A BROKEN wrist eight weeks out from Harrison Ernst’s first major race of the 2016-17 mountain bike racing season had little impact on his form.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Warrnambool rider will enter the Victorian series this weekend fresh from a runner-up finish at the Forrest Festival.
Ernst, 20, finished the two-day, five-stage elite men’s race in three hours, 33 minutes and 55 seconds.
He was just six minutes behind winner, multiple Australian champion Chris Jongewaard.
“To get a result like that so early in the season, I am really happy with that,” Ernst said.
Four stages – a 15-kilometre sprint, 5km uphill time trial, 5km timed descent and 5km sprint – were completed on Saturday.
Ernst was third entering Sunday’s final 50km stage.
“I lost a bit of time on the descent, so I knew I had to make attacks early to make up time,” he said.
Ernst entered the Forrest Festival at full fitness after overcoming a broken wrist – the most serious injury of his fledgling career – two months earlier.
“I came off quite bad in a road race and broke my left wrist,” he said.
“It was only my second race back since I broke my wrist, so to get a result like that I was happy with, surprised actually.”
The injury kept Ernst off the track for four weeks but he maintained his fitness while sidelined.
“A week after the accident I was back on the indoor trainer and it only took four weeks to heal,” he said.
The Pavilion cafe worker will start his Victorian series campaign this weekend in Castlemaine and Bendigo.
Ernst will race in the elite men’s section at the four-round competition.
He will then turn his attention to the Australian titles, which run from January to March, where he will compete as an under 23 rider.
Meanwhile, Koroit competitor James Coomber doesn’t anticipate an ankle injury sustained during the Forrest Festival will hinder him as he looks to make his national mountain bike series debut this summer.
The 17-year-old split his left ankle open when he dropped his chain during the fourth stage in the under 19 race. But he pushed through to still claim second spot – despite a “stuff up” after the first stage that saw him start the second considerably further back in the field than he should have.
“I was pretty happy. First would’ve been nice, but you can’t always be on that top step,” Coomber said.
“Next is probably a national mountain bike (event) – I haven’t done one of those yet. I’d like to step up.”