Fellows takes another stage and keeps lead

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Riders left the Snowy Mountains for a grueling 90km race stage followed by a 40km cruise into Bermagui on the NSW South Coast on day 4

The day started with a loop around the Cooma Racetrack and then riding through the Monaro Plains to the now conquered Numeralla Mountain with Andrew Fellows the first rider to make it all the way to the top before heading down the escarpment through the spectacular rainforest of Wadbilliga National Park.

At the front of the pack, Fellows again proved dominant, completing the ride in 3:38:10, followed by Garry James in 3:53:43 with Bart Hickson coming in third with a time of 3:56:16.

Today's win by Fellows has extended his overall lead to 56 minutes and eight seconds with an overall time of 9:59:55. James is coming second overall with an overall time of 10:56:03, eight minutes and 21 seconds ahead of third place Hickson in 11:04:25.

On a challenging day of deep river crossings and loose rock descents, Meg Carrigan was pushed by Helen Dorsett and Belinda Porter, but managed to win by 27 minutes and eight seconds with a time of 4:25:57. Helen Dorsett came in second in 4:53:05, with Belinda Porter a further four minutes and 23 seconds behind in 4:57:28.

Dorsett's second today sees her move into third place overall with a total time of 14:39:29, one hour, five minutes and 40 seconds behind Porter in second place on 13:33:50, still 46 minutes and 29 seconds behind Carrigan in 12:4:21.

The best effort of the day was by Jeff MacDonald, who late Wednesday night wasn't going to ride the race stage as he thought it was going to be too hard and he wouldn't make the cutoff. He completed the stage prior to cutoff and has every reason to be pleased with himself tonight.

Tomorrow, the final day, riders will go up the coast to Narooma in the 50km Surf Safari. While Fellows looks like he will take out the race, anything could happen, with river crossings, beach riding (pushing?) and tides to take into account. One small miscalculation could see riders lose valuable minutes to their closest competitors.

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