Fellows and Wall earn Bike Buller overall titles

The blue sky and sunshine returned to Bike Buller Mountain Biking Festival on day two and with it over 300 riders ready to take on the pinnacle 50km cross country event, all champing at the pedal to take on the much lauded, spanking new Stonefly trail.

But riders had to grit through plenty of uphill under a searching sun before getting to snake their way at speed down Glen Jacob's already iconic trail.

At the pointy end, Andy Fellows, having taken out the 25km cross country yesterday, was looking strong before three punctures had him briefly sidelined. It was enough of a break for Tim Wynan to pass, extending enough of a lead to hold on all day, crossing in 2:50:00.

Only a few minutes back, Fellows had a battle on with Michael Crosbie, the 18-year-old hotshot who took third in the 25km yesterday. So close was the racing that the pair arrived at the chairlift section and had to find something to talk about while sharing the ride. Crosbie took the quick bullet out of the chair, looking good for second place until he overshot a corner, allowing Fellows to snatch second place (2:52:43). Crosbie was only one second back over the line.

The placing was enough for Fellows to claim the overall premier title for this year's Mount Buller MTB Festival in a cumulative time across three events (25 XC, Brake Burner and 50km XC) of 5:58:27.

Wynan's performance confirmed an overall second place (6:01:31) with Ashley Hayat taking overall third in 6:05:05.

The win is Fellow's second at the Bike Buller MTB Festival, made all the more impressive by the fact that he won the Mountains to Beach five-day stage race in NSW on Friday before driving the 12 hours from Narooma to compete in Bike Buller.

In the women's, it was Jo Wall's weekend all over, taking a clean sweep of the 25km XC, Brake Burner and 50km XC events, winning the overall Bike Buller MTB Festival title in a time of 6:58:48.

Jess Douglas took overall second place for the weekend (7:13:45) with a solidly consistent performance taking second in all three stoushes on the mountain.

Amity McSwan recovered from a puncture-induced DNF in Saturday's 25km XC to take third place in today's 50km XC mountain hit-out. But it wasn't enough to register in the overall standings, third place on the Bike Buller podium going to Josie Simpson (8:38:03).

For the remainder of the pack, the weekend proved one of mountain biking highlights, from participating in Australia’s first-ever Brake Burner event, characterised by a multi-loop track with a chairlift leg before a super fast drop down Mount Buller; to battling huge hill climbs and technical singletrack - trying to enjoy the spectacular high country mountain scenery along the way - to eventually make it to the descent section of Stonefly.

Results