NZ Downhill National Cup: Round 3 - Dome Valley
Dome Valley, North Auckland. A place that has been the stronghold of the Auckland Downhill Scene for the last 14 years. It's also the track which the likes of Sophie Tyas and Veronique Sandler cut their teeth on as Juniors. Riders tend to have a love/hate relationship with the Dome due to it being brutal on bodies and bikes, its history for being the track which ends peoples seasons and the place which you don't want to race if the heavens open.
Dome Valley's history of breeding top level races is strong, but in recent years it hasn't been used as a national level race track due to unknown reasons. The last time a nationals level event was hosted here was back in 2007, and since then has only been used for North Island NZDH series races once a year. One of the steepest tracks with some of the biggest and most challenging features in the North Island, so riders were more the happy to see top level racing return to the hills of Dome Valley once more.
Pits and rego lay deep in the valley floor, meaning that 8am rego required riders to rug up, even though it's the middle of summer.
Some of the lads which had to travel up from down south came equipped with all the essentials for a solid weekend of riding.
Nothing pretty about these pits.
Team Hukkit came prepared for all conditions with there uber-tidy pit setup
A weather warning had been in place all week, with a so-called "weather bomb" due to make land on Friday. As per usual, the forecasts were slightly off the money and thankfully the weather gods blessed us all once again with no precipitation during the race. In previous years Dome Valley has turned to utter carnage in the wet, being labeled as near on impossible to ride; little surprise to see the smallest turnout of the series so far with such a weather system looming.
Jack Humphries didn't care that he was wearing crocs, he rolled through the pits in the morning with style
Sam Robbie throwing up the horns and amped to get the days racing underway
Josh Reilly had the best privateer setup for a domestic racer
Riders poised to get the day underway
Logan Herbert railing through the tight switchbacks during morning practice
Logan Ceaser and Finn Parsons of Banshee Bikes NZ, getting very close early morning
Team trains were a theme during morning practice. Brendan Regan and Peter Bethell copied the Banshee boys, but with more regard for each others safety
Tim Hunter showing the ankle biters how it's done, sending the top drop deep even in high winds
Keegan Wright had all the right moves during practice. The question of the day was though would he be able to pip Brook again?
No need for tucking when you can charge as hard as Louis
Blake Ross launching the step up in high winds with ease
Cam Adcock making a feature out of nothing, and with style!
Media Shuttles in style!
Lloyd Jenks has been a dark horse all season in the Open Men's field, and today he charged his way into a credible 7th place
Josh Reilly once again went to battle on his enduro rig, but just couldn't keep up with the big boys
Sam Robbie made short work of the rock garden on his DH Bike
Although Peter Bethell came unstuck in style more than once during the day, he continued his display of consistency rode his way to a solid 4th place overall
Vinny Armstrong made an appearance and started morning practice as her first ride back after a broken wrist. Sadly for Vinny, it was still feeling weak and she didn't proceed with any race runs
The Bulldog on the hunt for glory through the whoops
The overall track hadn't changed much since the last local race held here in early December 2016. The only small change was a slight re-route down a fresh, loamy section of trail that spat riders out right before a small 'motorway' section
Keegan Wright used one of the small fire road links as a spot to rest before attacking the last twenty seconds of the track
Sam Eardly was riding strong throughout morning practice, but later he came unstuck over a challenging step-up feature and snapped his femur. After some delay, he got some good help, good drugs and quickly found himself as high as the helicopter he was about to get taken to hospital in! Heal up quickly mate
After a timely delay due to course closures, riders made their way up the hill to start off the seeding runs
The tightly fought battle between Finn Parsons and Blake Ross continued, but Blake had the upper hand today with this being one of his local tracks. Taking the win over Finn by a confirming six seconds and celebrating his birthday in style
 | The battle between me and Finn has been going since we were young(er) kids back when we raced BMX. It was the perfect way to spend my birthday getting one over on Finn. I loved the track, felt strong and the wind made for some testing situations. - Blake Ross |
Spirits remained high throughout the day and Brook Macdonald even managed to make a new friend - Mr. Banana Penguin.
After Sam Eardly crashed, Josh Reilly swapped his enduro bike out for Sam's Scott Gambler and charged his way through his seeing and race run
Sam Robbie has what it takes to be claiming the top spot week in, week out, but just didn't have the day he was looking for
Personal growth was high on Syke Follas's list of priorities coming into this weekend. Knowing that she could win in Junior Women as long as she had a clean run, she set her sights on pushing her limits and sending big jumps. Big Jumps were conquered, and her clean sweep continued
Ashley Bond let go of the brakes as much as she was comfortable with today and rocketed her way into second place behind Shania
Shania Rawson was untouchable all day and dominated both seeding and race runs. She took her second win of the series by over forty seconds
| The track conditions were fast and dusty today, although the wind was catching a few riders out. There was a crash that delayed our race runs for a while and it was hard to keep warm and keep my head in the game. Despite that, I had a clean race run and am stoked to take my second win of the series. Overall it was a great day. - Shania Rawson |
Brendan Regan was just out there having fun on his bike, and it showed. Not afraid to put on a show for the people
Charlie Makea has been mixing it up within the top five of the U19 field all season, but today managed to keep it together and secured his first national level win
Alex Makea fell victim to the wind during his seeding run. He jumped deep off the step-down and got blown offline by the wind. Upon impact, he snapped and dislocated his ankle but was surprisingly high-spirited during the whole ordeal. Enjoy Sam's company in hospital buddy and heal up quick!
As the day got longer in the tooth, post race run celebrations got a little more wild
Kyle Lockwood rode a solid race but must have had a few issues on track. He seeded 8th but couldn't better that, slipping down to 12th after his race run
Louis Hamilton kept it low over the end gap, trying to save every ounce of time he could in order to back up his first place seeding result
A flat tire in his race run saw Carson Rayner's hopes of a good result dashed
Keegan Wright didn't have the day he was looking for, unable to back up last weekend's win in Napier, but still fast enough to take third here at Dome Valley
Brook MacDonald got the redemption he was looking for on Keegan and took his first win of the NZ National Series
| Another good weekend away racing with a solid crew. The track was sick! Last time I raced here was about 6 years ago and it hadn't changed much, it was good to get back and ride a solid track -Brook MacDonald |
Two from three for Shania, and looking to extend that even further
Your future face of Elite Women's downhill racing here in New Zealand. Next year it will be good to see Skye mixing it up with the other elite women
| My race run was riddled with mistakes, which you can't afford to make when the competition is so tight. I'm looking forward to racing the steeper, longer South Island tracks! - Sam Robbie |
Elite Men's Podium
Elite Women's Podium
Elite Men
1st - Brook MacDonald
2nd - Louis Hamilton
3rd - Keegan Wright
4th - Peter Bethell
5th - Cole Lucas
1st - Brook MacDonald
2nd - Louis Hamilton
3rd - Keegan Wright
4th - Peter Bethell
5th - Cole Lucas
Elite Women
1st - Shania Rawson
2nd - Ashley Bond
3rd - Sarah Fox
1st - Shania Rawson
2nd - Ashley Bond
3rd - Sarah Fox
Full Results Here
MENTIONS: @cameronmackenzie
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It's really great to see some of the top level UCI lads racing with the local guy (and ladies) and the up and comers.
It does wonders for the sport, and i'm sure it means a lot to the groms coming up to be able to hang out with and race with the sports top dogs.
Keep that sh*t up.
my video www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSiduSIepN8