The SA MTBO Championships were held in ideal conditions on October 19th in Mt Crawford Forest.
Andrew Slattery updated the “Portuguese Bridge” map and set interesting courses that had people constantly making both macro and micro route choice decisions.
In the elite women it was a 2 rider race between Kay Haarsma and Anthea Williams, both of whom had been “training” whilst bike touring in different parts of Europe.  Kay’s greater experience came to the fore and enabled her to take a 20 minute win and also fastest time on the 25.5km course 2.

The men’s elite had nine really competitive riders and each new finisher seemed to beat the previous set time. The 32 km course had the last control some 3 kilometers from the uphill finish shute, so there were some barnstorming finishes. Just 3 and a half minutes seperated the top four placegetters. Bruce Greenhalgh, the last starter emerged from the forest just in time to claim a 1 minute 26 seconds victory over the evergreen Steve Sullivan, with the speedy Adelaide Mt Bike crosscountry rider Dave Clark just another 14 seconds back.  Fourth placed Ian Fehler, a relative newcomer to mtbo, lost many minutes taking a “fun but very rocky and slow route choice” along the Mt Crawford ridge.    Main places and times were:

Men – 32km
1.57.30  Bruce Greenhalgh
1.58.56  Steve Sullivan
1.59.10  Dave Clark
2.01.05  Ian Fehler

Women  – 25.5km
1.43.17  Kay Haarsma
2.05 51    Anthea williams