The Kona Mash-Up team write…
Over 400 competitors made their way to the 2nd Kona Mash-Up and joined the relaxed atmosphere on the trails surrounding the Glyncorrwg Mountain Bike Centre in Afan Forest. The event was blessed with superb sunshine and dry weather, which all added to the festival atmosphere out on the hillside. This relaxed style race day was the first ever of its kind, with a format of 6 different timed sections, and chill-outs between each run.
The Kona Mash-Up used the Whites Level and the July Trail (beginning and end of the Skyline trail) to create two courses. The Whites level course was used by the technical category who had the chance to spend quite a few hours doing re-runs of the action packed Black Run as well as chill out and exchange tactics at the event village at the top of Windy Point (top of the climb). The endurance riders had more distance to cover and were also timed on a climb rather than just the single track and DH sections.
The incredible weather conditions, the superb conditions out on the trail and last but not least the rather lively evening party made for a great days racing. The Technical and the Enduro category saw lots of leading riders returning and in particular Rob Cooksley from Bad Ass Bikes and Rosa Martin put once more their stamp on the event by repeating last year’s success. But we also saw lots of new faces including World DH champion Tracy Moseley.
Endurance Category OVER ALL
Women:
1st Rosa Martin in 32:02 min
2nd Fran Mundy (Torq) in 32:22 min
3rd Gayle Philips in 34:20 min
4th Su Leeming in 35:11 min
5th Marcelle Mackay in 36:38 min
Men:
1st Rob Cooksley (Bad Ass Bikes) in 22:33 min
2nd Al Fairbairn (Hargroves Cycles) in 23:45 min
3rd Ryan Bevis (Bad Ass Bikes) in 23:45 min
4th Ben Simmons (Wiggle) in 24:30 min
5th Aidan Bishop (Rapidracerproducts) in 24:38 min
Technical Category OVER ALL
Women:
1st Tracy Moseley (Trek) in 11:10 min
2nd Manon Carpenter in 12:38 min
3rd Rachel Vicary (Cheltenham County) in 12:59 min
4th Emily Horridge in 13:02 min
5th Ellie Maxfield in 13:07 min
Men:
1st Crawford Carrick-Anderson (CCA-Signs.co.uk) in 10:34 min
2nd Tristan Turnstall in 10:46 min
3rd Chris Griffiths in 10:47 min
4th Chris Buchan in 10:48 min
5th Andrew Titley (Kona / Sombrio) in 10:51 min
You can find the full results and the results of the various stages on the main Kona Mash-Up site: http://www.konaworld.uk.com/mash-up/
A big thanks goes out to Kona Bikes and Skyline Cycles for making this event happen and for supporting us all the way along. We would also like to thank MBUK, Torq, Muc Off, The DropOff Café, the Forest Commission and the Glyncorrwg Ponds and Mountain Bike Centre.
Next Kona Mash-Up event:
5th December 2009 – Glyncorrwg Mountain Bike Centre, Afan Forrest
