Chun Tan grabs national title with fourth

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The Singapore National Mountain Bike Championship returned to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, with a new extended race course of 7km featuring longish singletrack, technical sections and fire trails.

Hong Chun Tan took his second Singapore cross country mountain biking crown after a five years break. The elite men’s race, contested under wet and muddy conditions, showed the depth of CannAsia-Cannondale team, which took a clean sweep of the top three positions with foreign riders Tim Wilkins, Shahrom Abdullah and Fraser Morrison, while THC Racing’s Tan rode to a strong fourth place finish and the national title.

Bernice Chen (L&T Cycle) and Lynda Scott (Hammer/Carmichael/Maverick) were the only two finishers in the open women’s race. Scott took control of the race at the technical section, leaving Chen and Priscilla Chen to fight out for the national title. Priscilla was forced to withdraw from the race after a strong first lap with respiratory problems, allowing Bernice to cruise to win the national champion title.

Defending champion Joshua Png retained his crown with a strong ride, piping Daniel Koh to the line with a strong and calculated ride in the last 50 metres. The pair raced neck-and-neck for the entire race, gaining almost five minutes over the chasing group of Ivan Tay (Team Conticomponents) and Ryan Chan (PICO-BikeLabz).

Thing were a lot clearer for the masters race with Richard Sinclair (Cannasia-Cannondale) riding a commanding race out front and won the race with a six minute winning margin over the eventual national champion Alvin Lim (Eclipse Sports). Roslan bin Ahmad, the defending champion, couldn't match the blistering pace in the wet today, and finished in seventh.

Results