Mountain Devils staged the inaugural NSW DuO championships in perfect conditions in the Lower Blue Mountains, with Jason Rutkowski in the setter's chair.
Marina Iskhakova (Bennelong) took out the women's Hard 1, while Newcastle's Steven Todkill pipped new ONSW president Greg Barbour (Big Foot) by less than a minute in the men's Hard 1 course.Clear dry air and little rain leading up to the event provided wonderful conditions for both foot and bike competitors. The maximum temperature was 19 degrees, and around 15 degrees for the start at 9.30am at Glenbrook Oval.
This event was run on a combination of maps from WHO and Bigfoot, comprising Knapsack Gully and Darks Common using an interconnecting pedestrian link below the Great Western Highway.
Knapsack in particular was a treat, with some technical MTB tracks for the MTBO as well as gullies and rock for the foot legs. Navigation was at a Moderate grade but the terrain was quite difficult with a lot of shrub and some large rockfaces to negotiate. It was so clear that the CBD was visible to the naked eye.
"Amazing views over Sydney and very cool to ride on the old Zig Zag railway track," said our resident Swede Patrick Gunnarsson.
ONSW sincerely thanks Greg Bacon (Newcastle) for the hundreds of hours he has put into getting the DuO format up and running over the past 3 years, and Jason for setting the courses.
Click here for the results.
