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Gold glimmers at opening day of racing at Mt Buller

Mar 13, 2025

The first gold medals of the 2025 GWM Mountain Bike National Championships went on the line today in three cross-country races through the demanding Mt Buller terrain. 

Riders in the XC adaptive, e-bike and team relay took centre stage around a mixture of the XCC and XCO courses. 

Riders head out for the e-bike

In the team relay a club champion was also crowned for the first time in the Open and Junior categories as well as the overall race winners.   

Connor Wright, Zoe Cuthbert, Rohin Adam and Harry Doye went out to defend their title from 2024.  

Wright put the team in a strong position on lap one after posting the fastest lap of the race and putting a seven second gap into his nearest rival. 

Cuthbert extended the lead even further with two laps remaining. 

That left Adams and then Doye to wrap up the win and collect back-to-back gold medals. 

“Really happy to start the weekend off with a win for all of us,” Wright commented post-race. 

“I find it makes the racing a little more special probably my favourite race I get to do. 

 “You get to race with categories you normally wouldn’t get to race with, and I think that’s a really valuable opportunity,” the Canberra rider said. 

Zoe Cuthbert on her way to winning the team relay

The third placed team from the Southern Highlands claimed the club champion title. 

In the junior race Sylvia Dagg, Jock Barwick, Benjamin Shaw and Monty Manion won the gold medal while the Perth Mountain Bike Club took home the inaugural club trophy. 

A junior category was added to the event for the first time in 2025

In the e-bike, after a silver last year, Shannon Johnson put in a dominant performance to win gold the elite men. 

After eight laps of the XCO course, the St Kilda Cycling Club member finished with just over 50 per cent left on his battery. 

Shannon Johnson won the men's e-bike

“I don’t care what anyone says that’s really freaking hard on an e-bike for eight laps,” he said. 

“I was actually cramping as an e-bike is quite heavy to hop over logs and so need to control that cause I’ve got two more pedal bike races this week.” 

Jess Hoskin claimed her third straight elite women’s e-bike national title with a seven-minute win over Connor Mielke after five laps. 

“I just tried to ride as consistently as possible to the finish line,” the Queenslander said. 

In the adaptive race Glenn Clarke and Ashlee Morton took on two laps of the XCC course to win their respective categories. 

Ashlee Morton racing in the XC adaptive race at Mt Buller

RESULTS 

XCR - Open 

  1. Connor Wright, Zoe Cuthbert, Rohin Adam, Harry Doye 
  1. Brent Rees, Finn Slide, Charli Edwick, Andrew Low 
  1. Harry Greenfield, Adam Cooper, April Foster, Scott Wines 

XCR – Junior 

  1. Benjamin Shaw, Sylvia Dagg, Jock Barwick, Monty Manion 
  1. Travis Wardle, Jacob Coodacre, Jessica Wardle, Alexander Terrell 
  1. Oli Lorraine, Adam Gale, Nina Garden, Corey Larson 

E-Bike Men

  1. Shannon Johnson 
  1. Marty Broman 
  1. Scott Farrar 

E-Bike Women

  1. Jess Hoskin 
  1. Connor Mielke 

Adaptive XC Men

  1. Glen Clarke 

Adaptive XC Women

  1. Ashlee Morgan 

Full results can be round here 

Photo Credit: Matt Rousu Photography