MacDonald 3rd at Fort William Mountainbike World Cup

MacDonald 3rd at Fort William Mountainbike World Cup; Kiwis lay Seige on Fort William Top Ten
Brook MacDonald (Hawkes Bay, MS Evil Racing/Red Bull) joined an exclusive group of NZ mountainbike athletes yesterday with a podium third at the 2nd round of the UCI Mountainbike World Cup in Fort William, Scotland. The 2009 Junior World Downhill Champion raced a flawless run on the Ben Nevis mountain to claim his first Elite World Cup podium, and this result absolutely confirms MacDonald's rapid and successful transition from the Junior ranks into the top flight Elite category. MacDonald rode a reasonably conservative top third on the Fort William race course, but let everything run from there and drove hard to the finish line, gaining time all the way and displaying a confidence inspiring level of fitness and mental strength on the always physically demanding Scottish mountain. He enjoyed a fair amount of time in the leaders hotseat and is understandably very happy with his result, a week out from round three of the World Cup in Leogang, Austria.

While MacDonald's result is stunning in its own right, he had three other NZ athletes right on his heels, with the final results sheet showing four NZ riders in the top ten. Cam Cole (Christchurch) recovered from a poor qualifying run after having a rear deraillieur issue to race to 6th, with Lapierre International team mate Sam Blenkinsop (Wanganui) 7th. Trek World Racing's Justin Leov (Dunedin) backed up a strong qualifying run to race to 8th, completing an exceptional and unprecedented showing from the world class Kiwis. Also in the mix were Alexandra's Matt Scoles (Cingolani-Trek) with a 20th, MacDonald's team mate Wyn Masters (New Plymouth) back from injury in his return World Cup to 54th, and George Brannigan (Hawkes Bay, Da Vinci Global) not able to put together a clean run to finish 78th.

Full Results Fort William
Freecaster.tv Coverage (MacDonald's race run @137:44)

Rotorua Cross Country Contingent at Granichen, Racer Bikes Cup, Switzerland
Four Rotorua based Cross Country athletes raced at the 4th round of the Racer Bikes Cup in Switzerland on Sunday. Carl Jones, Katie O'Neill and Samara Sheppard joined Sam Shaw at the Granichen event to get their European campaigns underway and all were able to gain some great benchmarking from the world class racing. Carl Jones posted a 20th in the Elite Mens nine lap race, with Sam Shaw (U23) having a nightmare in the Elite field but still able to finish in 32nd. Shaw was rammed off the course within the first 300m, recovered into the low 20s mid race but had a puncture towards the end which slowed him down further. Samara Sheppard and Katie O'Neill raced the Elite Womens seven lap event, Sheppard hanging in for a 10th, with National Champion O'Neill slightly back in 14th.

Results Granichen (Elite; Frauen)