Riders left at 10:00 for a challenging 3 hour race to complete as many laps of the soaked 7km circuit as they could. After a short prologue around the fish farm dams, the competitors set off into the bush to get their first glimpse of what lay ahead for the day. While some areas of the track had drained well and provided a high level of grip, other areas were still waterlogged and slick as ice. These conditions had the effect of multiple riders going off in some of the more tricky sections and relatively slow lap times.

As the day wore on, the threat of rain passed and the sun dried out the corse to produce and hard packed track that picked up speed with each passing lap.

The Outright race result also matched the results for the Solo Male competitors and was a closely fought out competition. The win went to Peter Butt from Western Australia with 7 laps in 2:59:24. He was followed by Stuart Brown in 3:16:27 and Rob Preston in 3:27:27, both also on 7 laps.

The Solo Junior category was won by Sekove Korosiama with 6 laps in 3:30:06, with GMTB member Jack Walk coming in second with 3 laps in 3:01:28 narrowly beating out Jake Strimi with 3:05:00.

The Solo Female competition was dominated by GMTB’s Sharon Dilly with 5 laps in 3:24:48, even with a tubeless puncture on the opening lap! Vicky Halabarec took second with 3 laps followed by Melissa Cosson in third.

The Teams category was taken out by local pairing Richard Northover and Peter Davidson with 5 laps in 3:15:57.

The next race is scheduled for Sunday May 23rd at Glengarry and will be a different style of event being that of a Point To Point race. Check out the website, www.gippslandmtb.com.au for more details closer to the event date.

• Full Event Results
• Current GMTB Championship Standings