Amgen tour of California 2012

powered by Performance Bicycle

TechPowered By

More tech

24-hour race:

English, Douglas retain their National titles

By:
Cycling News
Published:
April 5, 2010, 10:29,
Updated:
April 5, 2010, 14:46

World Champion stays one lap ahead to hold onto green and gold jersey

At the start, Australia's top 24 hour riders lead the field for a rolling lap in memory of James Williamson, from L to R, Jason English, Andy Bell,...

At the start, Australia's top 24 hour riders lead the field for a rolling lap in memory of James Williamson, from L to R, Jason English, Andy Bell, Dan Mackay, Brett Bellchambers, True Swain.

view thumbnail gallery

Photos

World champion Jason English from Port Macquarie and Victorian Jessica Douglas claimed back-to-back victories at the Australian Solo 24-hour Mountain Bike Championship in Canberra. The race was one of the major Australian qualifying events for the 2010 24-hour Solo World Championship to be staged in Canberra in October.

173 competitors assembled on the start line at Majura Pines. They faced a nine-kilometer course, renown for being hilly and technical. Riders amassed more than 400 kilometres over the 24 hours.

As a mark of respect to one of Australia's most successful mountain bike riders James Williamson, who tragically passed away in South Africa while participating in the Cape Epic on March 23, the race was held over 23 hours and 59 minutes.

A minute's silence was observed before the riders, who wore black armbands, completed a slow roll out lap in honour of their friend and fellow rider.

A Canberra local, Williamson, 26, was a national solo 24hr champion, world solo 24hr champion and was the editor of the Australian Enduro mountain bike magazine.

English makes it three national titles in a row

Completing 46 laps, English claimed his third national 24-hour crown in a row.

"Its fantastic to win three in a row," said English after the race. "It's awesome. Its my 10th win in a row in a 24-hour event."

As expected, the men's race was wide open in the opening couple of hours. John Blankenstein made a charge, however this was quickly chased down by underdog singlespeeder Brett Bellchambers, who looked very strong for the first six hours.

On lap three, English gained the lead again, and then consolidated that lead on lap 13, opening up his first real gap.

"The only move I made was to try and catch Brett," said English. "So that happened eventually in traffic, and he fell back into the main group. I had a bit of a lead, so I capitalised on that and expanded on my lead during the early hours of the night."

English held on out the front of the field, however positions in the chase group changed on a number of occasions throughout the night.

With three hours to go Andrew Fellows put his foot on the gas producing a swift 30:02 on lap 40. English counterattacked immediately, responding with an extremely fast 27:30, taking nearly seven minutes off his fastest lap time.

"It was probably a very silly thing do with those kays in my legs. I think I was going to suffer afterwards. I was a dribbling mess by the end of that fast lap."

At the end of time, Fellows finished in second position, one lap behind English, followed by Scott Chancellor in third, both men completing 45 laps each.

English will now turn his attention to the World Championships on home soil in Canberra in six months as he attempts to defend his world title.

"I just want to see an Australian win, that's the goal I have.

"It's important not to get sucked in by the faster US-based riders who like to charge off and go too hard. The Australians have the patience and can sit back and bring it home strong."

Douglas dominates women's race

In the women's race, Jessica Douglas opened strongly and didn't relinquish her lead for the entire race, comfortably completing 38 laps to defeat Claire Graydon (37 laps) and Rebecca Parkes (36 laps), who played out a great battle for second place.

"I'm very pleased to have it all over and done with," said Douglas, who finshed fourth at last year's World Championships. "I only been back in training for four weeks. I was just relying on previous 24-hour form and a hell of a lot of base."

"I had a minute gap and it just grew from there.

"My body didn't want to play from midnight until 6:00 am. It was 90 percent mental. I definitely overrode my survival instincts on my body."

Men's Open
1 Jason English 46  laps
2 Andrew Fellows 45  
3 Scott Chancellor 45  
4 Brett Bellchambers (SS) 44  
5 Edward McDonald (SS) 43  
6 Shane Taylor 41  
7 Jason McAvoy 41  
8 Andrew Hall 41  
9 Benjamin Hallowell 40  
10 John Clews 39  
11 Garry James 39  
12 Richard Peil 39  
13 David Speering (SS) 38  
14 Jeff Rooney 37  
15 Dean Jones 37  
16 Matthew Reekie 37  
17 Craig Honeybrook 37  
18 Matthew Griggs 37  
19 John Evans 37  
20 Kevin Wells 36  
21 Michael Hernan 36  
22 Andrew Clark 35  
23 Ross Cairns 35  
24 Aaron Thomson 35  
25 Brad Hawthorne 35  
26 Matt Hand 35  
27 Joe Avery 35  
28 Phil Welch 35  
29 James Lamb 35  
30 Jason Dreggs 34  
31 David McDonald 34  
32 Deon Revet 34  
33 Warrick Hancock 34  
34 Shawn Sabre 34  
35 Benjamin Culton 34  
36 Samuel Warmington (SS) 34  
37 Peter Johnson 34  
38 Geoff Gilchrist 33  
39 Phillip Banks (SS) 33  
40 Cang Nguyen 33  
41 David Eccles 33  
42 Andre Quaglio (SS) 33  
43 Trevor Fairhurst 32  
44 Clayton Locke 32  
45 Darren Groves 32  
46 Timothy Grover 32  
47 Benjamin Bruce 32  
48 Phillip Byron (SS) 32  
49 Steven Timbrell 32  
50 Mark Mollenhagen 31  
51 Mark Caulfield 31  
52 Chris St Jack 31  
53 Duncan Miller 31  
54 Cameron Dalton 31  
55 Rob Paksec (SS) 30  
56 Grantley Butterfield 30  
57 Mark Feeney 30  
58 Trevor Creighton (SS) 30  
59 David Milne (SS) 30  
60 James Eldridge 30  
61 Brenden Hargraves 29  
62 Jason "The" Head 29  
63 Andrew Remely 29  
64 Dave McGregor 29  
65 Angelo De Maria 29  
66 Stewart McKenzie 29  
67 Jon Odams 29  
68 Evan Sheppard 28  
69 Craig Dunlop (SS) 28  
70 Steve Woodward (SS) 28  
71 Martin Wisata 27  
72 Toby Hartley 27  
73 Darren Sattler 27  
74 Jody Musgrove 26  
75 Ben Binder 26  
76 Joshua Taylor 26  
77 Timothy Aust 26  
78 Brad Poidevin 26  
79 Andrew Chamberlain 26  
80 Matthew Madin 25  
81 Robert Bishop (SS) 25  
82 Andrew Handyside 25  
83 Richard Ferris 25  
84 Dan McNamara 25  
85 Ivan Chan 24  
86 Tony Rowley 24  
87 Robbie Morris 24  
88 Matt Turner 24  
89 Andrew Beddie 24  
90 Kevin Skidmore 23  
91 Peter Saw 23  
92 Lloyd Newell 23  
93 Geoff Moon 21  
94 Stephen Jackson 20  
95 Brian Merton 20  
96 John Styles 20  
97 Warren Willson 20  
98 Brad Mertens (SS) 20  
99 Ken Schack-Evans 20  
100 Hieu Nguyen 19  
101 Arran Pearson 18  
102 Scott Walker 18  
103 John Dietz 17  
104 Colin Littleton 17  
105 David Feeney 17  
106 Jason Harrod 16  
107 Nick Mostyn 15  
108 Carl Sommerville 13  
109 Scott Abercrombie (SS) 13  
110 Mike Brennan 13  
DNF John Blankenstein    
DNF Andrew Bell    
DNF True Swain    
DNF Joel Donney    
DNF David Power (SS)    
DNF Dan Mackay    
DNF Francis Le Brun    
DNF Neil Dall    
DNF Brendan Den (SS)    
DNF Dirk Riding    
DNF Michael Culhane    
DNF Adrian Jones    
DNS Tony Bond    
DNS Timothy Cafe    
DNS Dean Pattenden    
DNS Robbie Verity    
DNS Corey Werfel    
Women's Open
1 Jessica Douglas 38  laps
2 Claire Graydon 37  
3 Bec Parkes (SS) 36  
4 Jacqui Kennett 33  
5 Belinda Porter 32  
6 Jac Connell 32  
7 Claire Stevens 32  
8 Diane Perry 31  
9 Anne Napier 30  
10 Yolande Joubert 29  
11 Marea England 29  
12 Erin Zimmer (SS) 26  
13 Merryl King 26  
14 Kris Nicholls (SS) 25  
15 Philippa Rostan (SS) 24  
16 Meaghan Binder 24  
17 Kirsty Cummin 22  
18 Kathleen Kingwill 21  
19 Julie Bassett 16  
20 Monica Skjerve 14  
21 Karen Taylor 13  
22 Susan Webber 12  
DNF Anne Antrecht    
DNF Kathryn Stolarski    
DNF Sue Thompson    
Men's 6 + 6
1 Mark Tupalski 26  laps
2 Taylor Charlton 23  
3 Thomas Power 22  
4 Andrew Johnson 22  
5 Joseph Arrouk 20  
6 Chris White 20  
7 James Ross 19  
8 Ross Hamilton 19  
9 Peter Feain 19  
10 Cameron Rybinski 18  
11 Harry Herne 18  
12 Patrick Wark 15  
DNF Dylan Cooper    
DNF Peter Hatton    
DNF Craig Armour    
DNF Nick Menager    
Women's 6 + 6
1 Vanina Vergoz 21  laps
2 Amanda Sanderson 20  
3 Ann Holden 19  
4 Kath Bicknell 13  
5 Juliane Wisata 11