GoldentriangleEpic_2015

#30

HAWAII 24

$10.95 ENDURO MAG SUMMER 2016

DAN VAN DER PLOEG

INTERVIEW

THULE B24 | CAPE TO CAPE | DANCE WITH THE DEVIL | SANTA CRUZ STIGMATA & HIGHBALL |

6 BIKES TESTED

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2015 Golden Triangle Epic

D ampene d T r a i l s ,

D r o p p e r Po s t s

and F r e e Be er 6.30am on an autumn morning in Bendigo is a pretty gloomy time of day, with the sun still about 30-minutes off making an appearance. Thankfully organisers decided to delay the start of the Golden Triangle Epic 100 Miler by 10 minutes. While not a big difference, it meant that by the time the lead riders got to the singletrack, visibility had improved a little—perhaps from gloomy to just dull. To make things easier for the 20 or so competitors in the 100 Miler, all entries also included free onsite accommodation at the race village based at Koolamurt Scout Camp, just 5km from Bendigo’s town centre.

The more popular 100km Full Epic and 50km Epic Shorty started at 10.00am and 11.00am respectively, a strategic decision supported by local rider (and current National Road Race Champion) Peta Mullens to encourage more Melbourne-based entries.

‘The hardest thing about Bendigo is that people don’t want to come all the way down here…it’s still a long, long way…And that’s why I think the 50k is so popular. 11 o’clock start, you come down, you race, you go home.’

The plan seems to have worked with over 400 riders entered, a big increase over previous years.

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WORDS BY ASH HAYAT

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A

pleasant arrangement whereby recent wet weather gave way to a rain-free race day made for ideal conditions, Bendigo’s typical bulldust nothing but a dry and slightly choking memory in the back of the throat. Thankfully though, there was also a noticeable absence of mud on the bikes littered about the finish area, only a few puddles out on course, and local riders have agreed that conditions don’t get much better than those that greeted riders on race day.

The Golden Triangle Epic runs on a lap format where the three main events are run over one, two, or three laps of the circuit. To make up 100 miles (or 160.93 km), the distance of

Odyssey and Wombat 100 winner Chris Jongewaard, it was still looking fairly stacked with talent, with fast young locals Chris Hamilton and the Nankervis brothers—Tasman and Russell—as well as big Paul van der Ploeg and Wollongong’s Kyle Ward all in attendance. Although Paul powered to the front early and shut the pace down to a manageable speed in the singletrack, Hamilton quickly split the field at a fire road section about 25km in. From this point on, it became a race of four, with only Tasman Nankervis, van der Ploeg and Ward able to maintain Hamilton’s furious pace.

‘It was awesome racing with these boys… and we were all together with 8k to go,’ ex-

Shox dropper seatpost on his dual-suspension Giant Anthem raised a few eyebrows too but he’s convinced that it made a big difference to his speed.

‘It’s a four-inch travel bike and if you have a seat as high as mine it’s 106cm from the pedal axle to the top of the seat so if I can get lower then you can pump through those dippy sections and…hook the corners…I was going on those short downhills and putting five, 10 seconds into those boys and they’d have to chase me down every time.’

Emcee Norm Douglas was also singing the component’s praises, believing it to be the most significant technological advancement in

each lap ends up at about 53.64km meaning that both the 100km and 50km riders are generously allocated a few bonus kilometres—the windfall generally not appreciated, particularly in the closing stages of the marathon event.

The 100km (plus) Full Epic is probably considered the premier event and the women’s race evolved into two separate contests. Jenni King and Bec Locke were battling for first place until Bec crashed at high speed after getting caught up in a rut around the 80km mark, eventually coming in a minute down on the Torq rider who’s achieved some great results this year including first place at the Giant Odyssey and third places at both the XCO National Championships and the Wombat 100. The two exhausted riders embraced at the finish line, Bec thankful for the tough racing but also for the bike fit that Jenni performed for her earlier in the week, insisting she’d never felt so comfortable on the bike.

Karen Hill ended up beating current National Champion, Mel Anset in the race for third place—one of her last chances to wear the green and gold jersey before next month’s Marathon National Championships in Derby, Tasmania.

Although the men’s field was missing Giant

plained a breathless van der Ploeg at the finish.

There were eight kilometres remaining when Ward ‘just clicked it down and launched an attack…then Tas was chasing him and he sort of blew so I went around him and managed to get across to Kyle.’ As van der Ploeg went past, Ward was on his limit, unable to contribute any further.

‘I’m in the box Paul, you just go.’ But van der Ploeg was a little sceptical.

‘I thought he was foxing because he stayed on my wheel for the next few k’s and I was like, “cheeky monkey, he’s going to roll me in the sprint.”’

Ward’s confession appeared honest, however, with van der Ploeg managing to get away on a small fire road climb with a couple of kilometres remaining to claim victory by about 20-seconds. Ward narrowly held on to second with Hamilton coming in third just five-seconds further back despite breaking two spokes during the race.

Post race it was clear that van der Ploeg was spent: ‘Well I haven’t been able to put together a hundred-k race for a while…I was a bit nervous coming in…It’s an awesome course, the track was in perfect condition.’

Paul’s decision to run a newly installed Rock-

mountain biking for 25 years. Keeping in mind that the last quarter century includes the widespread adoption of disc brakes and dual-suspension bikes, this might have been a slight exaggeration, but it will be interesting to see if dropper posts do manage to make the leap from Enduro to XC, following in the footsteps of wide bars, chunky tyres, and baggy shorts.

Peta Mullens and Jarrod Moroni, perhaps Bendigo’s preeminent local mountain biking couple (with some pretty fierce competition), both raced the 50km (plus) Epic Shorty event.

Jarrod came across the line fourth, less than three minutes ahead of his partner. ‘That’s the first time in a while,’ offered Moroni at the finish, clearly relieved to have beaten Peta.

While it would have been great to see Mullens and King battling out the 100km Full Epic like they did at the recent Giant Odyssey and Wombat 100, Peta’s priority is a World Cup road and mountain bike campaign that got underway the following day with a flight to Europe.

Murray Spink took out the men’s 50km in a recent return to form, narrowly beating young Kian Lerch-Mackinnon. It was two Bendigo locals at the head of affairs in the 50km Masters (40-49) category, with co-emcee Scott McGrory having the pleasure of announcing himself as second

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place behind winner Andrew Paterson.

Norm Douglas was able to provoke some friendly banter between the two locals, noting how it’s not too often that you get to beat an ex-professional (and Olympic gold medallist) of McGrory’s pedigree. ‘Nah, I do it all the time,’ scoffed Andrew jokingly, not missing a beat, ‘on our Tuesday morning bunch’—a tough road ride over Mount Alexander that is a fixture for many fast locals. The cycling scene in Bendigo is surely one of Australia’s most competitive, both on road and off, with such a huge volume of good training roads, trails and high-calibre athletes.

At around 1.35pm Tobias Lestrell casually

rolled over the line, less than seven hours after starting the 100 Miler event. With only one other rider for company in the first hour, Lestrell just settled in to his own steady pace, eventually coming in over 21-minutes ahead of Ballarat’s resident diesel engine Phil Orr and Jason Archer.

‘I do all of my training alone…I don’t even have a heartrate monitor or anything…[So six hours on my own] sort of suits me. I would struggle more, to be honest, racing the 100k.’

Swedish-born Lestrell moved to Melbourne around seven years ago and has recently come to prominence on the local Victorian cross-country endurance scene. Returning

“‘I’m in the box Paul, you just go.’ But van der Ploeg was a little sceptical.

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after an extended break from racing, his pedigree includes a stint racing for Belgium’s second-ranked amateur road team in the late 1990’s.

‘The longer races are really my thing. I want to go and do the 24-hour Nationals in Canberra later this year. And the big goal is the WEMBO [24-hour Solo World Championships] next year in Rotorua.’

Lestrell is an enthusiastic rider with some incredible talent and an infectious love for the sport. With a bit of support, some big stage race victories might even be on the horizon.

‘I would love to do stage races…I would love to do the Croc Trophy…If I can get some proper support to go there, by all means. But if I’ve got to finance it myself, it’s probably not happening.’

Jess Douglas was the only finisher in the women’s 100 Miler, the effort from over nine hours in the saddle telling on her face at the finish line.

There was some confusion over track markings with a number of riders inadvertently taking a small shortcut, which the organisers were quick to correct at the finish line.

Tobias Lestrell actually realised the mistake on his second lap and took the honourable action of riding the short three-minute loop twice on his final lap in order to correct the anomaly. Now that’s some top-quality sportsmanship!

Single-speeder Craig ‘Fav’ Favaloro crossed the line one hour and 42-minutes down on Lestrell, in 11th place, looking weary but still in good spirits while the last finisher came in just under the 10-hour mark—clocking a bit of overtime in what was clearly a very tough day at the office.

Second place in the Veteran Women’s (30-39) category of the Full Epic 100km was Bridget Slocum, who survived a nasty scare mid-race. An aggressive snake lunged and made contact with her leg (probably an appropriate reaction after accidentally being ridden over), but thankfully did not manage to inject any venom.

Race organiser Joel Rockes was at the finish handing out well-earned beers from a bathtub full of Beechworth’s excellent Bridge Road Brewers’ Pale Ale. Many local club riders are heavily involved in organising, promoting, and running this event, even at the elite level, with Peta Mullens and training partner Chris Hamilton spending part of the previous day out marking the course.

Club Secretary Jo Wall was also visible around the event hub. With seven-month old daughter Lottie strapped to her chest, Jo outlined the club’s efforts at engaging Parks Victoria to further develop the trails and facilities around the area. With a Master Plan submitted that includes trail re-development, a new pavilion and extending the Spring Gully Bike Path to the mountain bike trailhead, the future certainly looks bright for Bendigo. With such a large, focussed, and hardworking local user group that is willing to put in the hours required to develop the trails, a brighter future for mountain biking in the region is hard to envisage—at least until meteorological advances allow for dust-dampening light rain requests to be booked in advance just prior to each major event. - ENDuromag

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