Hard slog in mud
15 July 2008
Tour de France riders have to be tough, but they wouldn’t be too much tougher, or more resilient, than the almost 900 competitors who tackled the Noosa Enduro on the weekend.
Not only did the mountain bikers have to tackle the hills of the Noosa Hinterland early on a Sunday morning, they had to slog along muddy paths for long portions of their 100km or 50km journey.
Rockstar team racer Hamish Elliot took out the premier 100km event in convincing style, while defending champion Imogen Smith claimed her third title in the women’s division.
Not surprisingly, no records were set this year after the course took a drenching earlier in the week.
“That was the hardest 100km I’ve ever ridden. The tyres were just sticking,” Elliott, from Manly Vale in Sydney, said.
“The first lap was just mud and the second lap more mud, it was dirty racing today.”
It didn’t take long for a lead group of five, including Elliott and eventual placegetters Andrew Fellows (Tewantin) and Troy Glennan (Cronulla), to split from the main bunch before Elliot made his move at the renowned hill nicknamed the “Mother”. From there, the 24-year-old showed his class to eventually finish with an 11-minute winning margin. Eliott completed in four hours, 56 minutes, 44 seconds.
In the women’s 100km event, Smith, competing as part of the Connondale team showed her dominance by relegating Cooroy’s Naomi Hansen to second place for the third year running.
Smith beat the six-hour mark by four seconds to end up just over 14 minutes clear.
“I tried to go out a bit easier so I could last longer and was leading but Naomi kept catching me,” Smith, from Brisbane, said.
Even after 50km of hard slog on the “advanced” course, Brisbane pair Matthew Callow and Joshua Bosscheiter could not be split in their division with both finishing in two hours, 48 minutes, 53 seconds.
Gold Coaster Sharon Heap came home ahead of Noosaville’s Jo Stewart and Mudjimba’s Jayne Ryeland in the women’s 50km advanced division.
Yaroomba’s Dallas Blacklaw was victorious in the men’s 50km intermediate race, while Miami’s Sally Smalley was the women’s 50km intermediate champion.
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