Consistency pays off with overall wins for English and Willett

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The Ingkerreke Commercial MTB Enduro-Red Centre finished with an exciting end to five days and seven stages in and around Alice Springs. Jason English fought back from mechanical issues to win the men's race, and Jodie Willett continued her consistent performance to reign supreme in the women. 230 other competitors crossed the finish line with a huge sense of satisfaction after completing over 250km of mountain biking through spectacular surroundings in excellent conditions around the MacDonnell Ranges.

It came down to the wire for the men's win, and the last few kilometers of the 45km stage 7. Before the start this morning, there were four men seriously in contention for the race win. Jason English from Port Macquarie, NSW, who is current 24-hour Solo World Champion, held the yellow jersey by a slim minute margin over Adrian Jackson from Melbourne, who is a World Champion mountain biker in orienteering and the 2008 race winner. Ben Randall, also from Melbourne, and Andrew Fellows, from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, were also within striking distance. All men were mentally and physically fatigued, but with a winner's cheque and glory on the line adrenalin was high.

Randall surprised even himself by getting a lead over the field and extended his leading margin to over three minutes to give him enough time to win the stage and the overall event. Tragedy struck only a couple of kilometers from the finish line when he got a flat tyre and while repairing it the slow way with a pump, the field caught him.

"I didn't realise how far ahead I was or where the finish line was. If I'd known I was so close to the end and the win, I would have tried to run to the finish line," said Randall. Kicking himself because he didn't have a canister to quickly repair the tyre, Randall had to be happy with third place overall.

That is not to take any credit away from English, who had his own setbacks during the week of racing and each time managed to claw his way back to contention and the eventual winner of the race, showing his superior endurance. With a flat early in today's stage, English had to ride through the field to pull back the leaders. Although he didn't get the stage win, he did enough to win the overall race with over two minutes up his sleeve over Fellows, who was ahead of Randall by the same margin just scraping into third. A tired Jackson, the early race leader, slipped back to fourth.

English, relieved with the win and having exceeded his goal of making the podium, put the bad luck behind him and said, "It was good fun with my mates all week. There was a core group of elite riders to make it a race. The stage race format meant that there were different courses and distances to suit different riders, which kept the racing exciting."

"There was some pretty cool singletrack out there. I'll be back for some social time in the future to ride some more," said English. "With thicker tyres next time as I didn't make the right choice." He was grateful to his local hosts for the week as he was billeted out to a local riders' family through an arrangement with Port Macquarie Cycling Club and they showed him round parts of the course. He was also thankful to a fellow competitor who loaned him a wheel after an accident on stage 1.

The women's race wasn't quite as exciting due to the dominance of Jodie Willett from Brisbane. She was extremely consistent and after a great start, gradually extended her lead as the week progressed. Gracie Elvin from the ACT put the pressure on later in the week, snatching some of the final stages, including today from her but Willett wasn't far behind and won the race with a solid 11-minute victory.

Rebecca Rusch, World 24-hour solo champion from the US maintained third overall and conceded that her technical skills weren't good enough to match the others this week and that she's better at the longer distances where she copes well with sleep deprivation and exhaustion.

Willett was elated with her win after being runner-up in 2009 and said that, "It was definitely harder than last year. Stage 1 was really hard and nailed you for the rest of the week. It's definitely a race for the tough". Even though she had over 15 minutes' lead halfway through the race she knew she couldn't rest on her laurels. "You can't be too confident", she said, "anything can happen. Some people get eight punctures for the week, some get none. You need luck as well".

Willett spent more time crediting the slower riders in the field saying how amazing they are for being able to spend so much time in the saddle, "the total riding time for the week is double the hours we do. They're the incredible ones. I don't know how they do it".

Willett is right. The slowest person for the week will have spent nearly 30 hours riding over the five days. That's admirable. In fact, the average person has done around 23 hours of riding compared to the winner's 13 hours.

Today's stage was an emotional one for many of the racers and the mountain bike community in general as it was dedicated to Tavis Johanssen, a previous competitor in the event who passed away earlier in the year. There was one minute of silence before race start to remember what a great bloke Tavis was. Sadly, another young man and previous competitor was also mourned for, James Williamson. Both men will be dearly missed but their contribution to mountain biking and the lives of their friends will forever be cherished. A Tavis Johanssen Memorial Trophy will we awarded to Ben Henderson for his win in today's stage.

Race Director, John Jacoby, was pleased with the race week. "It's gone really well, been really good," he said. "There were a few injuries, mainly cuts and abrasions, but you'd expect that. Nothing too serious."

Competitors celebrated their efforts at a presentation dinner after the final stage. Willett summed up the mood of many, "I had so much fun, it was so tough though but I'll definitely be back next year".

Photos coming!

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