Hat-trick heroics wheelie pleasing
To win as many as they have now, it’s pretty nice ALEX HUNT
EXPERIENCED bush basher Alex Hunt is over the moon at winning his third consecutive Freycinet Challenge on the state’s East Coast yesterday, while Georgia Nesbitt claimed the women’s title on debut.
Hunt, 26, of Hobart, dreamt of winning just one Freycinet Challenge, which is also the Australian championship of multi-sport racing. Now he has a three-peat. “It’s pretty cool,” Hunt said. “When I started out, I was racing guys like Kris Clauson and Jarod Kohler, and I think they’d won three or four each.
“I was like, ‘it would be pretty nice to win one someday’, not expecting to do it.
“To win as many as they have now, it’s pretty nice.”
Hunt led the two day runcycle-paddle-mountain bike race after day one with a 36m39s lead over his brother Robbie Hunt heading into day two.
Alex put the writing on the wall early with a scintillating paddle in mirror conditions and then gradually built the buffer on the cycle and mountain bike, and drove it home on the run to the finish.
“I paddled pretty hard and only got caught by one team paddler just before the finish – we were five minutes ahead at that point,” Hunt said.
“Then we went into the time-trial [road cycle] which I wasn’t overly pleased with but I got the job done.
“I had a bit of a lead into the mountain bike so I just rode steady and conservatively.
“Then I ran pretty hard toward the end.”
World championship rower Nesbitt, 25, of Hobart, made a successful debut as an individual multi-sport competitor, winning the women’s event after a titanic battle on day two.
Nesbitt started the second day with a commanding 35m45s lead over the only other women’s individual entrant, Nikki Hall.
However, Hall made a huge surge and when Nesbitt had a puncture on the mountain bike stage, the pair came together and entered the final transition side-by-side.
Nesbitt showed her class by kicking away on the 9.5km run to take the title.