Pure Tasmania Wildside MTB

Senasational Racing in Tasmania

Wildside MTB / 28.01.2014

Day 1; Sensational racing on Day 1 of Pure Tasmania WildsideMTB saw very close finishes in both the Women's and Men's categories. Despite a temperature of only 5 degrees at Cradle Mt, 450 riders from Australia, NZ and overseas took to the alpine trails for the first of four days of racing on Tasmania's West Coast.

Tasmania's Rowena Fry and Ben Mather both won the first racing stage in their respective categories ahead of previous winners Jenni King (Vic) and Sid Taberlay (ACT). However in the afternoon racing stage, these early leaders were challenged by newcomers to Wildside, Jo Bennett (WA) and Mark Tapalski (ACT).

Mark Tapalski (ACT) and Jo Bennett (WA) set the pace on the more open Que River stage to become overall leaders for Day 1.

Day 2; Today saw the field of 450 riders traversing spectacular rainforest trails between Tullah and Montezuma Falls on Tasmania’s West Coast. Ideal conditions saw records broken and very close finishes amongst the elite competitors during the two racing stages.

A sensational ride during the morning stage by Launceston’s Rowena Fry set the pace for an exceptional day of racing. Rowena broke her own 2010 record through Stirling Valley stage by over 1 minute, finishing in a time of 49 minutes, 15 seconds, two minutes ahead of her nearest competitor, Jenni King (Vic)

Former Tasmania, Sid Tablerlay, again showed that he is the master of the very technical Stirling Valley stage by winning in a time of 40 minutes and 29 seconds, although he was chased hard by Launceston’s Ben Mather who finished less than 30 seconds behind in a time of 40 minutes and 53 seconds.

Both Fry and Tablerlay showed their strong competitive natures by winning their respective categories during the longer Montezuma Falls afternoon stage in exceptionally close racing. Taberlay won the stage by just 2 seconds from Ben Mather (TAS), with Mark Tupalski (ACT) finishing 2 seconds behind.

Overall, Ben Mather leads the Pure Tasmania Wildside event now by only 14 seconds from Mark Tupalski, with Sid Taberlay only one minute 8 seconds off the lead.

Rowena Fry’s great riding  today have pushed her to the top of the overall results for women with a lead of 1 minute 13 seconds over Jo Bennett (WA) and previous winner, Jenni King a further 18 seconds back.

The diverse range of racing will continue tomorrow with riders starting the day with a short time trial around Zeehan, competing as seeded pairs. The afternoon stage will see riders swapping rainforest trails for coastal tracks as they race from Trial Harbour to Granville Harbour. The varied stage lengths and terrain will provide different challenges to the riders that might see the top placings changing again.

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