Lachlan Norris captured his fourth consecutive Under 23 win in Hobart, Tasmania, at the final round...
Lachlan Norris is looking the goods (Image credit: Evan Jeffery / evanjeffery.blogspot.com)
Lachlan Norris captured his fourth consecutive Under 23 win in Hobart, Tasmania, at the final round of the Australian National Mountain Bike Series. The win gave him the overall series title after competing in just three of the five events.
Prior to the race, Norris had spent two weeks working with his Discover Tasmania Team in preparation for the coming World Cup events. He was pleased with how the first week of testing went, but thought his chances of doing well in the final National Series event were blown when he got sick in the first week.
"I came down with a pretty nasty cold on the Friday night and missed out on quality training from Sunday through to Tuesday, not to mention I felt like death warmed up for a few days," said Norris from his hotel room while ill. He was feeling better by the following Wednesday and managed a 150km road bike ride down to Hobart with the team, and by Friday, just before the race, was ready to race.
The combined elite and under 23 men's race started a little differently than the last few as the ever-dominant Chris Jongewaard suffered two flats in the first lap and fell behind by about two minutes. Dylan Cooper shot out and set the pace out the front for the first two laps that was so blistering he had to pull out before the midway point. Daniel McConnell, the eventual elite men's winner, slipped away from Norris as the storming Jongewaard chased hard from behind.
"Mac was forging a good gap. He was slipping away. I felt a charging Chris Jongewaard nearing after recovering from a flat tyre. He caught and passed me like I was standing still." Norris finished third in the combined elite and under 23 race.
Norris returned home to Victoria for some more training and planning for the upcoming international season.
Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
