Nemesis Marathon Challenge
Gold Logie triumph’s with Mather in marathon challenge
Media Release / 19.04.2010
Winning the King of the Mountain on the first climb and extending his lead to over three minutes at the half way point, Mather looked to have the race sewn up.
A first time rider on the course, the 28-year-old looked to his road cycling experience to put him ahead of the pack.
“I went out from the gun up the first hill and took the King of the Mountain. I didn’t realise I had the form but I thought I would just keep going and see how it panned out,� Mather said.
“I hadn’t been here before to have a look at the course. But listening to a few of the guys, they knew it was harder than a lot of the other courses, so I thought I was in for a tough one.
“They also mentioned that there was a lot of gravel road. I tend to go alright on the gravel tracks, so I went out hard knowing that whatever time I could get up on them on the road makes it harder for them to bring back in the hills.�
But as predicted the hills became a sticking point for Mather. The Tasmanian resorting to foot in sections of the final 40km, providing the chance for Sydney’s Peter Hatton to take the lead.
After pushing out to a three minute lead and approaching on 90km over an agonizing four hours, a cruel twist of fate saw Hatton suffer a flat tyre on the final decent costing him the victory.
Fighting all the way, Mather recovered to finish the eventual winner in a time of 4 hours 40 minutes and 58 seconds . Hatton held on to finish second (4:44:09) ahead of 2006 world 24hr solo champion Craig Gordon (4:44:25).
“(Peter Hatton) caught me at the 60km mark and by the last feed station he had put about two or three minutes into me,� Mather said.
“I got lucky, Peter got a flat tyre coming down the last big decent.
“He probably deserved to win but that is the luck of the draw with mountain biking. I have had my fair share of bad luck, so it’s great to have a little bit of good luck my way.�
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