Laird, Sharratt repeat New Zealand cross country round wins

Brendon Sharratt and Amy Laird took victories in the elite men's and women's cross country races for round two of the New Zealand Mountain Bike series in Dunedin.

After a week of wet weather leading up to the event, racers encountered mixed conditions. Age group categories racing in the morning on the Forrester Park cross country course faced a greasy track, which dried significantly during their two-hour race. By the mid afternoon, the elite and under 23 racers got to compete a course in near-perfect conditions.

Christchurch's Amy Laird dominated the women's race from start to finish for the second week in a row and proved her win at home last weekend was no fluke. Rotorua's Samara Sheppard couldn't hold Laird's pace after the first of the four-lap, 25km race, and Dunedin's Sara MacDonald gamely tried to stay in touch to finish only 48 seconds behind Laird.

With the under 19 juniors on course at the same time as the elites and under 23s, there was a display of brutal and exceptional racing in the junior grade. Winner Brad Hudson kept pace with Sharratt during the under 19 five-lap race, with the first three under 19 finishers all within three minutes of Hudson by the end of their race.

The next round of the New Zealand Mountain Bike Cup will move to Nelson next weekend, January 23.

Results