A first for Gilchrist and back-to-back titles for Hoskin at Enduro National Championships

Ryan Gilchrist has won his first Elite national title, while Jess Hoskin made it back-to-back victories at the 2023 AusCycling Enduro National Championships.

After E-MTB, adaptive, and junior riders battled it out on Saturday, the second day of action at Red Hill Mountain Bike Park was all about the Elites, U21s and Masters riders.

In the Elite Men, it was tight battle between Gilchrist (Coffs Harbour Mountain Bike Club), 2022 national champion Tim Eaton (CORC), Sam Walsh (Inside Line Inc) and Hayden Stead (Gippsland MTB Inc), with the winner not decided until the sixth and final stage of the day.

It was Gilchrist who would go on to secure the national title – his first competing in the elite ranks.

“I’m pretty happy with my performance out there. It’s at the tail end of a very physical season. I’m stoked that I can put it together at the end of the year,” Gilchrist said.

“It’s my first ever Elite national championships attempt and I'm pretty excited to be able to do it on the first go. Being on a new program with Yeti, I think it’s really accelerated things and I’ve really been able to put every possible foot forward.”

Eaton won silver, while Stead finished in third.

Elite Men: Tim Eaton, Ryan Gilchrist and Hayden Stead.

Gilchrist said after the race he wasn’t sure if he would contest the Enduro National title given he had qualified for the UCI Pump Track World Championships in Austria on November 18.

“I wasn’t even sure if I was going to come to this race, because the season is very, very long and my last race is the 18th of November. In an ideal world I’d be on the couch getting ready for next season’s world cup, but there are some races here and I’ve also qualified for the pump track world championships, so I will be having a fight for a rainbows there, so I’m looking forward to that.”

In the Elite Women, Jess Hoskin (Caloundra Off Road Cycling Association) managed to recover from a crash on stage one, to make it back-to-back national titles.

Elite Women: Rachel Hore, Jess Hoskin and Peta Mullens.

“On stage 1 I took the top off a berm and started running down the track. I looked back and thought where’s my bike and it was down the bank, so I had to get after it. I had to jump back on and pedal like hell to the bottom and got to the bottom and still in the green so that was good.

“I had a crash down most of the stages, but got there in the end.

“I felt a little bit underdone this year, but rested. I haven’t done much riding in the last 6 months. It’s a good place, I love riding down here.”

Rachel Hore (Roxsolt Liv SRAM) wont silver, while her teammate Peta Mullens rounded out the podium.

U21 Men: Bow Habermann, Bailey Christie and Jarrah Street. 

U21 rider from Western Australia Bailey Christie (Linga Longa Mountain Bike Club) took out the national title, and the honour of the fastest ride of the day with an overall time of 18:01.94. It was three seconds faster than Gilchrist who recorded a time of 18:04.68.

In the U21 women, Taylah Sherriff (Launceston Mountain Bike Club) was crowned national champion.

U21 Women: Connor Mielke, Taylah Sherriff and Elle De Nooyer.

Read the full results here.

Main photo: Ryan Gilchrist