It
was indisputably the biggest gathering of international and local
phat-tyre swingers to hit Singapore trails since the International
Subaru races! Over
260
participants battled it out on the extended 7 km Tampines mountain
bike trail, parts of which had only recently been completed! The open
trail was spectator friendly and crowds of supporters were treated to
lots of action along the teletubbyland-like knolls.
30
accomplished XC-Elite riders from Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Singapore opened the race with adrenalin-pumped
action. The competition included South
East Asian (SEA) Games gold medalists: male XC-Elite riders Dadi
Nurcahyadi
(Indonesia)
and Surban
Q Nino
(Philippines).
Dadi
finished a few minutes short of the four-rider peleton which sped to
the finish line, led by Elite Champion Bandi
Sugito
(Indonesia).
He was followed by first runner up, Usman
Ali
(Indonesia) and second runner up, Nino.
Shahrin
Amir
(Malaysia)
and JR
Stanley
(Malaysia)
were next in line before homegrown talent, Junaidi
Hashim
(Singapore)
came in 7th.
The
‘Mens Senior A' saw the biggest group of riders with 46 out of
the 52 registered riders finishing the race, led by
Oki
Raspati (Charmdevo-Scott),
the winner of this category. The second largest group with 36 riders
was the ‘Mens Masters', with
Paul
Moir (ANZA Cycling) continuing his winning streak,
with the fastest time per 3 laps of 1:01:06.
Risa
Suseanty (Charmdevo-Scott)
stole the ‘Womens Open' title in the 17-strong womens open
category, while first positions for the other categories were swept
by
Lester
Lim (Chapter 2 Cycle)
in ‘Mens Senior B' (out of 32 riders),
Mohd
Rafi Rosdi
in ‘Boys Div A' (out of 20 riders) and
Norsharil
Haizal Ahmad Nazali
in ‘Boys' B (out of 23 riders). The winner of the newly
introduced ‘Single-speed/cycle cross',
Kale
Buonerba,
rode a cyclecross singlespeed bike! Special mention goes to Lynten
Ong, the last rider in with his fixed-gear steed.
The
highlight was none other than seeing the over
30 kids
below the age of 13 years old taking on what is arguably the longest
and toughest kids race course in Singapore.
Congratulations
to all the winners! At DirTraction events, no finisher goes home
without a medal!
We'd
like to take this opportunity to thank our friends and riders from
the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia who have traveled so far just
to be part of our festive event.