Rock Wallaby – Appin 2011
The 15th of May not only brought single digit temperatures to the historic township of Appin but hundreds of mountain bikers including the Bernard Beer crew who were keen to try their luck on the appropriately named Rock Wallaby half marathon event. Chocolate Foot hosted the incredibly challenging event which offered two race lengths, a single 25km bone jarring lap for the smart ones and a 2 lap half marathon for the rest of us. As the event name suggests the course comprised of loads of single trail littered with rocks, rocks, and more rocks and the odd fire road, creek crossing, and rock drop thrown in to keep riders on their toes.
This combination made the course truly one of the most technically demanding courses I have ever raced. . . inconveniently on a hardtail. Regardless no one could contain the smiles of participants at the finish line after taming the extreme Rock Wallaby event. With an incredible time of 2:40 the 50km line honours went to Matt Fleming for elite men with Michal Kafka placing an impressive 7th. For the open men Jason Morgan won with a time of 3:03 with the lime green jerseys of Bernard Riders Scott Uden and Aaron Lakeman looming in 5th, 11th respectively and Michal Burda suffering a mechanical on the trecherous track.
The 25km race for the clever ones was dominated by Ondrej Slezak taking the title in an impressive time of 1:29 followed by Victor Svacek in second, who finished just 5 seconds ahead of Craig Baylis from EnduroPulse. Congratulation also goes to Honza Cabejsek, who suffered second defect just about 2 km before finish capturing 25th spot. There is certainly going to be some happy, but very sore riders after this weeks racing keeping the Sydney masseuses busy all week. An all round successful event put on by the guys and girls of Chocolate Foot. Looking forward to next year (on a dualie).
Report by Aaron Lakeman
