Solid effort from juniors at mountainbike worlds

New Zealand’s junior mountainbikers produced some solid performance but were out of the major placings at the UCI World Championships in Italy today.

Wellington’s Samara Sheppard was the best of the New Zealanders in 20th place in the junior women run at the alpine resort town of Val di Sole in Trentino.

The recent rain and snow gave way to a fine day although riders had to cope with some muddy conditions as the crosscountry course cut up during the day.

Sheppard, 19th last year, finished 13 minutes behind the winner Laura Abril from Colombia in the 17.6km race for under-19 riders.

The Wellington rider had to use a borrowed bike after issues wither her own machine could not be resolved. In an aggressive opening lap, she got caught in the catch-fencing and was forced to play catch up from that point, pushing back through the field.

Rotorua’s Dirk Peters led the under-19 men finishing in 25th place in the 29.4km race won by Slovakia’s Peter Sagan.

Peters produced a strong performance to finish only nine minutes off the third placed rider and 12 minutes behind winner Peter Sagan (Slovakia). George Bennett (Nelson) was 41st, Ashley Hough (Tauranga) 52nd and Scott Green (Rotorua) 90th.

The New Zealanders found themselves well back after the first of four laps with Peters producing a superb effort after he was 43rd at the end of the first lap, pushing up to 25th.

Bennett was shuffled back to 90th at the end of the first lap and impressed to force his way through the field to 41st.

Wellington’s Josh Barley competes in the under-23 competition tomorrow along with the Four Cross with the downhill competition on Sunday (NZ time) and elite cross country on Monday.

The New Zealadners enjoyed some outstanding efforts in the seeding runs for the downhill today.

World ranked professionals Justin Leov and Sam Blenkinsop finished third and fifth respectively in the seeding run with teammate Kieran Bennett 15th.

Queenstown’s Scarlett Hagen has qualified fifth fastest in the elite women while Brook MacDonald third and Aari Barrett fourth despite an off mid-run in the junior men.

Results, UCI Mountainbike World Championships:

Junior women: Laura Abril (COL) 1:16.08, 1; Barbara Beuko (HUN) 1:16.46, 2; Mona Eiberweiser (GER) 1:18.19, 3. Samara Sheppard (NZL) 1:29.20, 20.

Junior men: Peter Sagan (SVK) 1:35.21, 1; Arnaud Jouffray (FRA) 1:36.55, 2; Matthias Rupp (SUI) 1:38.12, 3. New Zealanders: Dirk Peters 1:47.51, 25; George Bennett 1:51.06, 41; Ashley Hough 1 lap, 52; Scott Green 2 laps, 90; Kieran Hambrook dnf.