National mountain bike champion Rowena Fry made good of home trail advantage at Derby to win again.
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The Launceston rider had crossed the line the women’s inaugural round winner of the Asia-Pacific Continental Enduro Series on Sunday.
Fry was one of the two red-hot favourites that met race expectations after world champion Sam Hill claimed the men’s competition. Hill attacked the six gruelling stages to win three of them against a stacked elite field.
The West Australian was rapt to hold out for victory by little more than 11 seconds from Christopher Panozzo after his two stage wins, with Andrew Cavaye taking third.
“Derby this weekend was awesome,” Hill said.
“We had six challenging stages to race with a good variety of terrain and plenty to test the skills. I’m really just happy with how I rode – I had six good stages, so I’m pumped to get the win.”
Fry continued not only her love affair with Derby’s trials in front of home support, but her winning streak from the elite women’s enduro events across Australia this year.
The 35-year-old won all six stages amid a small field.
“The main thing was trying to stay clean,” Fry said.
“There’s the potential to have a few offs on these technical courses, so clean runs is most important and hopefully that equals a fast run.”
Fry’s sheer dominance overshadowed other top performers. Emily Parkes had produced a string of seconds and thirds on a tough course to finish second overall.
“I wanted to get all done pretty quickly because I thought it might get a hotter than this,” Fry said, “and I wasn’t mucking around on the liaisons either, so I was just trying to nail each stage and one stage at a time.”
But for Fry, the win was more than a chance to gain invaluable world ranking points heading into the 2019 Enduro World Series, which returns to Derby in March.
It was just as much about showcasing the Blue Derby trail network as the premier mountain bike destination in the southern hemisphere.
“I am super proud of what the North East of Tasmania is doing at the moment with all their trails and Tasmania in generally,” Fry said.
“I’m a proud Tasmanian, so I love showing off what we’ve got here. I’ve raced around the world and these trails are pretty up there.”
The series will continue for a further three races in Australia and New Zealand.