Results - NZCT South Island Downhill Cup Round 1 Dunedin

Downhill racers invaded Signal Hill in Dunedin today for the first round of the NZCT South Island Cup as part of the Rabolpus MTB Cups presented by Nature Valley.

A welcome return, in his first race back in New Zealand after the 2008 World Cup season was Justin Leov. NZ’s highest ever World ranked mountainbiker at #5 for 2008, Leov (Christchurch) posted the day’s fastest seeding run time, which was also the fastest time of the day and was looking strong for the Elite Men’s win. However, a flat tyre in his race run ended any chance of a spot on the podium.

Cameron Cole (Christchurch) raced with consistent speed and claimed the Elite Men win with Oceania Champion Kieran Bennett (Nelson) only 3/100ths of a second behind James Dodds (Rotorua) continued his fine run of form, crashing over the finish line to come in third.

Emmeline Ragot (France) again took out first place in the Elite Women after missing the last round in Levin, having opted instead to compete in Canberra at the Australian MTB Championships.

Harriet Harper (Blenheim) came in second, enjoying racing against a larger field than the previous round where several of her competitors were injured and unable to race. Another international rider, Harriet Ruecknagel from Germany added to the competition and placed third.

The Signal Hill race track had several jumps and drops as well as plenty of rock sections for riders to manoeuvre, carefully choosing their line down to stop the clock in the shortest time possible. Wide Open rider Matt Scoles (Alexandra) who placed fifth in the Elite Men category said it was his favourite track in the series so far saying ‘it was a sick course, especially the fast section down the bottom and the rocks were a good challenge’. Local rider Scott Nicholson who raced in the Senior Men category said ‘it was cool to race on a local track, it was an intense competition and I loved the course especially the new rebuilt section’.

Race Organiser Gareth Hargreaves was pleased with the turnout and high level of competition amongst the riders and was happy they enjoyed the track saying ‘it was wicked to host a race in Dunedin especially because the riders raved on about the course, we were very lucky with the weather because the conditions would have changed the condition of the course rapidly’.

This was the first race in the series of three for the South Island with the following two rounds being held in Queenstown and Blenheim. Tomorrow sees the first round of the South Island Cross Country Cup, also held in Dunedin on the Otago Peninsula in conjunction with the Otago Peninsula Challenge. Following the South Island Downhill and Cross Country Cup series is the New Zealand National Mountain Bike Championships being held in Nelson 26th Feb-1st March.

Results - South Island Downhill Cup Round 1 – Dunedin

Elite Men

1 Cameron Cole, Christchurch, 2:46.21; 2 Kieran Bennett, Nelson, 3 James Dodds, Rotorua 2:49.03.

Elite Women

1 Emmeline Ragot, France, 3:10.46; 2 Harriet Harper, Blenheim, 3:24.33; 3 Harriet Ruecknagel, Germany, 3:36.81

Full results available at www.bikenz.org.nz/mtbcups