Punishment served: the inaugural Capital Punishment MTB Enduro turns into a mud fest!
29 May 2010 - World Solo 24 Hour Champion Jason English has taken out the prestigious Men’s 100km Elite title at the inaugural Capital Punishment mountain bike endurance event held across Canberra on Saturday.
English, 27, overcame local hope Brent Miller in a time of 4:35:23. Local bike shop team member Joel Ryan rounded up the podium arriving only 3 seconds after Miller.
Despite facing cold temperatures and heavy rain that reduced parts of the course to a muddy quagmire, over 1,500 riders took part in the largest mountain bike endurance event of its kind staged in Australia, out of close to 2,000 entered.
Miller, who had only spent two weeks back in training for the event, was forced to race the final section of the course without any breaks after suffering mechanical problems with his bike. He was not the only one out there without break pads left after grinding through mud for 100km!
“The conditions were horrendous, there was a section through Stromlo that was just a foot deep of mud where I was going less than walking pace while trying to ride,” Miller said. “The mud and the rain make it hard to see but we’re mountain bike riders, that’s we do, we haven’t had a good muddy race in Australia for years and I kind of enjoyed it.”
In the women’s event, Canberra rider Heather Logie finished well clear of the field in a time of 5:25:50, 14 minutes ahead of fellow local Grace Elvin with Zoe King completing the podium.
Logie admitted that the atrocious weather meant there were times over the nearly five and a half hour ride in which she questioned her motivation to continue on. “There are moments you consider going home and just having a shower and crawling into bed but I managed to push through it,” Logie said. “I think there’s a lot to be said for when you’ve told people you’ll be there and you’ll feel pretty soft and sorry for yourself if other people turn up and notice that you haven’t.”
The honour of fastest finisher in the men’s 50km race went to Josh Carlson in 2:05:40, edging out fellow NSW based rider Trenton Day by 28 seconds.
Nicola Hogan was the first woman to cross the line in the 50K event, powering home in 2:40:09, ahead of Carmel and Michelle Ainsworth, respectively 2nd an 3rd placers within one minute of each other.
In other results, the men’s and women’s 100km Open categories were taken out by Becky Mates (NSW) and John Odams (NSW) respectively while the Male Veteran and Super Veteran titles went to Anthony Rice (ACT) and Peter Telford (NSW).
In the 100km Single Speed category, Steve Fitchett and Trudy Nicholas made it an ACT local double in the men’s and women’s.
In the 50km event, Lisa Jokinen (ACT) and Jack Lavis (NSW) took home their respective junior titles (and a brand new Mongoose bike each!) while at the other end of the age scale Michele Clement (ACT) and Gary Scheld (ACT) where first home amongst the Veterans.
The Super Veteran titles went to Adair Ferguson (ACT) and former 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games 5,000m champion Andrew Lloyd (NSW) while the Men’s Single Speed was won by Trent Birkett (ACT).
The organizers would like to thank all those who made this event possible: Australian Capital Tourism & Justin Lalor in particular; Parks, Conservation & Lands, and Steve Allegria in particular; the Department of Defence; the National Arboretum; Stromlo Forest Park; private land holders: French Black Truffles, Mt Majura Vineyard, ACT Motorcycle Club, Canberra Hill Climb, Franck & Sue Scott, Ron McKeahnie; Paul Cole for building some tracks for the event; CORC for their support, and our army of volunteers from local Pedal Power to the individuals who are too many to name but to whom we are indebted for their incredible support in punishing weather.
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting this inaugural event with prizes and samples: Mongoose, BikeCorp (Maxxis, Limar), Skins, nitelights, Crumpler, Casio ProTrek, Mountain Biking Australia Magazine in partnership with Toyota, Endura, James Boags Classic Blonde, Carman’s, Kraft Snackabouts, Bexters Lectric Salts, Banana Boat and local partners: Mt Majura Vineyard, Stromlo Forest Park and Crowne Plaza Hotel.
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