English wraps up Mountains to Beach with win

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The high tides weren't the only thing riders had to contend with on the final day of the Mountains To Beach.

Recent rains in the Bega Valley and Eurobodalla Shires saw the Surf Safari stage become a contest of wills rider versus nature. The rains, while welcome to all locals, meant that every lake crossing on the 49km stage from Bermagui to Narooma was a wet one. This combined with a high tide, saw many competitors wading chest deep with bikes held aloft. One or two $7,000 bikes endured a full dunking in the salt.

The crossings combined with soft sand beaches and lush grass paddocks made it a real challenge for some of the remaining 135 competitors. A stiff northeast headwind slowed progress too. No such trouble for the lead riders though, with Jason English finishing in 2:07:01 with Andy Blair again coming in second, two minutes and seven seconds behind on 2:09:08. Nick Both was third, just a second behind Blair on 2:09:09

The win provides English with his second Mountains To Beach title. His total time for the 385km event was 11:42:21, eleven and half minutes ahead of Blair, second overall in 11:53:49. Third place went to Andrew Fellows on 12:04:32, 10 minutes further back.

Blair said after the race that although disappointed he didn't win, he'd be back next year to try again. "The race provides so much variety of mountain biking and scenery; it truly is the most challenging of journeys and after two years and two second places I want to be capture top spot!" he said.

In the women's category, Megan Dimozantos from New Zealand found the terrain difficult but enjoyable and this was borne out in her three minute win over Belinda Porter. Dimozantos' total time was 2:57:33, with Porter coming in at 3:00:52. Clare Lonergan came in third, almost 15 minutes later on 3:15:42.

Almost half an hour separated Dimozantos and Porter in the overall category, with the former completing the race in 15:48:47 and Porter finishing in 16:18:24. Lonergan came third on 17:03:47, 45 minutes after Porter.

Full Results