Hard won victories for McConnell and Hanlen at Oceania Mountain Bike Champs

Australia's Dan McConnell and New Zealand's Karen Hanlen successfully defended their respective crosscountry titles at the Oceania Mountain Bike Championships at the stunning Mt Hutt on Saturday.

The prestige of winning Oceania titles is accompanied by valuable UCI qualifying points towards upcoming World Cup competitions. It’s also an important opportunity for selectors to gauge the performance of New Zealand riders in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games.

In the Elite women’s race, Kiwi Hanlen clawed back on compatriot Kate Fluker and fellow Olympian Rebecca Henderson from Australia who built an early lead, to achieve a definitive victory.

Fluker and Henderson, respective national champions of New Zealand and Australia, were locked together for the first half of the race, before Henderson pulled away on the technical climb.

Henderson, who took the Under-23 Oceania title last year, poured on the gas on to build a gap of just under a minute, with Fluker falling with a flat tyre.

Hanlen cut Henderson’s lead to just 30 seconds and in a thrilling last lap, the New Zealander grabbed the lead, and went on to win with comfortably.

“It was a tough, tough course, heaps of fun and heaps of cheering, loved the support,” said Hanlen.

“This year the start was a lot faster, the competition is definitely stronger and I was lucky to keep in a bit of sight of the lead too.

“The (Commonwealth Games) is my big goal, but yeah, again, you’ve got to qualify, and you’ve got to earn it, I believe.  I’ve still got to go overseas and prove it, but this is a good step for me. If I make Comm Games selection, I’ll go into Europe and give it my all.”

Australia’s Jenni King rounded out the podium, with Kate Fluker unable to come back after her disappointing flat.

North Canterbury’s Anton Cooper, the Cannondale professional, achieved an early lead in the elite men’s race, but McConnell  gained precious seconds over successive laps, before pulling ahead and stretching the gap out to 30 seconds.

Cooper was unable to close the gap, and McConnell winning by two minutes to win his fourth Oceania title. Rotorua’s Dirk Peters was third.

Having won the Australian National Championships just last weekend, McConnell will now join fellow Trek Factory teammates in California for a training camp before heading to South Africa for the first round of the World Cup.

“It was good as. It was always going to be a pretty hard race because of Anton,” McConnell said. “Quite a few fast guys came over from Australia as well, so to have another strong race, I’m pretty happy with that. Two good wins in two weeks.”

“Obviously Anton’s Anton, really fast and rides really aggressively so when he took off at the start I didn’t really have a response. I was able to just settle in, I just tried minimise the damage, and not let him get too far.”

Cooper, who is building for a big season in Europe with his eye on the world championships and the Commonwealth Games, took the race outcome in his stride.

“My first half (of the race) was perfect, then Dan came past on the flatter half of the course, just flying, so I couldn’t follow his wheel really,” said Cooper, “After that I just suffered for the rest of the race.”

“I’m happy with second really, it’s a decent amount of points and second in elite in Oceanias is pretty cool, especially behind Dan, he’s performed so well the last few World Cup stages. Such a classy rider, so I’m pretty happy with that.”

Sam Gaze dominated in the Under-23 men’s race, building on recent success at the National Championships.

“I had a good couple of weeks prep leading up to it, rode really well last week at Motatapu,” said the Te Awamutu rider.

Completing the podium for the Under-23s were Australia’s current national champion Cameron Ivor, and Michael Crosbie, who was third in Australia also.

The Under-19s result was a mirror image of the recent third round of the Australian series with New Zealand under 19 champion Ben Oliver winning from David Ashby-Coventry second and Australia’s Reece Tucknott.

Rotorua’s Amber Johnston won for the Women’s Under-23, and national junior champion Harriet Beaven collected her second title for the year, dominating the Under-19s.

Provisional Results:

Male:

Elite: Daniel McConnell (Palmerston, ACT) 1.44.24, 1; Anton Cooper (Woodend) 1.46.53, 2; Dirk Peters (Rotorua) 1.50.04, 3; Carl Jones (Rotorua) 1.52.14, 4; Brendan Johnston (Richardson, ACT) 1.52.38, 5.

U23: Sam Gaze (Cambridge) 1.31.54, 1; Cameron Ivory (Rankin Park, NSW) 1.33.49, 2; Michael Crosbie (Melbourne, VIC) 1.35.02, 3; Kyle Ward (Tarrawanna, NSW) 1.36.32, 4; Ben Forbes (Brisbane, QLD) 1.37.25, 5.

U19: Ben Oliver (North Canterbury) 1.19.16, 1; David Ashby-Coventry (Timaru) 1.20.05, 2; Reece Tucknott (Lesmurdie, WA) 1.20.21, 3; Cosmo Bloor (Auckland) 1.21.19, 4; Gareth Cannon (Woodville) 1.22.30.

U17: Eden Cruise (Porirua) 47.46, 1; Robert Stannard (Palmerston North) 50.53, 2; Paul Wright (Wanaka) 52.10, 3.

U15: Cameron Jones (Nelson) 59.02, 1; Julius Staufenberg (Wanaka), 1.09.59, 2.

Master 1: Andy Reid (Christchurch) 1.11.19, 1; Steve Bale (Wellington) 54.01, 2.

Master 2: Sarnim Dean (Blenheim) 1.09.37, 1; Jesse Voza (Auckland) 1.16.22, 2; Ray Hope (Dunedin) 1.19.30, 3.

Master 3: Iain Paintin (Wellington) 1.14.07, 1; Gary Moller (Wellington) 1.18.47, 2; Paul McDowell (Rotorua) 1.20.46.

Senior: Andrew Toomey (Dunedin) 1.17.13, 1.

Female:

Elite: Karen Hanlen (Queenstown) 1.48.32, 1; Rebecca Henderson (Palmerston, ACT) 1.49.47, 2; Jenni King (Ringwood,VIC) 1.54.44, 3; Tory Thomas (Mt Beauty, NSW) 1.57.55, 4; Ingrid Richter (Nelson) 1.59.58, 5.

U23: Amber Johnston (Rotorua) 1.40.01, 1; Holly Harris (Armadale, NSW) 1.41.49, 2; Samantha Hope (Dunedin) 2.00.48, 3.

U19: Harriet Beaven (Auckland) 1.17.54, 1; Charlotte Rayner (Auckland) 1.24.29, 2; Jemma Manchester (Auckland) 1.26.00, 3; Shannon Hope (Dunedin) 1.26.51, 4; Lydia Kinsman (Fairlie) 1.31.30, 5.

U17: Jessica Manchester (Auckland) 1.00.21, 1; Kayla Russell (Auckland) 1.02.10, 2; Isabel Clarke (Dunedin) 1.17.03, 3.

U15: Phoebe Young (Wanaka) 54.16, 1.

Master 2: Merrin Brewster (Dunedin) 1.35.17, 1.

Master 3: Sharon Prutton (Christchurch) 1.09.30, 1; Sarah Beadel (Rotorua) 1.23.42, 2.