New Zealand Mountainbikers in Canada

Crankworx, August 7-15; Blenkinsop and Leov on Form.

The Crankworx MTB Festival in Whistler, Canada wrapped up on Sunday after a week of competition across a wide range of MTB disciplines. Part of the New Zealand MTB Team were racing in the gravity events as a lead-in to the UCI World Mountainbike Championships to be held in the first week of September at Mont Sainte Anne, in Quebec.

Last Sunday's Garbanzo Downhill is widely regarded as one of the most sustained and intense downhill racing experiences on the international calendar. At more than three times the length of a standard World Cup downhill course, doing well in the Garbanzo requires an extremely high level of fitness and mental toughness. Justin Leov (Trek World Racing, Dunedin) won here in 2009, and returned this year wanting to turn around a two week period of less than ideal World Cup results. Leov raced to 2nd place this year, with Sam Blenkinsop (Lapierre International, Wanganui) right on his tail in third. Steve Murphy, a downhill racer with an impressive racing resume stretching back to the early 1990's, showed his fitness and nerve is still up to the task by winning the Master Men's category.

Leov raced mid-week in the Canadian Open Enduro, an event that represents a growing genre of downhill racing pitting fitness and strength against nerve and skill - the fitness of a cross-country racer complimented with a major dose of speed. The Enduro is a mass start event with riders separated with an uphill sprint before jockeying for position into the downhill part of the course. Leov raced the world's best exponents of this growing discipline, claiming an eighth place.

The Air Downhill took place on Wednesday - this famous race course on Whistler's A-Line is renowned the world over as the benchmark for a downhill mountainbike course, containing a stunning sequence of over 100 jumps. Sam Blenkinsop was aiming to unseat five time Air DH champion Brian Lopes but couldn't maintain enough momentum over the A-Line course to post a quicker time than Lopes, finishing second by only half a second. Other notable results came from Bryn Dickerson (Wellington) who won the Junior Mens category.

Saturday's Slopestyle is aguably the highlight of Crankworx, and is the event that forms the hub of the week's activity at Whistler. Kelly McGarry (Wide Open, Nelson) is New Zealand's most well known semi-professional slopestyle rider, and has been following the European slopestyle circuit while building up for Crankworx. McGarry landed all his tricks clean in the first Slopestyle run to sit in fourth going into the second and final run - a few mistakes dropped him back to fifth overall and some well needed prizemoney - his best result at this event among the world's best!

Sunday's Canadian Open Downhill completed the Crankworx programme and Leov again emerged with a podium finish, this time a third. The Canadian Open runs on a course more closely resembling the steep, technical World Cup race courses Leov is primed for, and Junior World Champion Brook MacDonald (MS Evil, Hawkes Bay) also showed his race craft in his preferred racing environment to a seventh. Kieran Bennett (DRD Tomac, Nelson) had a forgettable day, a puncture close to the line and the resulting crash knocking Bennett around and back to a 32nd.

Quebec Cup, Bromont August 15; Leary Back in Action

While the downhill racers were taking on Crankworx in the west, New Zealand's Cross Country contingent were competing at a UCI Category 1 event in Bromont on the east side of Canada. In terrain very similar to what they will face in the World MTB Championships, the Kiwis acquited themselves well with performances keeping them right on course for their personal targets in three weeks time.

The Men's Elite race was a scorcher, with four NZ athletes lining up against a strong Commonwealth oriented field. Mike Northcott (Tokoroa) and Carl Jones (Rotorua) made the top ten with a 9th and 10th and Jones especially was extremely happy with his form - "As first Under 23, this is the best race I have ever had and my form is only just picking up".

The Women's Elite race was Nicola Leary's first race back in the northern hemisphere after a three month training block back in NZ following her early World Cup appearances this year. Leary (Avanti, Rotorua) was coming off a brutal period of training, and wasn't sure how much improvement she has been able to gain over NZ's winter. A fourth place was the answer, and a healthy dose of encouragement to go with it. US based Jennifer Smith made the trip north from her Gunnison base as part of her lead-in to the World Championships, crossing the line three minutes back from Leary in fifth.

Full Results Coupe du Quebec, Bromont