Dohling takes top spot as Singapore cyclocross nationals dazzle
Mike Koreneff hunts Bastian Dohling at the CX nationals (photo: Richard Paine)
January 21, 2019
The sport of cyclocross in Singapore took a giant leap forward yesterday as a bumper field of participants and a big crowd of spectators enjoyed a thrilling afternoon of action as just the second ever CX national champs took place at Kallang Riverside Park.
The big winner of the day at the 2019 OCBC Singapore National CX Championships was Bastian Dohling (Specialized Roval Mavericks) as the German outduelled the Aussie Mike Koreneff (Allied World Treknology3) to claim the men’s elite title after five laps of a fast but punishing course laid out along the banks of the Kallang River. With neither man being Singaporean, the title of national champion went to local cycling legend Junaidi Hashim (Team Awano Treknology), who finished fifth on the day.
Cyclocross made its debut on these shores in January 2015 when a direct descendent to yesterday’s race took place on the Green Corridor. This now annual event organised by Arnold Yeo and his team at Cyclocross Singapore celebrated its fifth birthday with official recognition by the Singapore Cycling Federation as the 2019 national championships.
The other player in trying to create a cyclocross buzz in Singapore has been well-known cycling events outfit Cycosports with its popular Jungle Cross series at Turf City. Indeed, the inaugural CX national champs was held last year on the Jungle Cross circuit, and it too was a great success. But while the 2018 event was tagged onto the cross country mountain bike nationals, cyclocross enjoyed top billing at yesterday’s event.
And the fledgling community responded by turning out in numbers. While some 45 registrants for the cyclocross race card might not sound like a big figure, it’s by far the largest number so far to assemble for a CX race on these shores.
The sport of cyclocross in Singapore took a giant leap forward yesterday as a bumper field of participants and a big crowd of spectators enjoyed a thrilling afternoon of action as just the second ever CX national champs took place at Kallang Riverside Park.
The big winner of the day at the 2019 OCBC Singapore National CX Championships was Bastian Dohling (Specialized Roval Mavericks) as the German outduelled the Aussie Mike Koreneff (Allied World Treknology3) to claim the men’s elite title after five laps of a fast but punishing course laid out along the banks of the Kallang River. With neither man being Singaporean, the title of national champion went to local cycling legend Junaidi Hashim (Team Awano Treknology), who finished fifth on the day.
Cyclocross made its debut on these shores in January 2015 when a direct descendent to yesterday’s race took place on the Green Corridor. This now annual event organised by Arnold Yeo and his team at Cyclocross Singapore celebrated its fifth birthday with official recognition by the Singapore Cycling Federation as the 2019 national championships.
The other player in trying to create a cyclocross buzz in Singapore has been well-known cycling events outfit Cycosports with its popular Jungle Cross series at Turf City. Indeed, the inaugural CX national champs was held last year on the Jungle Cross circuit, and it too was a great success. But while the 2018 event was tagged onto the cross country mountain bike nationals, cyclocross enjoyed top billing at yesterday’s event.
And the fledgling community responded by turning out in numbers. While some 45 registrants for the cyclocross race card might not sound like a big figure, it’s by far the largest number so far to assemble for a CX race on these shores.
The snail feature can see multiple riders just metres away from each other but have vast racing distances between them
The event actually kicked off in the morning with an undercard including a MTB/Fat Bike contest and a number of novelty races such as the Bike and Beer Challenge, while a kids strider circuit was also set up on the sidelines of the main CX circuit. This all helped to ensure there was already a festive atmosphere at the race village by the time the cyclocross contestants started to arrive for the headline events in the afternoon.
A classically Euro-style CX course was laid out along the banks of the river. The roughly 2km long circuit was basically flat, but it contained a variety of surfaces to test the participants, including roots, ruts, thick grass, potholes and of course heavy mud. There were also barriers, short slopes and a mini flight of stairs to make sure the racers had to get off their bikes a few times, but the star of the show was probably the snail. The riders hit the taped-off, leg-sapping, grassy spiral near the start of each lap and its clever in-and-out design meant that even when the field was stretched out, there were many riders negotiating it at the same time, creating a real spectacle for the crowd.
Three separate CX contests for Juniors, Women and the 45+ men acted as a warm-up for the men’s elite racers, so the muddy sections of the course were nicely churned up by the time they lined up on the start grid. Joining Dohling, Koreneff and Junaidi under the gantry awaiting the flag off were notable names such as road star Pierre-Alain Scherwey (Allied World Treknology3) and 2018 national CX champ Bin Chye Tan, as well as cyclocross specialists Andrew Fang and Ken Cashon.
A classically Euro-style CX course was laid out along the banks of the river. The roughly 2km long circuit was basically flat, but it contained a variety of surfaces to test the participants, including roots, ruts, thick grass, potholes and of course heavy mud. There were also barriers, short slopes and a mini flight of stairs to make sure the racers had to get off their bikes a few times, but the star of the show was probably the snail. The riders hit the taped-off, leg-sapping, grassy spiral near the start of each lap and its clever in-and-out design meant that even when the field was stretched out, there were many riders negotiating it at the same time, creating a real spectacle for the crowd.
Three separate CX contests for Juniors, Women and the 45+ men acted as a warm-up for the men’s elite racers, so the muddy sections of the course were nicely churned up by the time they lined up on the start grid. Joining Dohling, Koreneff and Junaidi under the gantry awaiting the flag off were notable names such as road star Pierre-Alain Scherwey (Allied World Treknology3) and 2018 national CX champ Bin Chye Tan, as well as cyclocross specialists Andrew Fang and Ken Cashon.
And they're off ... the elite men start their epic five-lap battle
As is the case with all cyclocross races, there was a mad sprint straight from the horn as the riders fought to be first into the opening corner. Dohling took that honour yesterday as a 90-degree left-hander delivered the racers straight into a nasty tangle of roots, ruts and mud. The German negotiated that first hurdle with aplomb and by the time he hit the snail he and Mavericks teammate Nol Van Loon had already opened up a sizeable gap on the strung-out field behind. The talk on the sideline was whether they were going to walk away it or had they gone too hard too soon.
It turned out to to be the latter, as leading the chase behind were Scherwey and Koreneff, and the Allied World duo steadily ate into the gap. They were almost within touching distance by the time Dohling and the Dutchman Van Loon crossed the start/finish line at the end of the first lap and it wasn’t long before Koreneff made the junction to the leaders just as Van Loon momentarily faded. This combination of events set the scene for the remainder of the race as Dohling and Koreneff fought for the win and Van Loon and Scherwey battled for the bronze medal. Even after just one lap, these four riders had a huge gap on the rest of the field.
Dohling and Koreneff frequently traded places at the front for the next three laps, but they weren’t exchanging turns, this was a furious battle for supremacy which had the crowd enthralled throughout; the layout of the course meant spectators only had to make short movements to be able to see most of the action.
The glue attaching the two leaders began to stretch midway through the fourth lap as Dohling opened up a slight gap after he powered through the bone-rattling section of ruts and hidden grassy holes that preceded the U-turn into the long straight along the river. The German extended his lead slightly on the banked series of zig-zags and then after negotiating the barriers and stairs better than Koreneff, the gap was up to some 15 seconds by the time he started the final lap.
It turned out to to be the latter, as leading the chase behind were Scherwey and Koreneff, and the Allied World duo steadily ate into the gap. They were almost within touching distance by the time Dohling and the Dutchman Van Loon crossed the start/finish line at the end of the first lap and it wasn’t long before Koreneff made the junction to the leaders just as Van Loon momentarily faded. This combination of events set the scene for the remainder of the race as Dohling and Koreneff fought for the win and Van Loon and Scherwey battled for the bronze medal. Even after just one lap, these four riders had a huge gap on the rest of the field.
Dohling and Koreneff frequently traded places at the front for the next three laps, but they weren’t exchanging turns, this was a furious battle for supremacy which had the crowd enthralled throughout; the layout of the course meant spectators only had to make short movements to be able to see most of the action.
The glue attaching the two leaders began to stretch midway through the fourth lap as Dohling opened up a slight gap after he powered through the bone-rattling section of ruts and hidden grassy holes that preceded the U-turn into the long straight along the river. The German extended his lead slightly on the banked series of zig-zags and then after negotiating the barriers and stairs better than Koreneff, the gap was up to some 15 seconds by the time he started the final lap.
Dohling had a decent gap as he rode in to start the final lap
In cyclocross a lead that small could evaporate with just one misjudged trip through or around one of the obstacles, and so the Allied World man gamely chased on. But Dohling was fired up by the freedom of the lead and he ended up putting another 20 seconds into his rival as he seemed to glide round his final loop of the circuit. The effort left him spent, though, and there was no winning flourish as he took the chequered flag, just a sense of exhausted achievement at what was a hard-fought victory. Dohling’s winning time for his five-lap, 10km anaerobic effort was 36 minutes and 28 seconds.
The gallant Koreneff rolled in half a minute minute behind to clinch the silver medal, leaving the battle for the final podium spot between Scherwey and van Loon. This was also a cracker of a contest with ebbs and flows throughout that contributed hugely to the fantastic spectacle that the elite race was for the crowd. In the end the big Swiss Scherwey proved the strongest of the two, which meant that while the Specialized Roval Mavericks had the top spot on the podium, the winner Dohling was flanked by two men from Allied World.
While Van Loon finished 20 seconds back from Scherwey there was daylight to the rest of the field. But there was still lots to play for behind, with the Singapore national championship and the right to wear the national jersey up for grabs. It was Junaidi that ended up winning that battle to add to the collection of national titles he has amassed over years in road, TT and mountain bike. He beat Fang by 30 seconds yesterday, with Tan a bit further behind.
The gallant Koreneff rolled in half a minute minute behind to clinch the silver medal, leaving the battle for the final podium spot between Scherwey and van Loon. This was also a cracker of a contest with ebbs and flows throughout that contributed hugely to the fantastic spectacle that the elite race was for the crowd. In the end the big Swiss Scherwey proved the strongest of the two, which meant that while the Specialized Roval Mavericks had the top spot on the podium, the winner Dohling was flanked by two men from Allied World.
While Van Loon finished 20 seconds back from Scherwey there was daylight to the rest of the field. But there was still lots to play for behind, with the Singapore national championship and the right to wear the national jersey up for grabs. It was Junaidi that ended up winning that battle to add to the collection of national titles he has amassed over years in road, TT and mountain bike. He beat Fang by 30 seconds yesterday, with Tan a bit further behind.
Pierre-Alain Scherwey pulling away from Nol van Loon in the battle for third place
It seems strange to call Junaidi a rookie, but that’s what he was yesterday, taking part in his first cyclocross race having just borrowed a CX bike the day before the race. The fact that the multi-time MTB national champ even entered the race yesterday is a great thing for the local cyclocross scene and will hopefully encourage more of Singapore’s top mountain bikers to give CX a go.
The win from the charismatic Dohling should also be good for the CX discipline in Singapore, as should the coverage of the race from The Straits Times. Dohling was an exhausted but very happy man post-race yesterday.
“It feels beautiful to have won these fantastic Singapore nationals and it’s a birthday gift to my wife Trudy. It’s her birthday tomorrow,” the smiling champ said as he sat glowing in the Singapore sun with his family.
The win from the charismatic Dohling should also be good for the CX discipline in Singapore, as should the coverage of the race from The Straits Times. Dohling was an exhausted but very happy man post-race yesterday.
“It feels beautiful to have won these fantastic Singapore nationals and it’s a birthday gift to my wife Trudy. It’s her birthday tomorrow,” the smiling champ said as he sat glowing in the Singapore sun with his family.
An unfamiliar look for Junaidi Hashim as he clinches another national title
“It was an amazing course. It was more like the style of cyclocross they have in Europe than we are used to here in Singapore. Very fast, nice obstacles, a little bit of mud, not too technical, so it feels like it’s a very inclusive course and also super spectator friendly ... there were spectators all around the loop. The course also had lots of funs twists and turns, and I really loved the long snail, because you could really keep an eye on the competition. And within the first lap it was already spread out and it was hard racing. So a hard course but not too technical. Perfect,” he said.
Always a competitor, Dohling clearly relished the battle he had with Koreneff.
“During the first few laps Mike and I always met each other in the muddy sections and we both together crashed at the same bits and I was ahead of him and he couldn’t really get through, and then the same happened to me in the next lap when he was ahead of me,” he said. “So it was just really really fun battling it out in the mud, and it was just a matter of who had the most left in the last lap ... and luckily that was me and I managed to just ride away. Can’t wait for the next one!”
In addition to the Men’s Elite, there were a bunch of other CX titles up for grabs yesterday. Slightly disappointingly, there were only four starters in the Women’s wave, which featured a runaway winner over the three-lap contest in the shape of Stephanie Lim (Anza Cycling). The Australian crossing the line some two minutes ahead of Anza teammate Yinxiao Wu, with Lynette Ngo (Team Cycledelic) third over the line. Ngo was crowned the elite national champion, while Wu took the Masters crown.
Always a competitor, Dohling clearly relished the battle he had with Koreneff.
“During the first few laps Mike and I always met each other in the muddy sections and we both together crashed at the same bits and I was ahead of him and he couldn’t really get through, and then the same happened to me in the next lap when he was ahead of me,” he said. “So it was just really really fun battling it out in the mud, and it was just a matter of who had the most left in the last lap ... and luckily that was me and I managed to just ride away. Can’t wait for the next one!”
In addition to the Men’s Elite, there were a bunch of other CX titles up for grabs yesterday. Slightly disappointingly, there were only four starters in the Women’s wave, which featured a runaway winner over the three-lap contest in the shape of Stephanie Lim (Anza Cycling). The Australian crossing the line some two minutes ahead of Anza teammate Yinxiao Wu, with Lynette Ngo (Team Cycledelic) third over the line. Ngo was crowned the elite national champion, while Wu took the Masters crown.
Stephanie Lim was the fastest women, while Lynette Ngo took the elite national title
The fastest of the non-elite male racers was Wilfred Diepeveen (Specialized Roval Mavericks) racing in the 30-34 category. He raced in a Masters wave comprising all the 30-44 year-old riders, with three sub-categories being awarded in line with new UCI regulations. The Dutchman covered his three laps in 23:02, which was almost three minutes faster than the next man over the line, Sebastian Teo (Rapha CC). Another Rapha rider Kiryl Martsinkevich took third place in the wave.
In the sub-cats, Diepeveen was joined on the 30-44 podium by Martsinkevich. In the 35-39 contest, the winner was Czar Jay Pulido, with the runner-up in that category and new national champ Hanafi Bar.
The Singaporean Teo not only won the 40-44 cat, he also took the national title and red-and-white champ’s jersey. Will Price and Firdaus Mahzah joined him on the podium in second and third respectively.
Directly before the elites and and the younger age group racers, the SuperMasters took to the circuit for three laps of action, with the field again split into five-year sub-categories. Hish Scarff (Allied World Treknology3) proved to be the strongest rider in this field, crossing the line some 30 seconds ahead of Stephen Ames (Specialized Roval Mavericks), with another Maverick, Alan Grant, just pipping his fellow Scotsman Donald McDonald (Allied World Treknology3) for third.
In the sub-cats, Diepeveen was joined on the 30-44 podium by Martsinkevich. In the 35-39 contest, the winner was Czar Jay Pulido, with the runner-up in that category and new national champ Hanafi Bar.
The Singaporean Teo not only won the 40-44 cat, he also took the national title and red-and-white champ’s jersey. Will Price and Firdaus Mahzah joined him on the podium in second and third respectively.
Directly before the elites and and the younger age group racers, the SuperMasters took to the circuit for three laps of action, with the field again split into five-year sub-categories. Hish Scarff (Allied World Treknology3) proved to be the strongest rider in this field, crossing the line some 30 seconds ahead of Stephen Ames (Specialized Roval Mavericks), with another Maverick, Alan Grant, just pipping his fellow Scotsman Donald McDonald (Allied World Treknology3) for third.
Sebastian Teo enjoying the barriers as he closes in on the 40-44 masters category national title
Broken down into the sub-cats, Scarff took the 45-49 title from McDonald and Brandon Lee. Fourth placed finisher Siong Hing was crowned the division national champion. Ames stood atop the 50-54 podium, where he was joined by Grant and the third-placed rider Dennis Tan, whose efforts earned him the national title. Alistair George won the 55-59 race.
Cyclocross will hopefully keep growing from yesterday’s breakout experience, but for the CX discipline to realise its full potential it perhaps needs two things to happen: yesterday’s organisers Cyclocross Singapore (put in url) should consider putting on more events as both the nationals and the X Rally road/off-road hybrid event they staged in August last year were well organised, well attended and well received ... so more please Arnold!
The other key element for a thriving local cyclocross scene is that more CX riders need to sign up for and support the Jungle Cross series. If only half of the 40+ people who registered for yesterday’s nationals also sign up for the next Jungle Cross CX event on February 10, it will be the biggest field the CX series will ever have drawn (go to www.cycosports.com for details). Let’s get the whole community together and make sure CX continues to grow.
Cyclocross will hopefully keep growing from yesterday’s breakout experience, but for the CX discipline to realise its full potential it perhaps needs two things to happen: yesterday’s organisers Cyclocross Singapore (put in url) should consider putting on more events as both the nationals and the X Rally road/off-road hybrid event they staged in August last year were well organised, well attended and well received ... so more please Arnold!
The other key element for a thriving local cyclocross scene is that more CX riders need to sign up for and support the Jungle Cross series. If only half of the 40+ people who registered for yesterday’s nationals also sign up for the next Jungle Cross CX event on February 10, it will be the biggest field the CX series will ever have drawn (go to www.cycosports.com for details). Let’s get the whole community together and make sure CX continues to grow.