Fellows and Wall register early wins

Crisp blue skies set the summer scene for some high in the sky competitive mountain biking in Victoria yesterday with the Bike Buller Mountain Biking Festival, which attracted over 450 riders to the singletrack slopes of Mount Buller.

Three of the festival's five event line-up got underway, beginning with the 25km cross country course snaking its way up, down and around the flanks of Mounts Buller and Stirling. Riders tackled a highly technical course featuring steep descents and tight switchbacks, the degree of difficulty balanced out by the quality of views across the back ranges, enjoyed mostly by the back-of-packers.

Up the front, the elites were head down, tempo up, Ay Up Team leader Andy Fellows registered a dominating win in a time of 1:13:28 ahead of Tim Wynam (1:16:02) and Michael Crosbie in third (1:16:46).

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It was an impressive performance by Fellows, who only this week won the Mountains to Beach five-day stage race in NSW before driving the 12 hours from Narooma to register for Bike Buller.

Alexander Meyland's overall fourth placing was also notable for the fact that he is a junior.

In the women's, it was tragedy for Amity McSwan who suffered multiple punctures while leading Team Torque rider Jo Wall early on, the latter never looking back to eventually take the line in first in a time of 1:32:12. In second place was Giant team rider Jessica Douglas (1:36:00) with Liz Meakin in third 1:52:39.

Most riders then backed up their efforts by taking on an Australian first: the iconic Brake Burner, a race that has competitors lapping as many times around a 7km course - which includes a chairlift ride - for just over three hours before veering off for a fast descent 10km down the mountain to cross the line riverside at Mirimbah. Riders taking it slightly easier but having just as much fun opted for the Super D descent, a super-fast 12km drop down the mountain on the same downhill route as the Brake Burner.

For the elites the aim was to register three fastest laps, which were then added to their descent time for an overall result.

For the rest of the Brake Burner pack, the aim was to register not the fastest, but the most laps in under three and a quarter hours, before screaming down to the finish, their descent times being the decider in the case of an equal amount of laps.

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