Great start to the year for the Cannasia MTB team!

Sunday 15th May kicked off the 2011 Cyclone MTB series with a 4h Enduro held at the Ketam Mountain Bike Park at Pulai Ubin. This Ketam trail is by far the best mountain biking trail in Singapore and features something that caters to all riders - whether you are a hardcore technical rider looking to take the double black sections on; or someone who is more interested in a safe, fun day out on the bike. The 130 strong contingent that turned up to race in categories covering Solo, Duo and Quad teams had all of these types of riders covered! The Cannasia team were represented by Sharom Abdullah, Erdem Ozgul and Cas Brentjens in the solo category and Nathan Baltoski and Fraser Morrison in the Duo category.

In the solo category, both Sharom and Erdem were off to flyers, clearly leading the category at the hour mark. Unfortunately a mechanical forced Erdem out of the race. Sharom continued at a frenzied pace for the next 3 hours and convincingly won the solo category by a lap. In the Duo, the team were concerned with their prospects after Fraser came down with a horrible flu in the days leading up to the race. Nathan was given the lionshare of the workload as a result and the expectations dropped. However, strong form carried over from Nathan's time on the road bike in the Tour of Friendship and Fraser's strong technical skills allowed the team to maintain contact with the lead teams. After two blistering last laps from each of the guys, they were able to capture 2nd in the Duo category amongst some strong competition. Both Fraser and Nathan were racing the new 2011 Scalpel Ultimate team bikes. Clearly the 8.5kg carbon, full suspension bike proved to be an added advantage with its unrivaled package of confident descending, cat like agility and mountain goat climbing abilities!

Results:

Solo
1st - Sharom Abdullah
18th - Cas Brentjens
DNF - Erdem Ozgul

Duo
2nd - Nathan Baltoski & Fraser Morrison

Photography by Craig Sheppard.