DirTraction

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 7^th.

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.