Jongewaard and Mullens retain their leads in Subaru All Mountain Cup

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Chris Jongewaard (JetBlack Products BH Lightsview) and Peta Mullens (Target Trek MTB) have retained their leads in the Subaru All Mountain Cup after the second round of the Mountain Bike National Series.

Mullens took out the first round of the series in Mount Buller and placed a consistent second in all three stages in Thredbo to retain her overall lead.

"To finish behind Bec, my teammate and an Olympian of all things, I’m really proud of how my form is," Mullens said. "I was really happy with my form up at Buller and to come here and whitewash the podium in the general classification for Target Trek is pretty memorable for us."

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Mullens leads the overall All Mountain Cup general classification over Tory Thomas.

With a convincing victory in the cross country on Saturday, Jongewaard notched up two from two round wins, securing his series lead.

"Hopefully my form continues and there is one round to go," Jongewaard said of retaining his AMC lead heading into the third round of the series in Bright, Victoria.

Jongewaard leads the overall All Mountain Cup general classification Jack Haig.

Men

In the weekend’s final stage in Thredbo, Paul van der Ploeg (Giant ) took his second stage win of the weekend in spectacular fashion over Jack Haig (Torq) and Jongewaard.

Jongewaard lead the pack early in the cross country point-to-point race before falling from his bike inside the first 20 kilometres. Chasers van der Ploeg and Haig capitalised on the incident, working furiously together to create a gap on the series leader while they could. Jongewaard re-joined the race almost immediately however the escapees had quickly established a 30-second lead.

Haig led his more experienced rival into the finishing straight but it was the power of van der Ploeg who pipped the 19-year-old on the line in spectacular fashion - using the finish as a jump, van der Ploeg crossed the line mid-air. Jongewaard passed Sid Taberlay inside the final 10 kilometres to consolidate third place.

"It’s not often you get to do a sprint finish in a cross country or point-to-point," van der Ploeg said. 'It was really fun."

"When I opened up the sprint, Jack was also going ridiculously fast and I wasn’t sure if I could go around him but at the last second I managed to sneak past with half a wheel."

The win is van der Ploeg’s second since returning to the sport following shoulder surgery. "Wins in two out of the three races are unexpected for me," van der Ploeg remarked following his eliminator and point-to-point wins.

"I didn’t really know where my form was coming into the weekend - when you haven’t raced on a mountain bike since September, form was a complete unknown. I have been putting off surgery since 2007, and I have dislocated my shoulder over 30 times."

"It (my shoulder) got a bit sore towards the end of the race, but I am pretty happy with how the recovery has gone, the surgeon was quite surprised at how much mobility I have," van der Ploeg said.

Women

In the women’s race, Henderson clinched her third victory from as many starts for the weekend in the point-to-point over teammates Peta Mullens and Jenni King.

The win sealed Henderson’s stranglehold on the event in Thredbo, with the 21-year-old claiming her maiden national round win.

"I’ve never won a national round before," Henderson said. "It’s definitely good to put all three wins together and certainly an awesome feeling."

Henderson led the race early and steadily increased her advantage on the rest of the field.

Katherine O’Shea, Jenni King and Peta Mullens chased for the first 10 kilometres before Mullens broke away and for the third time in a row, the Victorian was left to consolidate second place.

Target Trek repeated their successes in the cross country, all three teammates finding the podium in the point-to-point.

"Everyone has performed really well this weekend and I think it’s happy days for the Target Trek team."

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