Gravity Enduro State Championships Awarded At GreenValleys

20 Jun 2022 | 04:19 PMBy: Luke Macquire

The state’s mountain bikers were back at GreenValleys Mountain Bike Park for the 2022 AusCycling NSW Gravity Enduro State Championships on Sunday.

Points towards the AusCycling Mountain Bike GE National Cup were on offer as riders from under-13s to super masters tackled the Tongarra slopes under mostly clear skies.

Elite

After four stages, downhill specialist Josh Arcus finished fastest among the Elite Men to clinch the state GE title.

On stage 1, Arcus was able to use the challenging turns to gain some early breathing room as he established a four-second buffer ahead of 2021 under-19 silver medallist Thomas Locke.

Over the next three stages, Locke and Arcus were neck-and-neck on the timing sheets with the former achieving the quicker times across stages 3 and 4. Ultimately, it was the stage 1 results that separated the pair.

Arcus, who won silver at last year’s GE National Championships, ended with a total race time of 10:34.218 – just 3.5 seconds ahead of Locke and 12.5 seconds clear of Cooper Lowe who rounded out the podium.

For the Elite Women, two-time downhill national champion and two-time Oceania champion Sian A’Hern took home the gold medal with a time of 12:09.523.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐀’𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐍 🇦🇺 (@sianahern)

Coming in second was Ashleigh Weinhert, stepping up from her silver medal in the under-19 category last year. Tash Bonney completed the podium with the bronze medal.

On the e-bikes, Elite Men riders Thiago Boaretto and Theo Kelly went head-to-head over the four stages with Boaretto clinching the state championship in convincing fashion.

Under-19s

In a field of 22, Wilkin Payens was the pick of the bunch in the Under-19 Men’s category.

Payens, who finished the day with the fourth best result overall, was comfortably the fastest under-19 rider in all stages bar the third.

The Under-19 Women’s contest went the way of Connor Mielke, who edged out Poppy Pollock by just over two seconds to take gold.

Junior e-bike riders Connor Jones and Annie-Maree Martin took out the Men’s and Women’s competitions respectively.

Expert

Levi Johns was the best of the Expert Men, finishing Sunday with a total time of 11:27.087, while Rebecca Bailey achieved a time of 16:19.016 to take out the women’s category.

The mountain bike season continues in NSW with the 2022 AusCycling Downhill State Championships at GreenValleys Mountain Bike Park set to take place on August 21.