Peters wins NZ cross country cup in Wellington

The cross country portion of the NZ MTB Cup got back into gear on the inner city slopes of Mt. Victoria on Sunday. A tough course, again with a long pedigree of national level competiton was set for competitors, with the morning age group races setting the tone for the elite and U19 junior races in the afternoon.

The elite men's field was at top strength on Sunday, and like the downhill, contained several visiting international riders having a shot at New Zealand's best and also the Category 2 UCI points on offer. But just as at the national championships two weeks ago, Rotorua's Dirk Peters wound on the urgency and aggression to lead from start to finish in the six-lap feature.

Peters was reasonably comfortable during the mid stages of the race, but a fast finishing Mike Northcott (Tokoroa) provided some suspense over the last two laps. Northcott rapidly worked away at national champion Peters' lead, first passing Carl Jones (Rotorua) and then chipping away at the one-minute buffer that Peters had built over the first four laps. By race finish, Northcott was only 22 seconds back, but Peters wrapped up another win on the circuit to head into the Cup final in Napier with some dominance over the rest of his competition.

The elite women's race was missing Rosara Joseph (Wellington), however the absence of the Beijing Olympian seemed to only spur on Whakatane's Karen Hanlen, who demolished the women's field to win by nearly 10 minutes. The recently crowned national champion was never threatened and showed pace and poise to simply outpace and outrace the rest of her competition - Samara Sheppard (Wellington) holding down second place and the best of the chasers.

Woodend's Anton Cooper again cleaned out the U19 junior race, winning by three minutes from Te Awamutu's Sam Gaze. Gaze was happy to limit the gap to the 2011 junior world championships silver medalist to a margin this close, and both Cooper and Gaze lapped the tough Mt. Victoria course in times that would have had them circulating within the top five elite men. Cooper displayed his outright speed during the last lap for the four lap U19 race, to post the quickest lap time and only sub-15 minute lap by any rider.

Rotorua's Amber Johnston easily won the U19 junior women's three-lap race.

The cross country NZ MTB Cup will wrap up this weekend February 24-26 in Napier, New Zealand.

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