Early-bird series—2026 #4.
at which Zvonimir Mikulic is registered, intending to record his fiftieth ATTA ride and Sue Broughton will celebrate her birthday, hopefully with the PB that she was so close to achieving last event—a mere 5sec away?

It's overcast, humid, 22° and very little wind apparently.
James Lewin has been leading the way into the final lap and is the first to finish with Stu Helm and Thomas Bruins vying for fastest time at this stage; Ann Brinkamp is the leading woman and the first BIP rider to finish past the halfway mark of the series. Sue Broughton is out there thinking of cake for breakfast? Zvon has completed 49½ rides—keep pedalling mate.
Well into the second half of the field, it looks like a growing list of DNS but Thomas is still in the hot-seat; Ann Brinkamp and Fiona Whelan are the fastest of the women so far with an interesting points battle ready to start yet at the end of the list: Mackenzie, Elyse and Sophia.
Juniors, Jordan Watkins and Campbell McDowell have taken over the top of the finishers list a couple of seconds separating them. Michael Storer's record remains intact by almost a minute but both Jordan and Campbell post PBs.

Mackenzie's first lap is one of her fastest on this course. Leighton Cook has a 4:34 for his first, a couple of seconds ahead of Nick Thompson. Sophia is about 5sec behind Mackenzie's time but Mackenzie is fading just a little. Nick has about a second on Leighton after three laps. Mackenzie has finished at #4 with a good PB and Leighton takes over top spot almost a minute clear of Jeremy Smith, also finished.
Sophia, into her last lap now has 1sec on Mackenzie; Nick flies home 3 sec ahead of Leighton. Sophia holds onto that 1sec lead but leaves her own course record intact!
Is Zvon a DNF—not a way you'd like to mark your milestone perhaps? Yes, punctured, I've been told.
It must be pretty steamy in the park this morning but the clouds have apparently cleared.

We need to wait for video times for a couple of riders with non-functioning personal transponders among that fairly long list of DNS.

What is there to be said about Leighton's 10km/h PB? Well, he was only a 14 year-old when he last rode—on the old (2012) version of the sausage! Perhaps we could have said "shows promise" back then?

The video times came through for Matt Tognini and it was confirmed that Jerard punctured before the start, started but still had tyre problems and abandoned and so was a DNF. He was supposed to record his 150th ride last Sunday but apparently opted to do a Tri so—like Zvon, a somewhat less-than-deserved milestone ride for Jerard today.

PS:
I missed this one: Oli Stenning, possibly back in WA on his annual visit and on his road-bike, ripped thirty seconds from the road-bike record for the course. AND a couple of places down the list, Lee Bolden had slotted into the top ten, second spot on standard while Joe Grasso, further down the list, rightfully asserted his dominance in that category. Third place on standard was Elyse Rowe, third overall amongst the women and mentioned earlier.

mouse