Riyadh, Luqmanul claim wins but runners make mark too as 2020 Jungle Cross debuts
February 10, 2020
Singapore's premier off-road cycling series, the Cycosports Jungle Cross, kicked off its fifth full season yesterday at the Centaurs Sports Park and while the main headlines go to the familiar names of Riyadh Hakim Lukman (JD Development Project) and Luqmanul Hakim Othman (Team Harding) for the dominating fashion in which they won the Men's Open Mountain Biking and Cyclocross titles respectively, perhaps the most significant news coming out of the Turf City venue was the inclusion on the race card of the first-ever Jungle Cross Trail Run.
As well as the addition of the trail run race, the 2020 opener also marked a new era for the series in that yesterday’s edition enjoyed significant sponsorship support from a number of local companies, including Pure Sports Nutrition, Entro Cycles, Attitude Bikes, 101Caffe, TS Chain Lubricant, D’grease Solution and Hygiene Hub, the last of which in supplied a portable hand sanitizer station, a quite welcome enhancement given the current climate.
Most of the 50-odd runners who gathered for registration in the dark at the Centaurs Sports Park had no idea of the treat that lay ahead. There have been occasional running events in the small jungled ravine that sits at the heart of what used to be Singapore's horse racing venue, but none that enjoyed the full scope of the expanded cycling circuit, which has slowly evolved over the past five years; the first Jungle Cross race in November 2015 took place on a 2km loop that had been roughly hacked out of the jungle, while today's course covers 4.5km of lovingly crafted trails.
The lucky inaugural Jungle Cross runners were flagged off at first light and ahead lay two laps of the circuit. Like all running races, it was a fast start as the competitors tore round the opening 300-metre grass field section of the course that leads into the jungle. Once entering what is mostly single-track trail the runners strung out and at the front of that string was the young Frenchman Louis Domart (MR25). He quickly began to open up a gap and only the trio of Jon Kelly, Paul Peharpre and Martin Boo could keep him in sight eve early in the race. As well as rising up and down over a series of short, sharp hills and drop-offs, the 4.5km loop constantly turns back on itself as the racing track maximises the space available. This allows the competitors to keep an eye on each other, even if the view is somewhat obscured by the thick foliage. So Domart could see that his lead on the chasers was slowly growing.
Singapore's premier off-road cycling series, the Cycosports Jungle Cross, kicked off its fifth full season yesterday at the Centaurs Sports Park and while the main headlines go to the familiar names of Riyadh Hakim Lukman (JD Development Project) and Luqmanul Hakim Othman (Team Harding) for the dominating fashion in which they won the Men's Open Mountain Biking and Cyclocross titles respectively, perhaps the most significant news coming out of the Turf City venue was the inclusion on the race card of the first-ever Jungle Cross Trail Run.
As well as the addition of the trail run race, the 2020 opener also marked a new era for the series in that yesterday’s edition enjoyed significant sponsorship support from a number of local companies, including Pure Sports Nutrition, Entro Cycles, Attitude Bikes, 101Caffe, TS Chain Lubricant, D’grease Solution and Hygiene Hub, the last of which in supplied a portable hand sanitizer station, a quite welcome enhancement given the current climate.
Most of the 50-odd runners who gathered for registration in the dark at the Centaurs Sports Park had no idea of the treat that lay ahead. There have been occasional running events in the small jungled ravine that sits at the heart of what used to be Singapore's horse racing venue, but none that enjoyed the full scope of the expanded cycling circuit, which has slowly evolved over the past five years; the first Jungle Cross race in November 2015 took place on a 2km loop that had been roughly hacked out of the jungle, while today's course covers 4.5km of lovingly crafted trails.
The lucky inaugural Jungle Cross runners were flagged off at first light and ahead lay two laps of the circuit. Like all running races, it was a fast start as the competitors tore round the opening 300-metre grass field section of the course that leads into the jungle. Once entering what is mostly single-track trail the runners strung out and at the front of that string was the young Frenchman Louis Domart (MR25). He quickly began to open up a gap and only the trio of Jon Kelly, Paul Peharpre and Martin Boo could keep him in sight eve early in the race. As well as rising up and down over a series of short, sharp hills and drop-offs, the 4.5km loop constantly turns back on itself as the racing track maximises the space available. This allows the competitors to keep an eye on each other, even if the view is somewhat obscured by the thick foliage. So Domart could see that his lead on the chasers was slowly growing.
Men's Trail Run champ Louis Domart (photo: Cycosports)
By the end of the first lap that lead was some 30 seconds over Kelly, and Domart showed no signs of slowing on the second lap, which he attacked with even greater gusto now that he knew what lay ahead. That and the power of youth and bravado was shown by his achieving the always-desired negative splits as he powered his way to victory in a time of 43 minutes dead. The winning margin was just over the minute mark from Kelly, while there was a perhaps contrived and friendly dead heat for third between the Raid Essec pair of Peharpre and Boo, who finished a further two minutes back.
Among the 50-strong field was a healthy contingent of 17 women runners, and it looked like there was going to be another runaway winner as a Miss Murphy stormed round the first lap in a second over 25 minutes. This gave her an almost three-minute lead on the compact chasing trio of Aimee Pink (Run4All Neath), Catriona Lindsey-Renton and Delia Toledo. But the Jungle Cross course isn't to be taken lightly, especially by those who haven’t seen it before, and Murphy paid for those first-half efforts as she faded significantly on the second lap. Indeed, both Lindsey-Renton and Toledo also went quite a bit slower second time around, but like her male counterpart Domart, Pink still had plenty of gas in the tank and she too ran negative splits as she took the chequered flag with 55 minutes and 8 seconds showing on the clock. Lindsey-Renton was the runner-up, some two-and-a-half minutes later, while Toledo pipped Murphy on the line to grab the final spot on the podium.
The feedback from the runners was overwhelmingly positive, even if most of them didn't expect the course to be quite so hard. Among the fans of the trail and the event was the men's winner Domart.
Among the 50-strong field was a healthy contingent of 17 women runners, and it looked like there was going to be another runaway winner as a Miss Murphy stormed round the first lap in a second over 25 minutes. This gave her an almost three-minute lead on the compact chasing trio of Aimee Pink (Run4All Neath), Catriona Lindsey-Renton and Delia Toledo. But the Jungle Cross course isn't to be taken lightly, especially by those who haven’t seen it before, and Murphy paid for those first-half efforts as she faded significantly on the second lap. Indeed, both Lindsey-Renton and Toledo also went quite a bit slower second time around, but like her male counterpart Domart, Pink still had plenty of gas in the tank and she too ran negative splits as she took the chequered flag with 55 minutes and 8 seconds showing on the clock. Lindsey-Renton was the runner-up, some two-and-a-half minutes later, while Toledo pipped Murphy on the line to grab the final spot on the podium.
The feedback from the runners was overwhelmingly positive, even if most of them didn't expect the course to be quite so hard. Among the fans of the trail and the event was the men's winner Domart.
Aimee Pink and her fellow Trail Run podium placers
“It feels great to have won this event. It started off pretty quick but then in the first kilometre I got in the lead and from there I was pretty confident I was going to win, basically. But I still pushed myself all the way, always push yourself!” said Domart, who is currently studying in the 11th grade at the French International School in Singapore.
“I didn’t know this trail existed. I usually run at MacRitchie Reservoir or Bukit Timah, so that’s the first time that I ran in here and it was really, really nice. Very technical but flowy and like rolling hills. It’s the kind of trail that you don’t usually get in Singapore. I’m really glad that I ran in the first Jungle Cross,” he said.
Would Domart recommend the Jungle Cross Trail Run to his teammates from the famous MR25 club and other runners?
“Yes, sure, come to the next race, come here and have fun and enjoy the great trail,” he said.
With the running done and dusted it was time for the cyclists to regain their trail. The first batch of races saw the Cyclocross, Men’s MTB Sport and Junior MTB (aged 13-17) riders compete. The Cyclocross contest attracted a field of 15 riders, and while that might not seem like a big number, it represents the largest field yet for what is still a niche sport in Singapore. And encouragingly, a significant number of CX riders who would usually have taken part were absent for a variety of reasons, so newcomers are being attracted to the discipline. One of those was Luqmanul Hakim Othman, although you wouldn’t have known it by the way he raced.
“I didn’t know this trail existed. I usually run at MacRitchie Reservoir or Bukit Timah, so that’s the first time that I ran in here and it was really, really nice. Very technical but flowy and like rolling hills. It’s the kind of trail that you don’t usually get in Singapore. I’m really glad that I ran in the first Jungle Cross,” he said.
Would Domart recommend the Jungle Cross Trail Run to his teammates from the famous MR25 club and other runners?
“Yes, sure, come to the next race, come here and have fun and enjoy the great trail,” he said.
With the running done and dusted it was time for the cyclists to regain their trail. The first batch of races saw the Cyclocross, Men’s MTB Sport and Junior MTB (aged 13-17) riders compete. The Cyclocross contest attracted a field of 15 riders, and while that might not seem like a big number, it represents the largest field yet for what is still a niche sport in Singapore. And encouragingly, a significant number of CX riders who would usually have taken part were absent for a variety of reasons, so newcomers are being attracted to the discipline. One of those was Luqmanul Hakim Othman, although you wouldn’t have known it by the way he raced.
Bastian Dohling and Alistair Reed were glued together for seven out of eight CX laps
An accomplished mountain biker and roadie who has represented Singapore in both disciplines, it was no surprise that Luqmanul turned out to be competitive in cyclocross, but it’s doubtful that anybody in attendance would have predicted the dominating fashion in which the Team Harding rider won the race. Incredibly, he had already opened up a gap of 30 seconds over the experienced CX duo of Alistair Reed (CyclingTraining.cc) and Bastian Dohling (Specialized Roval Mavericks) after just one of the eight laps of the 1.4km CX circuit. And he didn’t slow down. Indeed, by the halfway mark he had lapped everybody bar Reed and Dohling, who were enjoying a fascinating battle for second place.
Armed with a big lead, Luqmanul, even took to entertaining the crowd with his skills as each time he reached the grassy section in front of the race village area, he was bunny-hopping the obstacles intended to make the racers dismount. Only a mechanical or puncture, which happen all too often in CX racing, could have stopped him, and with luck staying on his side, he crossed the finish line in a time of 50 minutes and 43 seconds, a full five-and-a-half minutes ahead of the rest. Multiple Jungle Cross CX winner and current series champion Dohling ultimately won the battle for second, with Reed in third. Stephanie Lim (Anza Cycling) was the women’s champion.
It was an ebullient Luqmanul spoke to us after post-race as we put it to him that he made it look easy.
“I don’t know. It was very hard actually, I’m quite tired. The trail was quite sluggish for the grassy part. In the single track, it was my first time actually, so it was quite bumpy, I’m having blisters on my thumbs already, so it was a culture shock for me, it was my first time racing cyclocross,” said Luqmanul, who also revealed that he hadn’t been doing any CX specific training.
Armed with a big lead, Luqmanul, even took to entertaining the crowd with his skills as each time he reached the grassy section in front of the race village area, he was bunny-hopping the obstacles intended to make the racers dismount. Only a mechanical or puncture, which happen all too often in CX racing, could have stopped him, and with luck staying on his side, he crossed the finish line in a time of 50 minutes and 43 seconds, a full five-and-a-half minutes ahead of the rest. Multiple Jungle Cross CX winner and current series champion Dohling ultimately won the battle for second, with Reed in third. Stephanie Lim (Anza Cycling) was the women’s champion.
It was an ebullient Luqmanul spoke to us after post-race as we put it to him that he made it look easy.
“I don’t know. It was very hard actually, I’m quite tired. The trail was quite sluggish for the grassy part. In the single track, it was my first time actually, so it was quite bumpy, I’m having blisters on my thumbs already, so it was a culture shock for me, it was my first time racing cyclocross,” said Luqmanul, who also revealed that he hadn’t been doing any CX specific training.
Cycosports might have to put out higher barriers to stop Luqmanul Hakim Othman
“I’ve just doing intervals. I’ve been busy studying for my diploma. Maybe once a week I’ve been trying to jump the road curbs for training,” he said. “But I actually nearly made a fool of myself at the first jump. But then I got the hang of it and found my centre of gravity. It was a fun race, a good challenge.”
“I think cyclocross is definitely harder because you need much more technical versatility, you need to take calculated risks and sometimes it’s just pure luck. What I was afraid of was puncturing as I wasn’t running tubeless, I’m using tubes and I was running quite high PSI. So, the next race I’ll try to ride tubeless, it’ll be wiser you see.”
Pity the rest of the CX racing community if Luqmanul finds a way to go even faster!
Sharing part of the Jungle Cross course with the cyclocross riders were the mountain bikers racing in the Juniors and Men’s Sports categories. The former featured a ding-dong battle between Team Harding teammates Pedro Hutchison and Mohammed Syaheed Ismail. The pair of talented teenagers couldn’t be separated over the first two laps of their three-lap contest on the Pro course, but Hutchison managed to pull away for a clear victory during the last time round the circuit. His winning time of 45:36 gave him a 90-second victory over his teammate. Ilhan Md Redzuan (Twenty9er Racing Team) rounded out the podium in third.
The Men’s Sports race saw a tight race from start to finish between Rey-De Barros and Mohamed Nasri Ismail (Speed Singapore Racing), with Barros edging it with a powerful run in on the finale. Mohamad Isa Sham (Twenty9er Racing Team) took the last spot on the podium.
“I think cyclocross is definitely harder because you need much more technical versatility, you need to take calculated risks and sometimes it’s just pure luck. What I was afraid of was puncturing as I wasn’t running tubeless, I’m using tubes and I was running quite high PSI. So, the next race I’ll try to ride tubeless, it’ll be wiser you see.”
Pity the rest of the CX racing community if Luqmanul finds a way to go even faster!
Sharing part of the Jungle Cross course with the cyclocross riders were the mountain bikers racing in the Juniors and Men’s Sports categories. The former featured a ding-dong battle between Team Harding teammates Pedro Hutchison and Mohammed Syaheed Ismail. The pair of talented teenagers couldn’t be separated over the first two laps of their three-lap contest on the Pro course, but Hutchison managed to pull away for a clear victory during the last time round the circuit. His winning time of 45:36 gave him a 90-second victory over his teammate. Ilhan Md Redzuan (Twenty9er Racing Team) rounded out the podium in third.
The Men’s Sports race saw a tight race from start to finish between Rey-De Barros and Mohamed Nasri Ismail (Speed Singapore Racing), with Barros edging it with a powerful run in on the finale. Mohamad Isa Sham (Twenty9er Racing Team) took the last spot on the podium.
Promising youngsters Mohammed Syaheed Ismail and Pedro Hutchison doing battle down in the jungle
Round #2 of the cycling racing saw the MTB SuperMasters (aged 40-49), Veterans (50+) and All Mountain riders on the Pro course for three laps of the circuit. The Men’s SuperMasters race featured the biggest single-gender cycling field of the day with 18 competitors and it duly produced some fine racing. At the head from almost the start to finish was Frederic Schaaf (Swiss Club MTB Riders). He put in consistently faster laps than everybody else on his way to a clear victory in a time of 44:48, but behind there was a good battle for the minor placings among of cluster of riders. When the dust had settled in that affair, it was David Strooper (Matador Racing) who took the silver medal but nearly two minutes behind Schaaf. Third place went to Faizal Rawi (Twenty9er Racing Team) another 45 seconds back.
The Men’s Veterans saw another frontrunner claim the title as Max Nanni (Cannasia) held off his teammate Kelvin Blacklock by 23 seconds to earn the gold medal with a mark of 48:37. Michael Winter (Swiss Club MTB Riders) overcame a sizeable deficit on the final lap to pip Henrik Pedersen (Specialized Roval Mavericks) for the right to join Nanni and Blacklock on the podium.
The Women’s SuperMasters crown went to Shirley Teo (Matador Racing) from Sybil Foo (Team Trail+) and Jesslyn Chua. Louise Donaldson took the Women’s Veterans title.
The All Mountain race for those riding long-travel bikes was a two-horse affair between Anza Cycling pair William Patterson and Janus Dalsgaard, with the former taking home the title and intra-team bragging rights thanks to his fine winning time of 48:27. Chee Keong Ng rounded out the podium in third.
The Men’s Veterans saw another frontrunner claim the title as Max Nanni (Cannasia) held off his teammate Kelvin Blacklock by 23 seconds to earn the gold medal with a mark of 48:37. Michael Winter (Swiss Club MTB Riders) overcame a sizeable deficit on the final lap to pip Henrik Pedersen (Specialized Roval Mavericks) for the right to join Nanni and Blacklock on the podium.
The Women’s SuperMasters crown went to Shirley Teo (Matador Racing) from Sybil Foo (Team Trail+) and Jesslyn Chua. Louise Donaldson took the Women’s Veterans title.
The All Mountain race for those riding long-travel bikes was a two-horse affair between Anza Cycling pair William Patterson and Janus Dalsgaard, with the former taking home the title and intra-team bragging rights thanks to his fine winning time of 48:27. Chee Keong Ng rounded out the podium in third.
The Men's Veterans podium, topped by Max Nanni
Last but not least to take to the Pro course for four laps of the circuit were the Men’s Open, Men’s Masters (aged 30-39) and Women’s Open racers. An epic battle between an in-form Riyadh Hakim (JD Development Project) and reigning Jungle Cross series champion Anthony Brown (Cannasia) was hoped for, but young Riyadh fresh from some good performances at the Asian Cycling Championships (ACC) the previous week in Thailand had other thoughts. The youngster shot out the gates and had gapped Brown even before they hit the jungle section of the course. Once in the heavily-wooded ravine he pressed his advantage on to produce a scintillating opening lap time of 13:19, which was a full 45 seconds faster than Brown’s not-too-shabby effort. Both riders slowed slightly on lap two, but Riyadh padded his lead by another 30 seconds. The youngster couldn’t afford to ease off, though, given Brown’s strength and staying power, so he pressed on, putting in another two fast laps. Brown actually went a tad quicker over the final two circuits but it was too little, too late, as Riyadh took a comfortable victory by a margin of 63 seconds in a time of 56 minutes flat. They were joined on the podium by the third-placed rider Yong Liang Mun (Team Trail+).
Men's Open champ Riyadh Hakim in the zone
It was a sweet triumph for the multiple Singapore national champion to get back on the top step of the Jungle Cross podium after a barren 2019. He was clearly delighted post-race.
“I had good form coming into this first Jungle Cross of the season, I trained really hard for the ACC and I’m really, really pleased with my performance there, I managed to fight with the big boys, I was in the mix,” said Riyadh.
“So, I came into this Jungle Cross and I just tried to give it my all today. It’s quite a short race, just four laps, so I actually tried to make a big gap at the start, tried to run away from Anthony, get as far away as I could,” he said. “But I could feel Anthony coming, breathing down my neck. I don’t know how far behind he was but I could just feel him chasing after me.
“I really enjoyed the trail, very smooth, very dry. It could maybe do with a bit of rain, but overall really, really loving the track, the flow is really amazing.”
“I had good form coming into this first Jungle Cross of the season, I trained really hard for the ACC and I’m really, really pleased with my performance there, I managed to fight with the big boys, I was in the mix,” said Riyadh.
“So, I came into this Jungle Cross and I just tried to give it my all today. It’s quite a short race, just four laps, so I actually tried to make a big gap at the start, tried to run away from Anthony, get as far away as I could,” he said. “But I could feel Anthony coming, breathing down my neck. I don’t know how far behind he was but I could just feel him chasing after me.
“I really enjoyed the trail, very smooth, very dry. It could maybe do with a bit of rain, but overall really, really loving the track, the flow is really amazing.”
Lars Droste making a winning return to the trails
The Men’s Masters contest saw the return to racing of a former leading of the local mountain biking scene, Lars Droste (Cannasia), after a few years off the bike. The German showed he hasn’t lost much as he put on a masterly performance to take a dominant win in a time of 1 hour and 21 seconds, which would have been good enough for third place in the Men’s Open race. Second and long way behind Droste was Guillaume Causse (Specialized Roval Mavericks), with Ashley Tay (Team Attitude Bikes) rounding out the podium.
There was another dominant performance in the Women’s Open race, as Andrea Trinder (Anza Cycling) took the win from Esther Koh.
And so concluded another successful edition of Jungle Cross, with the event well attended despite the current concerns surrounding the Wuhan coronavirus. Cycosports chief Kent McCallum was certainly happy with how the day went.
“It’s terrific that local businesses have stepped forward to help in sponsoring prices for races and the overall points series for 2020,” McCallum said. “And we hope to attract more spectators to future events with supporting sponsors, for example the Wahoo demo provided by Entro Cycles yesterday.”
Jungle Cross II is scheduled to take place in April, Easter Sunday the date tentatively on the calendar. The trail runners will be back after yesterday’s successful debut. Keep an eye on the Cycosports website at www.cycosports.com for updates, and full results from yesterday’s racing can also be found there.
There was another dominant performance in the Women’s Open race, as Andrea Trinder (Anza Cycling) took the win from Esther Koh.
And so concluded another successful edition of Jungle Cross, with the event well attended despite the current concerns surrounding the Wuhan coronavirus. Cycosports chief Kent McCallum was certainly happy with how the day went.
“It’s terrific that local businesses have stepped forward to help in sponsoring prices for races and the overall points series for 2020,” McCallum said. “And we hope to attract more spectators to future events with supporting sponsors, for example the Wahoo demo provided by Entro Cycles yesterday.”
Jungle Cross II is scheduled to take place in April, Easter Sunday the date tentatively on the calendar. The trail runners will be back after yesterday’s successful debut. Keep an eye on the Cycosports website at www.cycosports.com for updates, and full results from yesterday’s racing can also be found there.