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Mountain Bikers Conquer Coromandel
Mark Leishman and Sonia Foote continued their fast-improving form to take out the prestigious Intrigue mountain bike race in Coromandel on Saturday.
Almost 300 riders turned out for the annual tour around the scenic but savage Coromandel Peninsula. Established in 2003, the 65km race around the Coromandel high country is fast becoming a favourite with mountain bikers looking to put some adventure back in their riding.
The course took in more than 1600m of climbing, making it one of the toughest mountain bike races in the country. Winners Mark Leishman and Sonia Foote illustrated that they are amo0ng the toughest mountain bikers in the country when they dominated their respective races.
For Foote it was a one-way victory. The Rotorua rider led from start to finish, opening up a 3min lead over Levin’s Karina Wilkinson in the first 15k. But Foote only got stronger as the race progressed, eventually crossing the line more than half an hour ahead of Wilkinson in 3hrs 53min 36secs.
Foote’s winning time established a new race record, as did men’s winner Mark Leishman. The Manawatu mountain biker had an early scare when road specialist Jeremy Vennell kept him honest on the relatively sedate first 15k. Vennell pushed the pace and threatened to drop Leishman several times. But once in to the technical riding and big climbs, Leishman went away to a huge 15min win ahead of Auckland’s Scott Wilder.
Wilder had to pull out all the stops to hold off English visitor Rob Friez and defending champion Clinton Jackson, with all three men finishing just a minute apart. Vennell followed in fifth place.
A shorter race introducing people to the rigours of adventure riding was won by Auckland’s Stephen Sawyer in 2hrs 40min 55secs, some 5min ahead of a close tussle for second between Guy Powell and Hamish Blampeid. Powell got the nod by 13secs. The race for line honours among women was also close, with Marianne Sreigl finishing ninth overall yet managing to win the women’s short course race by just 2min. Spriegl got the nod over well-performed veteran Kate Lacey in 3hrs 5min 50secs for the 43km distance.
The Matarangi Intrigue is the latest endurance offering from local Coromandel event organisers, Adventure Racing Coromandel. All ARC events benefit the Spirit of Coromandel Trust set up to expose youth into the outdoors. Their next event is the ARC Adventure Race on April 9-10.
For further details contact: Keith Stephenson 07-866-8613 / 021-671-172. Andy Reid 07-866-8678 / 0274-921-348. Email: assay@xtra.co.nz. Website: www.arcevents.co.nz