Peters, Hanlen tame the Codgers Challenge

Sunday's cross country race day promised to showcase New Zealand's best on the Codgers Trail Network, just down the road from Saturday's downhill venue at the New Zealand Mountain Bike Cup in Nelson. Being a UCI Category 2 event meant riders were chasing valuable world ranking points, and the race course had been set to match the importance of the event, fast and hard.

Local age group riders turned out in good numbers for age group category racing on the morning race start, mixing it up with New Zealand Mountain Bike Cup series competitors. As an entree to the Elite/under 23 and Under 19 afternoon race, it couldn't have been better with great racing across the board.

The elite and under 23 women's race quickly turned into a tussle at the front between Karen Hanlen and Fiona MacDermid. Both were locked together during the early stages of the five-lap event, but it was Hanlen who kept a level of unrelenting pressure on at the front to win by one minute. Nelson's Eloise Fry rode to a strong third after an early close contest with Katie O'Neill, who battled back from a broken rear wheel while in podium contention to ninth.

Dirk Peters (Santa Cruz) came to Nelson hungry to repeat his last elite and under 23 men's win from last month in Napier. But from the gun, he knew that Nelson's George Bennett was going to keep him honest. Bennett was having one last mountain bike race on his home tracks before heading off to join his US professional road cycling team, and he lead for the early stages of this race.

Bennett couldn't shake the tenatious Peters, however. "I put time into Dirk every lap on the climb, but he was right back on my tail in the descents before I knew what was going on - I just don't know how he did that but I couldn't hold him off".

Peters made a decisive move on Bennett early on lap four, and charged away from that point to a comfortable win. It took a sprint finish to the line to separate Mike Northcott and Carl Jones for third and fourth, and a quickly improving Brad Hudson held off a stalking Kyle Wood for fifth.

In the Nelson race, Anton Cooper made his first New Zealand MTB Cup appearance of this year. The Christchurch pocket rocket demolished his Under 19 competition in dominant style, while circulating close to the pace of Bennett and Peters.

The New Zealand Mountain Bike Cup next moves south to Christchurch for the weekend of February 19-20 for the series final in both downhill and cross country.

Full Results

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Elite men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Dirk Peters1:36:19
2George Bennett0:02:06
3Mike Northcott0:03:19
4Carl Jones0:03:21
5Brad Hudson0:04:04
6Kyle Wood0:04:10
7Stuart Houltham0:05:09
8Cal Britten0:05:34
9Pascal Schmutz0:06:10
10Samuel Shaw0:06:15
11Patrick Avery0:07:53
12Ethan Glover0:08:54
13Tim Wilding0:09:52
14Nick Clark0:11:12
15Thomas Skinner0:12:10
16Adrian Retrief0:12:28
17Scott Green0:12:49
18Ash Hough0:13:38
19Logan Horn0:13:39
20Nick Miller0:14:59
-2lapsJeremy InglisRow 20 - Cell 2
-2lapsCalum ChamberlainRow 21 - Cell 2
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Elite women
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Karen Hanlen1:34:31
2Fiona Macdermid0:00:58
3Eloise Fry0:04:15
4Raewyn Morrison0:07:59
5Susie Wood0:08:15
6Sasha Smith0:10:54
7Meggie Bichard0:11:00
8Corina Gantenbein0:15:10
9Katherine O Neill0:16:08
10Melissa Newell0:20:15
11Adrienne Hooper0:21:22
-2lapsErica BotaRow 11 - Cell 2
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Under 19 men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Anton Cooper1:20:55
2Tom Filmer0:06:25
3Joel Macmillan0:08:17
4Nigel McDowell0:10:30
5Josh Parkin0:11:37
6Harley Going0:13:49
7Ian Burgess0:14:05
8Kirstoff Ford0:14:14
9Jake Glover0:15:28
10Ben Walker0:16:16
11Daniel Ellison0:16:37
12Sean Hambrook0:18:35
-2lapsLayton MurdochRow 12 - Cell 2
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Under 19 women
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Kayley Murdoch1:36:26
2Veronique Sandler0:01:36
-2lapsNatalie RetiefRow 2 - Cell 2
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Under 17 men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Craig Oliver1:09:52
2Ben Oliver0:04:20
3Jacob Stuthridge0:05:47
4David Ashby-Coventry0:06:03
5Charlie Murray0:07:00
6Gareth Cannon0:07:38
7Mitchell Campbell0:09:16
8Jack Compton0:12:31
9Toby Walker0:19:14
10Henry Jaine0:21:02
11Allister Meffen0:26:12
12Sam Madden0:28:10
DNFCameron FordRow 12 - Cell 2
DNFCameron FitzgeraldRow 13 - Cell 2
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Under 17 women
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Harriet Beven1:12:38
2Caitlin Louise Holmes0:02:02
3Olivia Miller0:03:02
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Senior men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Kurt Lancaster1:32:41
2Edward Kerly0:03:16
3Mark Dunlop0:05:11
4Jonathon Brown0:10:41
5Vaughn Watson0:16:59
6Brandon Sbordone0:49:36
DNFAndy KingRow 6 - Cell 2
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Senior women
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Kate Fluker1:24:54
2Kristie Fogarty0:21:59
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Master 1 men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Ricky Pincott1:48:54
2Keith Anderson0:02:16
3Jared Scollay0:04:22
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Master 1 women
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Brenda Clapp1:25:44
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Master 2 men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Blair Stuthridge1:15:01
2Jason Blair0:01:28
3Jake Stow0:02:23
4Steven Sawyers0:03:55
5Andrew Macdonald0:09:27
6Marty Richards0:16:26
7John McRae0:20:03
8Scott Wright0:29:25
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Master 2 women
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Sarah Beadel1:15:01
2Leighann Champion0:01:34
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Master 3 men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Derek Milne1:18:54
2Patrick Meffen0:04:37
3Tony Beven0:11:44
DNFAndrew ScottRow 3 - Cell 2
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Master 3 men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Susan Heydon1:33:28
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Under 15 men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Scott Barr1:03:54
2Ben Friel0:02:53
3Paul Wright0:05:02
4Craig Murray0:06:56
5Connor McRae0:09:03
6Marcus Jones0:23:53
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Under 15 women
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Brooke Hudson0:53:56

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