Ed McDonald and Jarrod Hughes win prestigious AMB100 Marathon elite disciplines
Ed McDonald claimed the AMB100-miler Marathon race win for the fourth time in Canberra on the weekend, completing five laps on a gruelling monster circuit at Stromlo Forest Park in hot conditions.
On the Canberran clean sweep elite podium Callum McNamara came in second with a gap of only seven minutes ahead of Sam Moffitt who took out the third position. In the three-lap challenge the race favourite Jarrod Hughes from Jerrabomberra won ahead of the locals Lewis Cressy and Aaron Bashford. Liz Smith from Wollongong defended her marathon 100-miler title from 2013 in the elite women’s field.
A field of 300 riders was set to race the AMB 100 Marathon event at Stromlo Forest Park, the inaugural race for new headline sponsor, the Australian Mountain Bike Magazine. With a race circuit of over 30km and a high proportion of singletrails the event has been considered as one of the toughest mountain bike marathons in Australia. This year a heat wave sweeping across the ACT on the event weekend increased the racing challenge even more.
“This has been the hottest so far. The three laps were really nice and the first two were just lovely. The fourth one was pretty hard and the fifth was just horrid, I forgot all about racing and it was all about getting to the finish”, said a happy four-time event winner Ed McDonald at Stromlo across the finish line just before 11am, with temperatures hovering in the mid thirties already.
Organisers Rocky Trail had founded the event as a traditional 100km/3-lap mountain bike marathon five years ago and included the 100-miler category with five laps and a race start at 5am in 2011 upon McDonald’s and fellow Canberran Brett Bellchambers’ challenge to do so. From an exclusive group of not more than 15 riders, it has now grown to 40 starters in 2014. This year it included also three female starters with Liz Smith from Wollongong impressively defending her victory from 2012, finishing five laps almost an hour ahead of local Karen Foat and one and a half hours ahead of Meredith Quinlan from Sydney.
Tough racing at Stromlo in the heat “Stromlo is always hotter and harder than you think”, said AMB’s editor Mike Blewitt, who competed successfully in the Adventure Mates Team category with racing partner Imogen Smith. “All racers seemed to cope with the hot conditions really well – the earlier mass race start at 8am was a sensible decision and the water stations out on the course were welcome by everyone.”
Rocky Trail’s race director Martin Wisata had also shortened the race circuit to 25km to decrease the race times across the many distance and age categories. “This was definitely a tough race also for our crew. All credit goes to the Stromlo Forest Park management and the ACT Emergency Services who provided us with professional support in the event lead up. We were in constant contact with the key people all weekend and were confident throughout the event to deliver a safe race.”
Canberran clean sweep in top categories
Establishing a new event record, a third of the entire racing field had taken on the 3-lap distance and Jarrod Hughes from Jerrabomberra busted another all-ACT elite podium taking the win in 3:24:52 ahead of locals Lewis Cressy and Aaron Bashford, all three finishing within a minute of each other. With Milly Brent a local female racer claimed the women’s elite category ahead of Naomi Hanson from Brisbane and Lana Moy from Sydney.
For full race results, visit www.rockytrailentertainment.com
Top category results AMB100 2014:
100M Male Elite – 5 laps:
1. Ed McDonald (Target Trek Racing) / Canberra ACT / 05:58:24
2. Callum McNamara (OnTheGo - Radical Lights) / Yarralumla ACT / 06:05:27
3. Sam Moffitt (Onyabike) / Gowrie ACT / 06:51:34
100M Female Elite:
1. Liz Smith (Bike Hub Warrawong) / Mt Ousley NSW / 08:01:14
2. Karen Foat (Onya bike canberra) / Canberra ACT / 08:59:03
3. Meredith Quinlan / Normanhurst NSW / 09:28:48
100M Male Elite SS:
1. Brett Bellchambers (WTB, RaceFace, K-Lite, Clif Bars, Wayward Bikes) / Lyneham ACT / 06:39:27
2. David Speering (Onya Bike) / Casey ACT / 06:54:59
3. Scott Ryan 07:53:34
100K Male Elite – 3 laps:
1. Jarrod Hughes (ONYA-GIANT) / Jerrabomberra NSW / 03:24:52
2. Lewis Cressy (ONYAbike/Giant) / 03:25:41
3. Aaron Bashford (Onya Bike, Giant, Lazer Helmets) / O’Connor ACT / 03:25:49
100K Female Elite:
1. Milly Brent (Zero Five Custom Sportswear) / Dickson ACT / 04:22:20
2. Naomi Hansen (Subaru-MarathonMTB.com) / Brisbane QLD / 04:30:01
3. Lana Moy / Collaroy NSW / 04:34:51
Further category winners:
100K Male Master: Matthew Rizzuto (Tiffen and Co) / Wanniassa ACT / 03:44:48
100K Male Super Master: Garry James (Specialized and Batemans Bay Cycles / Hammer Nutrition) / Queanbeyan NSW / 03:50:29
100K Male Team 2: Ian Butler & Jason Moxham (MacDesign) / Mount Annan NSW / 05:42:07
100K Mixed Team 2: Imogen Smith & Mike Blewitt (Subaru-MarathonMTB.com) / Hornsby NSW / 04:22:04
66K Male Elite: Ben Comfort / Pearce ACT / 02:19:35 – 2 laps
66K Female Elite: Leigh Nelson / Dunlop ACT / 03:14:48
66K Male Master: Bradley Morton (ONYAbike / GIANT / Bright Consulting) / Kaleen ACT / 02:12:24
66K Female Master: Cath Kelaher / Lyons ACT / 02:48:12
66K Male Super Master: Ian Prosser / Hacket ACT / 02:44:34
66K Male Junior: Griffin Layton-Scheld (OnyaBike Belconnen) / Page ACT / 02:34:31
33K Male Elite: Michal Burda (Quantum Racing) / Parramatta NSW / 01:23:03 – 1 lap
33K Female Elite: Kylie Webb (The Cyclery, RockTape, SRAM) / Hackett ACT / 01:22:23
33K Male Master: Matt McAuliffe / Canberra ACT / 01:08:59
33K Male Super Master: Warren Simmons / O’Connor ACT / 01:31:11
33K Male Junior: Noah Watson / Gymea Bay NSW / 01:40:28