Hogarth wins opening stage at Mawson Marathon

At 7:30 am sharp, the stage riders lined up for the start of the inaugural Kona Mawson MTB Marathon. After a mandatory gear check and a warm welcome from the Blinman Community, all 20 residents of them, the flag went down...and the race began.

The first 18km of the race was on fast bitumen. As the group left the staging area in Blinman, the riders split up almost immediately; leaving a group of six riders took the lead down to the first turn-off. The leading group would ultimately account for the first six places in the results.

The Mawson Trail is an amazing historic trail offering variety of dirt roads, the dry creek crossing, some groovy singletrack mixed with open paddocks with magnificent million-year-old stone formation in the background. The first stage is definitely a smorgasboard of it all, causing the lead group of six riders to break up very early on.

As the lead pack splintered, Torq rider Robbie Hucker took the lead and didn't let go until he crossed the finish line in Rawnsley Park. Second in line was Ben Hogarth (Giant) following at 4:19, while Andrew Mock took third place. Dean Jones came in fourth, followed by Evan James (Giant), Dyon Balding, John Allison and Robin Tullett (Kona) to finish the top eight.

Eight riders also took part in the Triple Peaks Challenge; a challenge that has you leaving your bike behind and climb three of the iconic peaks in the Flinders Ranges; St Mary, Devils Peak and Mt Remarkable. Leaving from Wilpena, they raced up to the peak and back down on foot, to then continue their journey on the mountain bike to the finish.

The camp is set up in Rawnsley park, looking over the Wilpena Ranges and we set out to Hawker tomorrow for another 93km of fun-loving track.

Stage 1 and GC Results