn Matthews (Newcastle)
* M12 Alon Gudes (Uringa)
* M50 Greg Barbour (Big Foot)
* M60 Rob Prentice (Newcastle)
NSW riders to win one championship event were:
* W12 Harriet Thompson (NC)
* M14 Kai Metcalfe (NC)
* W40 Cassandra Thompson (NC)
* M21 Tim Doman (NC)
* M60 Rob Vincent (NC)
We are indebted to the Newcastle club plus members of Big Foot for a massive effort in miserable weather - at least it wasn't cold!
The next MTBO event is the Victorian championship weekend on May 14-15, then an ACT event on May 22.
