Kiwi teenagers Winni Goldsbury and Cooper Millward made stunning starts to the UCI MTB World Series at the opening round of the Enduro in Italy.
Goldsbury (Specialised Gravity, Christchurch) has finished seventh in her debut in the elite women’s competition, while Cooper (Alexandra) placed second in the junior men in the gruelling two-day World Series event in Pietra Ligure, on the Italian Riveira.
Enduro is the mountain bike equivalent of motor rally, where the contestants are timed over a series of short downhill tracks, which are joined by lengthy liaison trails, with riders with the skills of downhill and the endurance of cross-country.
Riders tackled over 100km of riding along with seven timed stages totalling 20kms with 1480m of climbing and 1899m of descents.
Goldsbury, who won two round of the junior women’s competition last year, enjoyed an outstanding debut in the elite ranks. After finishing 10th in the opening stage, Goldsbury was third on stage two and then settled in the top 10 in the remaining stages. She finished in seventh overall, 1:50.806 behind winner Harriet Harnden (GBR) who was in a class of her own, fastest in five stages and winning by over 24 seconds.
Experienced New Zealand rider George Swift (Yeti-Fox Factory, Nelson) was 15th, five minutes down on the winner.
Millward, competing with fellow Alexandra rider Marcus Sayers who finished in ninth overall, was outstanding. Third after the first day, the Yeti NZ Development Team rider was fastest in three of the four stages on day two to finish just 14 seconds behind winner Melvin Almueis from France. This margin was lost on the opening stage on day one, and from that point Millward proved a real challenge for the Frenchman.
New Zealand enduro star, Charles Murray (Specialized Gravity, Christchurch) was 11th overall in the elite men’s competition.
Third overall in the world series last year, Murray was in 15th place after the first day but enjoyed a solid series of timed runs on day two to climb to 11th 45 seconds down on winner Daniel Booker from Australia who claimed his first World Series win by less than a second.
“It was a very big weekend of racing. Overall it was a solid competition for me but Winni rode amazingly well, and Cooper was really impressive,” said Murray.
Goldsbury was delighted with her debut in the elite category.
“I was pretty stoked for my first elite World Cup. I think I was the youngest elite in the field and managed to do pretty well. Seventh was stoked, and coming third in one stage was even better,” said Goldsbury. “The liked the long liaison stage on the first day which reminded me of home.”
Leading the rest of the New Zealand elite men were Rotorua’s Joe Millington in 29th and Matthew Walker (Pivot Factory Racing) from Kawerau in 34th.
There is no time to relax with the UCI MTB World Series moving to Bielski-Biala in Poland for the second round of the Enduro competition, joining the Downhill riders who make their championship start.
Results:
Elite Men: Daniel Booker (AUS) 43:00.767, 1; Slawomir Lukasik (POL) at 0.374s, 2; Alex Rudeau (FRA) at 4.719, 3. Leading NZers: Charles Murray (Specialized Gravity) at 45.302, 11; Joe Millington (Yeti NZ Devo Team, Rotorua) at 1:31.227, 29; Matt Walker (Pivot Factory, Kawerau) at 1:41.117, 34; Lachie Ross (Yeti NZ Devo Team, Upper Hutt) at 2:28.147, 45.
Elite women: Harriet Harnden (GBR) 29:33.7848:02.801, 1; Ella Conolly (GBR) at 24.376, 2; Morgane Charre (FRA) at 51.558, 3. Also NZers: Winni Goldsbury (Specialised Gravity, Christchurch) at 1:50.806, 7; George Swift (Yeti-Fox Factory, Nelson) at 5:04.720, 15.
Junior men: Melvin Almueis (FRA) 44:53.80, 1; Cooper Millwood (Yeti NZ Devo Team, Alexandra) at 14.718, 2; Matteo Falcini (ITA) at 49.950, 3.