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Australians, Jason English and Jessica Douglas victorious at 2012 WEMBO 24 hour solo World Championships

Published Date

Written by Una McKay

Jason English and Jessica Douglas became the first WEMBO 24 hour solo mountain bike racing world champions in the toughest single day race in the world.

In the mens race, the Australian champion English completed 22 laps of the challenging course to take the win, Jessica Douglas tackled Rickie Cotter (UK) to take the womens title.

In early running Thomas Widhalm (Austria) looked like he was going to push all the way for the victory, but after losing time to a mechanical just before sunset, his misery was compounded by a stomach complaint which took him out of the race. Before Widhalm succumbed to illness, English had already began to mark his dominance. While Widhalm was dealing with his mechanical yesterday evening, English put in two blistering laps to pull out a sizeable lead going into the night. By the time racing finished at 13.00 he had completed 22 laps – an incredible 396km in 24 hours. Through the night England’s Jason Miles put in a heroic performance to rise through the field to take second place. A consistent ride from Craig Bowles (UK) was good enough for the third step of the podium.

With the women it was a two-horse race and in early running Rickie Cotter pushed Jessica Douglas hard. As the sun began to dip below the horizon Douglas had begun to stretch out a small lead and as the night wore on she extended it little by little. By the morning she had extended it to 1 lap and Cotter couldn’t close in. Silvia Müller put in a strong ride for third place.

(English in action and Douglas on top of the podium at WEMBO 24 hour, Photos courtesy of Russell Baker)

Results found here with video footage.

Report from WEMBO media.

Australian National 24hr Solo article and photos courtesy of Russell Baker.

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