PORT Macquarie’s Jason English, who is a world champion, and Victoria’s Jessica Douglas retained their national titles at the Australian Solo 24-hour Mountain Bike Championship in Canberra recently.

English claimed his third 24-hour Mountain Bike Championship in a row.

“Its fantastic to win three in a row,” said English after the race. “It’s awesome. Its my 10th win in a row in a 24-hour event.”

“The only move I made was to try and catch Brett,” English told cyclingnews.com. “So that happened eventually in traffic, and he fell back into the main group. I had a bit of a lead, so I capitalised on that and expanded on my lead during the early hours of the night.”

He hopes to win the world championship in Canberra in six months time

I just want to see an Australian win, that’s the goal I have.

“It’s important not to get sucked in by the faster US-based riders who like to charge off and go too hard. The Australians have the patience and can sit back and bring it home strong.”

Douglas said she was overwhelmed with the victory.

“I’m very pleased to have it all over and done with,” said Douglas, who finshed fourth at last year’s World Championships. “I only been back in training for four weeks. I was just relying on previous 24-hour form and a hell of a lot of base.”

“I had a minute gap and it just grew from there.

“My body didn’t want to play from midnight until 6:00 am. It was 90 percent mental. I definitely overrode my survival instincts on my body.”