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By John Stevenson in Mt Beauty
Australia's mountain bike constellation acquired a new star today with the arrival of Tasmanian Sid Taberley in the top ranks. Riding in the U23 category at the MTBA National MTB championships, Taberley comprehensively defeated reigning champion Paul Rowney as well as expected challenger and eventual Elite class winner Josh Fleming.
In the day's final race, a combined U23/Elite and Expert field rode 6 laps of a steep and technical course, pitting Elite experience against U23 power and energy. The race started as expected with Fleming and Rowney taking the lead, Rowney allowing Fleming to make the early running.
But the situation changed dramtically on the third lap when Taberley turned on the juice and stormed past Rowney and Fleming, in the process recording the day's fastest lap, completing the circuit in 20min 58sec.
From there on, it was all over, Taberley gradually extending his lead until it stood at almost two minutes by the finish, and receiving a huge and well-deserved cheer from the crowd as he crossed the line.
It wasn't an entirely unexpected emergence. Australian national coach Edamian Grundy pointed out that Taberley was 16th at last year's U23 world's and had been top five before the final lap; the Tasmanian also won last week's Wildside MTB by a huge margin.
In the women's a very strong and confident Dellys Franke led from go to woah. Only Jaci Low looked even remotely capable of challenging Franke, but she succumbed to an irreparable puncture on the second lap, and Anna Baylis moved up into second place. Baylis found herself unable to hold visiting British rider Sue Thomas when Thomas made her move on the third lap, and Thomas held on to second to the finish.
Highlights of the earlier races included an near-sweep of the men's junior categories by the Flying Van der Ploeg family. The Mt Beauty locals took out U13, U15 and U19 classes, and a silver in U17, with only U17 Justin Case stopping the VDP tsunami.
In the Men's Sport class, Melburnian bike industry identity Dan Hale fronted with 26 fewer gears than most of the competition and nevertheless won the category, proving that singlespeeds aren't a disadvantage if you're fit and slightly mad.
Elite Men 1 Josh Fleming 2.08.13.4 2 Garth Hennessy 3.43.1 3 Paul Rowney 4.14.5 4 Paul Redenbach 5.09.4 5 Simon Bishop 6.22.2 6 Murray Spink 7.33.2 7 Chris Jongewaard 9.48.6 8 Luke Stockwell 12.41.7 9 Kian Blethyn 13.10.7 10 Matt Wallace 15.13.4 11 Mark Leis 15.45.8 12 Brian Sing 16.22.2 13 Ken Allen 16.51.1 14 Matthew Fleming 17.49.9 15 Ed Holinger 22.26.5 16 Jamie Kornell 23.18.6 One lap behind 17 James Lobegeiger DNF Evan Jeffrey DNF Perren Delacour DNF Mark Harris DNF Peter Milostic DNF Nick Kiraly U23 Men 1 Sid Taberlay 2.06.56.5 2 Jai Crawford 9.55.1 3 Ian Longville 11.37.1 4 Tim Hucker 12.19.5 5 Jesse Heron-Hunter 15.41.8 6 Jarrod Moroni 18.44.3 7 Shaun Lewis 20.03.8 8 Nick McDonald 22.09.8 9 Paul Werner 28.32.8 One lap behind 10 Brett Buckland 11 Cameron Single 12 James Williamson 13 Will Dickeson DNF Dave Nairn DNF Aiden Lefmann Elite Women 1 Dellys Franke 1.44.40.5 2 Sue Thomas 6.35.7 3 Anna Baylis 8.41.0 4 Kim McCormack 36.53.7 One lap behind 5 Jane Scheer 6 Jane Ollerenshaw DNF Jaci Low U23 Women 1 Jenni King 2.04.43.7 Expert Men 1 Ben Randall 2.33.58.0 2 Nemanja Ivancevic 5.54.1 3 David Steinhauser 11.33.6 4 Geoff Vietz 21.12.1 One lap behind 5 Grant Lebbink 6 Finton Robertson DNF Mark Raymon Masters Men 1 Warren Key 1.08.34.3 2 Garron Buckland 4.22.8 3 Nicholas Bird 7.57.8 4 Kahn Franke 8.59.3 5 Bernie McArdle 9.18.8 6 David Olle 11.01.0 7 Robert Faull 12.57.0 8 Greg Chatfield 13.31.5 9 Rob Amos 14.51.0 10 John Graydon 15.41.3 11 Hans Werner 19.17.8 12 Christopher Bland 23.58.2 Super Masters Men 1 Bruce Dickey 01:15:09.0 2 David Blair 23.00.5 Masters Women 1 Jeanette McLaren 57.23.0 2 Carolyn Jackson 2.33.5 3 Ronice Goebel 7.36.2 Veteran Men 1 Rob Eva 1.36.39.1 2 Craig McLean 3.37.9 3 Sean Kierce 5.47.7 4 John Flood 6.44.4 5 Jeff Williams 9.41.0 6 Andrew James 12.04.7 7 Toby Hobbs 13.03.6 8 Mallachi Moxon 14.06.6 9 Todd Warnock 17.24.1 10 Darren Davis 18.39.5 11 Damian Auton 19.58.4 12 Stephen Watson 21.38.9 13 Wes Samson 23.00.4 14 Tim McColl 27.21.9 15 Ian Stewart 30.41.7 One lap behind 16 Damian Jones 17 Stephen Duncan 18 Patrick Ripley 19 Mark Rawlings DNF John Groom DNF Denis Kane DNF Anthony Natoli Veteran Women 1 Shelley Kamevaar 1.50.19.3 U19 Men 1 Daniel Van der Ploeg 1.28.12.1 2 Chris Winn 4.29.1 3 James Dickey 7.38.5 4 Hayden Lebbink 9.31.4 5 Paul Vizzari 13.19.3 6 Jeremy Clark 17.14.2 DNF Lucien Keene U17 Men 1 Justin Case 1.02.03.8 2 Mark Van der Ploeg 2.39.3 3 Alistair Farley 6.46.6 4 Matthew Molan 8.30.5 5 Garry Millburn 12.35.8 6 Tim Chatfield 20.23.8 One lap behind 7 Angus Medley DNF Chris Davis DNF Robert McDonald DNF Jason Watts U17 Women 1 Gail Sutton 1.07.43.5 U15 Men 1 Neil Van der Ploeg 44.36.0 2 Cal Britten 3.27.9 3 Nick Bossy 6.38.1 4 Joel Healy 8.07.5 5 Tim Bond 13.07.5 6 Gareth Mack 16.44.3 7 Angus Harding 17.33.8 8 Luke Graydon 20.31.4 9 Steven Groves 23.23.7 10 Brad Beatson 25.24.8 U15 Women 1 Jaffa Withers 40.15.8 U13 Men 1 Paul Van der Ploeg 23.12.7 Sport Men 1 Dan Hale 1.07.34.0 2 David Boonzaayer 3.20.3 3 Daniel Ham 4.41.2 4 Justin Hams 5.49.8 5 Stephen Van Dyke 6.19.3 6 Haydn McLoughlin 7.15.5 7 Jeremy Ryan 9.00.6 8 Thomas Walter 9.18.1 9 Adrian Vizzari 9.39.1 10 Gordon Shaw 10.10.6 11 Simon Leighfield 10.35.2 12 Andrew Hutcheson 11.37.3 13 Peter Hutchinson 11.37.8 14 Jorge Robinson 11.47.8 15 Craig Junor 11.57.1 16 Paul Murray 12.33.0 17 Rob Hasard 14.58.1 18 Jason Rutter 14.58.5 19 Scott Swalling 15.58.0 20 Dean Kellett 16.17.8 21 Kerry Brown 16.20.3 22 Chris Shaw 16.44.7 23 Simon Bone 17.07.3 24 Gavin Leahy 17.37.1 25 Paul Banks 18.08.0 26 Brett Kellett 18.44.8 27 Chris Ravenhall 20.18.2 28 David Svarc 20.18.6 29 Dean Hunt 23.00.8 30 Simon Pateman 24.20.3 31 Val Gomez 28.06.7 32 Gillis Horner 30.07.5 33 Brett Bradley 30.36.7 34 Matthew McArdle 31.09.0 35 Adam Hawken 31.13.3 36 Chris Mather 32.25.6 One lap behind 37 Steve Tattam 38 Douglas Allan 39 Daniel Taliana 40 Sean Cormack Sport Women 1 Renate Griese 0.55.51.6 2 Amanda Clarke 4.43.4 3 Vinca Low 5.45.2 4 Emily Viner 7.35.2 5 Nikola Terry 8.34.2 6 Justine Leahy 9.34.7 7 Melissa Anset 11.10.4 8 Helen Vanderbom 17.51.0 9 Libby Evans 20.41.0 10 Roz Bradley 21.33.0 11 Jacqui Clynes 25.56.7 12 Claire Graydon 29.53.4 DNF Emma Colson Fun Men 1 Thor Phillips 0.24.16.7 2 Darren Paterson 1.59.3 3 Stephen Rowley 3.30.5 4 Steve Yarosz 10.24.1 5 Andrew Burke 10.34.7 6 Scott Keneally 12.01.6 7 Paul Franklin 23.54.2 8 Justin Sack 30.59.7 Fun Women 1 Christine Fagan 0.30.17.7 2 Megan Graham 5.15.3