SRAM Singletrack Mind Series launched

The Mens Pairs category was animated right from the gun, with Giant’s Josh Carlson being the first rider through transition with over a one minute gap to Yeti’s Matt Potter and Swell/Redshift’s Trenton Day.

The Yeti pair of Potter and Perren Delacour worked hard to claw back the deficit and within three laps they had hit the lead closely followed by Swell/Redshift's Day and Cameron Ivory who then took the front running from the 3 and half hour mark.

In the end, experience prevailed over youthful exuberance, with Yeti taking the category win by six minutes ahead of Swell/Redshift.

The Mixed Pairs saw the FRS Stevens team Jason Morgan and Emma Lovelock get off to a flyer but Nicola and Michael Hogan (MicNic) moved into the lead early in the race and kept a solid tempo all day to defend it to the end.

The larger team categories saw SORCC take the Open 4's, while there was a tight battle between Team FRS and Xocolātl in the Masters Threes.

The team of 2Fast4U were exactly that in the Open Threes, beating Max Shred, a team of elite level downhill riders out to show it's not body armour and a full face that makes them fast. Only 9 minutes separated these two teams after 8 hours.

With the National Marathon Championships on the same weekend, it was a great opportunity to rack up early series points in the solo categories.

In the women, Kate Haynes led the Open Women’s category from start to finish with a set of very consistent lap times, as did Nicole Lancaster in the Masters category.

In the Mens solo categories, the Masters played out an epic, all day contest between Mike Israel and Ray Giddins.

Israel led until his lap times started to blow out and at the 5 hour mark Giddins pounced to take the lead and held it to the end to record a personal best result.

Garry Millburn who has returned to racing after a number of years off the scene, dominated the opening lap of Open Men’s category, but True Swain, who was looking to shake off the disappointment of a DNF at the 24 Hour Solo National Championships a couple of weeks ago, put on a dominant display.

Millburn worked his way back in the closing laps, coming to within 3 minutes of the leader. Swain responded and put in a 35 minute final lap to record 15 laps in total and take the victory.

The five race series, which next moves Nowra on the NSW South Coast with the second round held on 16 May, will incorporate the Australian Defence Cycling Club Endurance Championships as well as the Singletrack Mind Series Solo Singlespeed Championship.