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Young guns and establish stars shine in mountain bike opener

Young guns and establish stars shine in mountain bike opener

Mountain Bike Sammie Dun1 v2.v1 Kaikoura teenage Oli Clark fired the first shot for the 2025 season with the overall win in the opening downhill…

Sunday, Jan 12

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Mountain Bike Sammie Dun1 v2.v1 Kaikoura teenage Oli Clark fired the first shot for the 2025 season with the overall win in the opening downhill round of the Mountain Bike New Zealand national series in Dunedin.

The national series began on Saturday with cross-country which doubled as the first round of a new UCI Continental Series which attracted several riders from Australia including triple Olympian and two-time world championship medallist, Rebecca Henderson.

Clark, 18, produced a stunning ride down the drying track after weekend rain at the Signal Hill course, clocking 2:45.56 in the downhill final.

The Gravity Canterbury rider, who enjoyed two world cup top-10 finishes last season, finished just under four seconds clear of Hawkes Bay rising star Tyler Waite, who was the top qualifier.

“The run was good as the track had dried out a lot from the seeding run,” said under-19 winner Oli Clark. “I made a few mistakes at the top so I was pretty angry and rode fast at the bottom and happy with the result.”

Manawatu’s Jonty Williamson was third to complete a clean sweep by under-19 riders with Nelson’s Sam Gale the leading elite in fourth place, clocking 2:52.03 to finish ahead of Canterbury rider Seth Sylie and Rotorua pro Tuhoto-Ariki Pene.

“By the time we got to race it, the track was way better,” said Gale. “My run was good. I tried to keep it smooth and push but there were still places where he could catch you out so I played a bit safe and […]

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