Sunshine Series XCO 2011 Round 2 Results
Karingal June 26th, 2011
Wonderful to see such a fantastic turnout of riders enjoying themselves on the track in excellent weather conditions. The positive participant feedback is what makes the organisers and volunteers put in the effort and sacrifice their time to host race events.
The 20 man elite men’s field was a who’s who of XCO racing in SE Qld and it was a good spectacle for all as the race unfolded. Four riders were sharing some friendly banter at a frenetic pace for the first 3 laps until Andrew Fellows and then Aaron Benson decided to slow up a bit and leave David Whitney and Aiden Lefmann to continue riding sub 20 minute laps for what looked like it was going to be a certain sprint finish. With about 2km to go Aiden found a way past David and spun it home on his single speed to finish 10m in front of the fast finishing Merida pro. Aaron finished 3rd and there were only 2 DNF’s in the field for the 5 laps which was great to see. In the elite female category Kylie Maduna dug very deep for a fantastic ride to stay within striking distance of the series leader Jodie Willett. Jodie was strong enough to stay ahead for the win and Erin Stoklasa finished 3rd. Many other outstanding performances on the day with Richard Lucas putting in a very strong ride to finish well ahead of the healthy 20 rider Veteran mens field. The biggest field of the day was the 23 person Masters Men with only one DNF.
Massive thanks to Steve, Dean, Josh and Jeremy who all did a 10h day of track grooming and prep on Saturday. Almost 20 volunteers helped on race day with timing, registration, administration and marshalling. So many people assisting certainly helps share the laod and takes the pressure off the usual suspects. And Gary delivered with perfect weather and a 2nd place finish. What a legend!