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Features | General | Team Reports
Jones Lang LaSalle Challenge 1999
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What do elite skiers do when they stop skiing? Anthony Evans isn't the first to get into multi-sport endurance events. 1988 Winter Olympian Dave Hislop was reknowned for his participation in these sort of things, and more recently Alina McMaster and Tom Landon-Smith have been out there abusing their bodies in all sorts of events. On the last weekend of May, Anthony, Alina and Tom got their crews and equipment together and headed to the Blue Moutains for the inaugural Jones Lang LaSalle Challenge.
The Jones Lang LaSalle Challenge is the Sydney version of what has been known as the JLW - the multi-sport event from Mt Buller to Melbourne. W out, L in, though organisers were keen to point out that they preferred the full new name to JLL. A quick event summary: Starting at Katoomba, 21km mountain run, 51km mountain bike, 30km paddle on the first day, 49km road ride, 12km paddle, and a 17km run on the second day, ending at Observatory Hill at the end of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. A field of 71 individuals set off for the first run leg, with maybe 30 or 40 teams mixed in for good measure. The race favourite - John Jakoby
Official Results index page - Including full results and press releases by Barry White What to do for the summer - Anthony's lead up story The race press releases tell you who won and by how much, but not really what happened in the race. Read on below for a more detailed if slightly incomplete blow by blow race description.
Anthony went out hard, and broke up the field quite early. For a description of the course, check out the official website, but there was a lot of vertical. Anthony came in first looking very strong, and keen to extend his lead on the bike. The results say four and a half minutes from Ant back to Jakobi at the changeover, though Bernie Evans' estimate of three and a half may be due to differing transition times. Jakoby came in with Ian Franzke, only 20s or so behind Michael Ferris who took second place on the run. There were teams mixed in around as well, but none came in ahead of Ant on the run. Tom Landon Smith put in a solid run to be in 6th place, 17 minutes behind Ant.
At the changeover from the bike to the kayak the word had come in that Jakobi had dragged the lead back to a minute. When the first riders came out of the bush it was actually one of the team riders leading Jakoby, and Ant another 20s behind. As the changeover between bike and kayak wasn't timed, both Ant and Jakoby took their time, eating, drinking and discussing the leg. Ant was evidently disappointed about being caught on the ride, considering the rides had been his strongest legs in the Albury event. It became apparent that Jakobi and the team rider both had slicks on their bikes, and had worked together to catch Ant, who also had a minor fall just before the finish. What difference the slicks made is only speculation - faster on the packed roads, a bit slippery on some of the downhills. Neither competitor seemed keen to head off first, and when finally Jakoby broke the waiting game Ant was quick to follow him down to the water.
Action a plenty when the next riders came in to the change from the opposite direction. It had seemed like the leaders had established a huge break. Two riders who lost a lot of time were Michael Ferris and Ian Franske. Apparently a T-intersection was unmarked, and once they went off in the wrong direction it was kaos. When Tracker Landon-Smith had arrived at the same intersection, he circled around for a while trying to work out which way to go from the tire marks, but there were tracks going both ways. Ferris reckoned he did an extra 8 kilometres, and was ropable. His crew told him to calm down and take it easy as the changeover wasn't timed, but Ferris screamed "I don't care, I've got to get going", amongst other expletives.
Tom Landon Smith made a joke of the untimed changeover by taking about 45 minutes to get going onto the paddle. It wasn't that he needed to rest, but you just try and stop him talking to people. Eventually he was forced to get going again after his crew threw his kayak in the river and said bugger it, we're off to see who is winning this race.
Ant knew that he needed a big lead going into the paddle, so all that was left to do on the last leg was try to minimise the time difference. When you consider that Jakoby is a former world marathon canoe champion, only dropping 12 minutes over more than two hours on the water is a bloody good effort from the Rodent. Two other individuals, Evan Mcrae and Gary Sutherland, made up time on Ant during the paddle, and were 39 and 50 minutes behind Jakobi overall after the first day.
Alina McMaster lead the women's field comfortably after the first day, with a 21 minutes lead from Sharon Prutton of New Zealand. The only leg where she lost time was on the paddle, and then only by about three and a half minutes. Alina's quote at the end of the first run: "This hurts when you're not very fit".
Day two. 49km road ride. The crews had to get going before the start or face traffic carnage trying to pass the cyclists. Not really sure what happened in the pack - you would think that some of the team riders might try to get away but apparently the only people tyring to break were individuals including Ant and Jakoby. No-one succeeded. 12 of the individual riders were in the first group, including all of the guns except Evan Mcrae, who was a couple of minutes back in the second group. Also in the second group was Sharon Prutton, gaining over 8 minutes on Alina. Again the changeover wasn't timed, which was just as well as it would have been trouble a plenty getting all the kayaks into the river. Picture the second last scene in the Blues Brothers where all the police and swat teams are poiting their rifles at Jake and Elwood. Paddlers were sent off in the order they came in, but with minutes inbetween.
As expected Jakoby extended his lead on the 12km paddle, a further six minutes on Ant. Gary Sutherland, Evan Mcrae and Tom L-S also made up time on Ant, Michael Ferris and Ian Franzke dropped. Now the action last leg. Virtually impossible for Ant to catch Jakoby, but he was going to try and take back as much as he could for pride's sake. Cut to Observatory Hill and the crowd gathered around the finish line. Jakoby comes in and is hailed rightly as the victor, in a time of 9 hours, 58 minutes and 12 seconds. Various teams come in. No sign of Ant. Gary Sutherland comes in. No sign of Ant. Ian Franzke comes in with the fastest run time of the day, three minutes faster than Jakobi. No sign of Ant, and Franzke comfirms that he didn't pass him on the run. Tom comes in 10 minutes later, didn't see Ant either. Finally a rodent-like face comes off the harbour bridge and struggles up to the line. He'd taken the scenic route, looped around a bit and back onto the course at a spot he'd already passed. Luckily the time lost (24 minutes to Jakoby) wasn't enough to drop from second place. Evan Mcrae takes third place. Ian Franzke's flying run - and 2nd overall place for the day - took him to 7th place, a minute or so ahead of Tom. Special mention to fellow Cooma Ski Club member Simon Anderson in 19th place.
Alina made up a couple of minute on Sharon Prutton in the paddle, and neraly four minutes in the run, not quite enough to beat her over the line but plenty to take out the overall race in a time of 13 hours, 7 minutes and 1 second. The inaugural JLL Challenge title adds to her JLW title from last year. Not bad for somone not very fit. The $500 first prize in the women's category was nearly enough to cover the entry fee and weekend expenses.
All in all a pretty good effort by Anthony Evans in his first big multi-sport event. True, he was in it to win it, but there's not many in the world who would come close to John Jakoby in this sort of event. Watch out next time around. The big question for the skiing community: Could this be the year Anthony takes out the Kangaroo Hoppet, after 4th in 1993, and 3rd and 2nd place in the last two years. The next events on the McMaster/Landon-Smith calendar: Tennis later that afternoon in Manly, Winter Classic at Mt Hotham at the end of July, wedding at Blue Cow in September.
XC is the official website of the Skiing Australia Cross Country Committee. It is produced with the assistance of the Australian Sports Commission, and the Kangaroo Hoppet. The editor can be contacted via hoppet@netc.net.au.