By Callum Ludwig
Upper Yarra enduro racer Ryder Rostron has claimed victory in a Victorian event, blowing the competition out of the water.
Ryder rode in the U17 division of the Victorian Gravity Enduro State Champions and took out top spot by over 35 seconds.
Ryder said it felt pretty good to win and to know all his training had been paying off.
“There was one stage that was really pebbly, which was the most challenging stage as that takes the most fitness, which I was happy about because that’s the stage that I did the best on because I’ve been doing a lot of work on my fitness,” he said.
“There was another stage that was a lot more technical and harder to ride, which I also did good on that one, which I was happy to see, as I’ve not been doing as much of the harder riding while I’ve been putting more effort into the fitness, and it’s still showing that I’m doing good on the hard stuff as well.”
In 2023, Ryder finished 1st overall in the U15 in the Victorian Gravity Enduro Tour by the time it wrapped up at the end of May last year.
Ryder said his training consists of riding whenever he can and doing as much fitness work as he can.
“I’ve been going to the gym and just going out on my gravel bike and doing that as many days as I can put down with the amount of daylight that I have,” he said.
“During the race I felt really good, I was really enjoying all the tracks which also helps and had a bit of a role in how good I ride but throughout the whole day I could tell that I was riding really good.”
Ryder completed the five-stage race with a time of 17 minutes and 78 milliseconds, with the second-best U17 time clocking in at 17 minutes, 36 seconds and 32 milliseconds.
Ryder said his next goal is racing the National Championships event in Western Australia later in the year.
“Pretty much all of my training from now until then is just going to be focused on that, I’ve competed at Nationals twice in the past two years and I’ve come fourth each time so I’m hoping to be able to get that one bit better and get on the podium,” he said.
“I’m not really sure what to expect of the tracks over there because it’s probably going to be a lot different than over here, but I’m just going to do as much fitness training as I can and just get as many hours on the bike as I can until then.”
The 2024 AusCycling MTB Enduro National Championships will be held in Perth between 17 and 20 October this year.
Ryder said he’d encourage anyone interest in riding to give it a go.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re not going to be winning races or anything like that, just get out there and give it a shot,” he said.
