Urban downhill event a spectacle in our city as Jordan Prochyra flies down in race run to claim second victory

Perth-based mountain bike rider Jordan Prochyra has been crowned the urban downhill champion for a second time after winning Sunday’s highly competitive race that began at the top of Mt Clarence and weaved its way down through a number of Albany’s streets. The urban downhill event was part of the Southern Peaks spectacular and attracted 58 entries across three divisions. Prochyra won the same event in 2016 and was the favourite in 2019 but finished fourth. However he produced a slick run down the newly designed course to be crowned the 2021 champion, the event returning after being cancelled last year due to COVID. Prochyra completed the course more than four seconds faster than Roly Kyme. “It’s a great feeling to win this for a second time because the event is so unique and holds a lot of prestige,” the 27-year-old said. “I think I got the edge on the lower urban section of the course, I managed to hold good corner speed on the bitumen but I was definitely on the limit. “The new course was great this year hats off to everyone involved, especially the detour through the Earl of Spencer that was a great touch. “I was pretty confident that I would be able to take it out going into my race run because of my qualifying time, I just had to make sure I hit all my lines and pedalled hard.” Qualifying times determined starting order in the race runs with slowest first through to the fastest last and after qualifying eighth, youngster Charlie Howard held the “hot seat”’ as the quickest rider down the hill when they reached the top 10 qualifiers. However Roly Kyme, who was fourth in qualifying, bettered that time by less than a second and that mark remained after the final runs of 2019 winner Jaxon Swayer and Albany young gun Hamish Wilkes. It came down to Prochyra’s final run on the day and he flew down the course, stopping the clock in a time of 3mins.11.34secs to beat the previous mark of Roly Kyme (3:16.22), to claim top spot and his second urban downhill crown. Howard finished third in a time of 3:17.0 while Wilkes (3:18.59) and Sawyer (3:19.14) rounded out the top five overall. Wilkes won the junior category with his impressive performance in front of home fans, finishing ahead of Gus Kyme (3:21.88) and local Harper O’Donnell (3:30.05). In the female division Tanya Bailey was first with a time of 3:45.66 to defeat local Jess Waldron (4:44.38). Earlier in the day the kids’ urban was a huge success, with 67 children taking part. Lorcan Contier won in the under-13 male category, while Macy Goad was the quickest under-13 female. Coby Guest and Eloise Braidwood were the quickest riders in the under-11 male and female categories respectively. Mackenzie Staples narrowly won the under-nine male category while Biianca Martin was the fastest female in that age group. Daniel Hudak was the fastest male and Elinor Devenport was the fastest female in the under-seven class.