Report: N-Duro Series #2

Rotorua's famed MTB trails played host to yet another dramatic day of racing Sunday, as more than 200 riders turned out to take on the ace 2 of the ever popular Bike Vegas Summer N-Duro Series.

Competitors were greated by another perfect day, warm but not too hot. After a week of rain, clearing to light showers on Saturday, the trails were the right side of tacky and the times reflected that on what was a very challenging course. Starting on a fast forest road section, then quickly got into tough singletrack in the core network, numerous climbs. An excellent and testing course.

Both the mens and Womens races were full of intrigue as some of the countries best battled it out.

In the womens, Annika Smail backed up to win her second round with Nic Leary (Team Nduro), 2nd. The two had been immersed in a fierce battle, swapping the lead and pushing each other to the limit, until Leary stopped as first on the scene to help an injured rider on Billy T at about 1/2 distance. Otherwise it may have been very close.
In recent years Smail has been untouchable in the rotorua forest, with a very long winning streak stretching back years. However Leary is the rising star on the NZ scene and has rapidly closed the gap. There will be great interest when the due between these two recommences at the next round.

Eloise Fry (Rotorua) was 3rd, with Katie O'Neill and Sonia Foote following in 4th and 5th.

The mens race was equally dramatic, as the 'old hands' Mike Northcott and Mark "Cabin" Leishman showed a clean pair of heels to the youngsters. Clearing out form a quality field the pair couldn't settle their differences until the last few metres, where Northcott prevailed in a desperate sprint by less than a wheel length. A little fresher than his performance in race 1 (where he backed up the day after the tauranga half ironman), Leishman pushed Northcott hard, climbing strongly and building up a 40sec lead at 1/2 way, before a few errors let Northcott back in the game. The battle pushed the pair almost 5min clear of the chasing field as NZ U23 rep's Scott Greene and Carl Jones following home in 3rd and 4th.

We look forward to more furious competition in three weeks time when Smail and Leishman defend their series leads against the cream of NZ's MTB talent at the final race of the series on February 14th.

Full results are available on www.n-duro.co.nz