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By Joe Ward
The inaugural Wildside MTB race in Tasmania, Australia started with massed drag race along Cradle Mountain airstrip in a dash for cash Sunday morning. Mark Lies took the money with Sid Taberlay just behind setting a pattern for the rest of the day.
This was just a warm up for the 121 competitors as they commenced their journey to the West Coast of Tasmania. Over the course of 14 stages, across 4 days, the riders will cover 200km, including terrain that in includes alpine meadows, logging roads and reclaimed tramways.
By the end of yesterdays racing two riders already built substantial leads with Australia's leading Under 23 rider and Apple Isle resident Sid Taberlay leading the race with an overall time of 1:27:08. On his wheel for most of race is another Tasmanian, Jai Crawford also in the under 23 category with a time of 1:28:39. Taberlay says he built most of his current lead in the second stage "I was riding with Jai until he made a mistake on a technical uphill, so I just kept going and didn't see him again 'till the finish."
Taberlay regretted his choice of semi-slick tyres, as this stage was notable for the huge mud puddles totally covering the trail at regular intervals. However, Mary Grigson, current women's leader says that full knobby tyres weren't much help against the mud "There were some huge puddles, oh my goodness, I stopped dead in one and hopped off and it went almost to the top of my legs. I thought I was going to have to start swimming."
Grigson, Australia's number one female mountain biker holds a commanding lead with an over all time of 1:45:27 followed by Hobart rider Eleanor Paterson 2:00:10 and Janine Ridsdale 2:05:34 from the ACT.
Mark Leis (Tas) leads the Open Men, while the Masters is a battle between Bill Chilvers (Tas) and National MTB coach, Damian Grundy (Vic). The two diced all day with Chilvers taking the overall lead by just seconds.
Today's racing takes the riders from Tullah to Zeehan, including some serious climbs with K.O.M. a prize on offer and a big decent down the Montezuma falls tramway.
For more race details see www.wildsidemtb.com
1st stage 2nd stage GC 1 Sid Taberlay (IM-U23) 0.45.29 0.41.39 1.27.08 2 Jai Crawford (IM-U23) 0.46.30 0.42.09 0.01.31 3 Mark Leis (IM-Open) 0.51.10 0.42.56 0.06.58 4 Simon Van Der Aa (IM-Open) 0.52.40 0.45.42 0.11.14 5 Drew Edwards (IM-Open) 0.53.46 0.47.37 0.14.15 6 William "Bill" Chilvers (IM-Mas) 0.55.42 0.48.19 0.16.53 7 Thomas Hawthorne (IM-Open) 0.55.03 0.49.00 0.16.55 8 Damian Grundy (IM-Mas) 0.55.00 0.49.12 0.17.04 9 John Miller (IM-Mas) 0.55.13 0.49.14 0.17.19 10 Josh Simpson (IM-U23) 0.54.35 0.50.09 0.17.36 11 Michael Thorne (IM-Open) 0.56.02 0.48.47 0.17.41 12 Mary Grigson (IW-Open) 0.55.04 0.50.23 0.18.19 13 John DeVries (IM-Open) 0.56.47 0.49.01 0.18.40 14 Ben Larsson (IM-Open) 0.57.41 0.49.12 0.19.45 15 Damon Griggs (IM-U23) 0.57.05 0.49.49 0.19.46 16 Damon Willmore (IM-Open) 0.55.56 0.51.49 0.20.37 17 Simon Tilley (IM-Mas) 0.57.42 0.50.12 0.20.46 18 Kenneth Wilyman (IM-Mas) 0.56.47 0.51.29 0.21.08 19 Ian Hills (IM-Open) 0.57.35 0.50.41 0.21.08 20 Julian Fox (IM-Open) 0.57.06 0.51.14 0.21.12 21 Darren Cook (IM-Mas) 0.57.24 0.51.52 0.22.08 22 Andersch/Quinn (TM) 0.56.50 0.52.59 0.22.41 23 Cameron Daniel (IM-Open) 0.59.18 0.51.24 0.23.34