Veteran Cairns mountain biker Dominic Hoyal might have made winning the 35km RRR Mountain Bike Race finishing at Four Mile Beach last Sunday look like a breeze, but it wasn’t without its challenges. 

Hoyal, 34, was the first rider to cross the line on a time of one hour, 17 minutes and 56 seconds, beating out Josh Prentice on one hour, 18 minutes and 34 seconds.

Hoyal described the ride as “not hard, actually quite fun” but admitted the younger Prentice almost had him. 

“Josh is 10 years younger than me and he’s been training really hard so staying in front of him was a bit of a torture,” he said. 

“I had been a bit sick earlier in the year and hadn’t been doing much training, I thought, ‘I’ll go easy on myself’ and entered the 35-kilometre race instead of the full 75 but it ended up being more of a challenge than I thought.”

Neck-and-neck with Prentice through much of the race, Hoyal attacked on Bells’ Hill to gain the lead but had to fight to keep it along the final stretch of Four Mile Beach. 

Hoyal said conditions on the day had been excellent and praised the picturesque surroundings. 

“There was a great tailwind, which was a relief,” he said. 

“When you’re out there on a day like that you do think to yourself this is a pretty nice place of the world to be in.”

Fourmile beach was also the finishing line for the Heliki Great Barrier Reef Ocean Challenge outrigger race and the 2014 Coral Coast Triathlon, which form the first round of the Cairns Adventure Festival.

Hoyal will join a larger team this Sunday to take part in Ironman 70.3’s cycling leg, which will thread twice through Port Douglas along Macrossan Street before returning to Cairns. 

35KM RRR Mountain Bike Challenge results:

Male:

1. Dominic Hoyal 01:17:56

2. Josh Prentice 01.18:34

3. Timothy Illes 01:24:23

Female:

1. Natalie McNamee 01:48

2. Lana Lockyear 01:50:38

3. Rosie Titley 01:50:52

Coral Coast Triathlon Solos:

1. Clayton Fettel 01:48:11

2. Sam Betten :01:49:24

3. Nuru Somi 1:50:55

Helkili Great Barrier Reef Ocean Challenge:

Male:

1. Michael Booth 02:31:53

2. Dean Gardner 02:32:46

3 Mark Anderson 02:33:44

Female:

1. Tania Moohin 03:09:18

2. Hope Grunfeld 03:20:49

3: Belinda O’Sullivan 03:22:24

Check out The Newsport's photo gallery from the finish line below. All photos by Rosie Wang at The Newsport.