Mountainbike World Cup and French Cup Podiums

Mountainbike World Cup and French Cup Podiums

The weekend of July 2nd and 3rd was an exceptional one for NZ's travelling mountainbike racers around the world.

Stunning world class podium performances in Canada and France by both downhill and cross country athletes are summarised as follows:

*UCI World MTB Cup, Mont Sainte Anne, Canada - Downhill* *MacDonald and Cole 3rd and 5th, NZ Top Ten Domination.*

NZ's world class downhill contingent practiced their way through four days of weather extremes on the Mont Sainte Anne mountain, at times racing on the world renowned course in less than 10m of visibility. The class of this group of athletes was displayed firstly with Friday's qualification run - Cam Cole (Lapierre International, Christchurch) fourth, teammate Sam Blenkinsop (Wanganui) seventh and Brook MacDonald (MS Evil Racing, Napier) ninth.

Joining these three Junior World Championship medalists in the top 80 were George Brannigan (Devinci Global, Hawkes Bay), Justin Leov (Trek World Racing, Dunedin) and Dan Sims (Auckland). Alexandra's Matt Scoles (Cingolani-Trek) had a terrible qualification run, but moved through to the top 80 final due to having protected status as a top 20 rider on current World Cup standings. Racing his first World Cup for several years, James Dodds (Zerode, Rotorua) wasn't able to break the top 80, missing the cut-off by six seconds.

The weather held for today's race run, with the race course dry in the open but still treacherous in the rocky, forest sections. Conditions that suited the NZers with MacDonald blazing to a time that shattered the field with only a handful of riders still to run. MacDonald's time was beaten only by current World Cup leader Aaron Gwinn and the UK's Josh Bryceland, and the Napier flier claimed a charging podium third.

Cole looked strong and carried great momentum through the middle parts of the Mont Sainte Anne mountain to claim his first podium result for the World Cup, in fifth.

And confirming growing NZ dominance in the top ten on the World Cup Downhill circuit, Blenkinsop was eighth, and Leov 10th - results that have the Downhill circuit on notice with the final two month lead-in to this years World Championships. Scoles and Brannigan raced to 19th and 25th respectively.

Monte Sainte Anne Downhill Results ** **

*UCI World MTB Cup, Mont Sainte Anne, Canada - **Cross Country * *Sheppard U23 Podium 4th* Rotorua's Samara Sheppard (iXS Wheeler Pro Team) raced to a break-through World Cup performance on Saturday, proudly delivering a fourth pace finish in the Under 23 Women's race at the always challenging east coast Canadian venue. Sheppard got away to a flying start on her first lap of four to move through the field and into a challenging position with the race leaders.

Terrible weather at the Mont Sainte Anne venue over the past week had left the course slippery and treacherous in places, with the several rocky, technical sections proving difficult for most riders to tame. Sheppard had no issues with the conditions or the course, and built on her 2010 World Championships 11th at this same venue 10 months ago to finish fourth. Sheppard has been waiting patiently during her 2011 European campaign for her first World Cup opportunity to measure herself against the cream of the northern hemispheres mountainbike espoirs, and this podium result confirms her rapidly improving form with only two months to the 2011 World Championships.

Karen Hanlen (Whakatane) lined up in a class Elite Women's field for her third World Cup of the season. Hanlen was not daunted at all with the challenging race conditions or the competition, and displayed real grit to complete the race in 32nd.

Mont Sainte Anne World Cup Cross Country Results

*VTT Subaru French Cup, Val D'Isere * *Peters and O'Neill U23 Podiums* Europe based cross country racers stayed on in France while the UCI World MTB Cup shifted to Canada this weekend, racing at the highly subscribed French Cup. Huge fields were the first challenge for NZs athletes to overcome, but good starting grid positions worked in their favour and enabled several to compete at the front of their respective races. In the 4 lap Elite/U23 Womens race, Katie O'Neill (Bergamont NZ, Rotorua) relished the opportunity some clear air provided, and a stunning 9th place finish was her reward for a very honest days racing. This result saw O'Neill claim a podium second place finish in the Under 23 competition.

The 5 lap Elite/U23 Mens race also had NZers running at the front of the pack, with Carl Jones (Bergamont NZ, Rotorua) and Dirk Peters (SantaCruz NZ, Rotorua) having fantastic races in the 110 strong field. Jones held tight to the leaders right through his race and is extremely happy to have maintained such a close margin with his seventh place finish.

Peters was only slightly behind Jones throughout the race to finish 11th. However, like O'Neill Peters made the Under 23 podium presentation with a fourth place result in that category. Sam Shaw (Rotorua) also competed in the Elite/U23 Mens race, to finish 40th.

Val D'Isere French Cup Results Elite/U23 Women Val D'iIsere French Cup Results Elite/U23 Men

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