New Zealand National DH Series - Round 1 Report and Results
As the sun finally rose on the 7th day of this new year, so did the curtains on a new national cup series here in New Zealand. Back in 2017, the national series underwent a wide range of changes after the governing body cancelled their sponsored series. The clubs rallied together to create what was as a whole, a relatively successful national series. However, for 2018, MTBNZ have picked up on what the others created and are running a single-day-format, governing-body-backed, four-round national series which crosses the country over five weeks.
First off the block was the opener at Auckland's FourForty Mountain Bike Park, the proving grounds of some of the quickest kiwi juniors, and a regular on the DH circuit. After three days of severe storms lashed the exposed stretch of coast that the park is situated on, the event was postponed. One day later than scheduled, only a small number of hungry riders took their chances on the slippery slopes. It was some two years ago now during a club race on the same track that the heavens opened and most sections became a mudslide. I became a viral sensation for my loss of talent and since then the first sign of rain deters close to half the field.
Nonetheless, 72 riders turned out, with an 11 rider strong pro men's field. Sorry tech-heads, no sign of Brook MacDonald or George Brannigan and their new factory rides yet, coming soon.
Full results below.
After three days of storms, most riders were quick to fit mud tyres to help achieve some traction on the slippery clay of Fourforty.
New bike day for Dane Nimmo, special attention required on the plate fitment.
"So, who's got a helmet I can borrow? Looks like I only packed a spare visor."
With Diesel in the tray (dogs name) it was time to get to work
The early bird gets the worm. Guy Johnston was first out the gate and quick to learn the track in the morning dew.
Although, he quickly ran out traction.
Patrick Hale had plenty, and let things hang out.
Louis Hamilton (not that one), however, suffered the same fate as Guy.
Is that peanut butter or chocolate mousse? No, that's just typical wet Auckland clay. On the backside of that storm grease levels were past 100. Good luck finding a tyre that will hook up in this!
Sam Robbie wasn't bothered by the slippery track and got to swinging off the back.
Keegan Wright made short work of a fresh off-chamber section that saw many slideout.
Kyle Lockwood quietly got to his business.
Their kits were the similarity for the Fernandez Brothers, Nico and Jordan.
Oh look...
Clocking up those style miles.
Full Gas, all the time.
Shania wasn't in any shape to race today but was on hand to keep her eyes on the competition.
 | It's a shame not to be able to compete at the moment, but I need to let my body heal. In short, I picked up a virus overseas late last year, and I just kept on going with it. Now, it was caused my spleen to swell to the point of it tearing so I'm off the bike until it heals. |
Nikki Clarke was waving the flag for the Junior women this round. This offered invaluable race time for Nikki, without all the competition.
Isaac Ewen, one of the local lads, was riding aggressively all day in practice but slid out and broke the tape in his race run, costing him any result and earning a disqualification.
Charlie Makea got 4 seconds put into him by Josh Oxenham.
Ethan Blanchard rode smart today, reserving any tricks for his race run after he crashed. My camera was pointing the wrong way, but over my shoulder, I witnessed him throw a very steezy suicide no-hander.
Finn Parsons seemed to be resting on his laurels, forgetting that Blake and Guy had been riding this track all holidays and hoping that raw pace would be enough to see him through.
Not today. Finn seeded 2nd but slipped back to 3rd during his race run.
In a rush, Guy showed the rest of his U17 field that he is going to be the man to beat this season.
Close, but no cigar. Blake Ross clawed back over 6 seconds in his race run, but still fell short of Guy by 1.2 seconds in the highly competitive U17s.
If the race were won on whips then Patrick Hale would have swept the field.
Queenstown quick kid, Nico Fernandez seeded 9th, but pulled something special out on his race run and rode his way up to 3rd place in U19.
What could have been... Sam Robbie laid down a 2nd place seeding but crashed out in his race run.
Josh Oxenham was untouchable today. Visibly on the edge of crashing all day, but somehow held it together and claimed the win in U19.
Mr. fifth place, Lloyd Jenks kept things consistent and rode home for a safe and standard 5th once again in Open Mens.
Agrueably, no man knows this track better than Carson Rayner. The home track advantage showed today when he bested his 2nd place seeding result to take the win.
With the rest of the ladies out of play, the clock was the only thing Kate Weatherly had for competition today in the Elite Women's category.
Connor Hamilton finally got to grips with the track just in time for the start of seeding.
Connor pieced together a strong race run but struggled to carry the pace he needed on a trail bike, crossing the line in 8th.
Brendan Regan flatted in his race run, so threw a nac for the crowd.
Peter Bethell was the surprise of the afternoon, pipping the world cup boys by a matter of milliseconds in seeding.
However he couldn't keep the same pace up for his race run and slipped back to 4th.
At times, Keegan makes you wonder how he is the current National Champ.
But then he goes and improves his seeding result by over 4.5 seconds and takes the win.
Cole 'Colin' Lucas came second to Keegan, but only by a tiny 0.343 of a second.
Dispite Sam's luck, the WideOpen duo were all smiles after a strong start to a long season.
Elite Mens Podium
Results: Elite Men
1st - Keegan Wright (2:33.140)
2nd - Cole Lucas (2:33.484)
3rd - Louis Hamilton (2:37.292)
4th - Peter Bethell (2:37.852)
5th - Guy Gibbs (2:38.117)
Full results here.
1st - Keegan Wright (2:33.140)
2nd - Cole Lucas (2:33.484)
3rd - Louis Hamilton (2:37.292)
4th - Peter Bethell (2:37.852)
5th - Guy Gibbs (2:38.117)
Full results here.
Good Day. See you in 5 days at Dome Valley for part two.
Mentions: @cameronmackenzie
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Southern California where you can Ski/Snowboard, Surf, and ride your bike all in the same day. We got our first day of rain in 2 months today, this will just make the trails better.
I do get Jelly when I see these videos of the pacific northwest, where the dirt is perfect most days.
We have ultra dry, dusty, rocky terrain, but the trade off is we get to ride daily all year round.