International stars Rebecca McConnell and Anton Cooper proved a class above in winning the elite cross-country titles at the Design Windows Oceania Mountain Bike Championships in Dunedin.

McConnell, the world number four ranked rider from Australia, showed her resilience on the Signal Hill course today, forced to fix a mechanical on the first lap but recovering to reclaim the lead. She punctured early in the lap and rode some of the way before running up the major climb to return to service.

She recovered and eventually went on to win in 1:26:33, a minute ahead of the leading New Zealander, Josie Wilcox (Nelson) with Australian Holly Harris a distance back in third place.

“That was brutal. I made it incredibly hard for myself and I only had myself to blame. Even at the end when I was able to catch Josie she did not let me have the lead easily and I had to push all the way.

“I think I hit my wheel on a rock on the first lap and I though oh no, you must be kidding me. The rim slid out on every corner on the way down and I had to run that really hard climb. Bad luck and bad riding I guess.

“I love coming to Dunedin. The weather has been perfect the last two times we have come here and the course is really good. It is a true mountain bike course and has a bit of everything.

“I am taking one race at a time this year and see if I can do anything like what I did last year- I am pretty blown away with what I was able to do – so aiming to do better than that but at the same time not get too carried away.”

Cooper, who rides for the Trek Factory team, showed his class to dominate the men’s elite race.

The North Canterbury rider, ranked 22 in the world, took control of the men’s race, leading from wire-to-wire in an impressive solo performance. He won in 1:23:05 with Australia’s best, Cameron Ivory second 42 seconds behind.

Outstanding Australian rider Danial McConnell was third one minute further back ahead of North Canterbury’s Ben Oliver while Sam Gaze did not have the return to racing that he had hoped, falling behind early and later withdrew after feeling unwell.

“That is five Oceania titles in a row so that is a huge achievement and means a lot. It is not something I ever considered I could achieve.

“It was a demanding course. I was really surprised to get the lead on the first lap because it’s my first race in four months and difficult to gauge where I would be.

I decided to ride at my own pace from there, and keep the others at arm’s length from there and was able to ease up on the final lap to save my legs for the nationals on Sunday.

“We are all in the same boat and have to recover today and tomorrow and back it up on Sunday.

“Both titles are massively important and so to wear the Oceania jersey or the New Zealand jersey overseas means a lot to me personally and it means a lot for the kiwi spectators as well – that fern is such a great symbol and I take great pride in that and I other riders do as well.”

The under 23 honours went to Nelson’s Cameron Jones who edged our Southland’s Josh Burnett while Australian Zoe Cuthbert, who was fifth in the world championships last year, won the women’s honours ahead of Taupo’s Sammie Maxwell.

The focus moves to the gravity riders tomorrow, with the downhillers racing for Oceania titles. The 2018 Oceania champion Sam Blenkinsop topped the seeding run today ahead of Queenstown’s George Brannigan and Australian Dean Lucas in the men.

New Zealand’s Shania Rawson edged Australian Sian A’Hern in the seeding run in elite women, although fastest female on the day was under-15 Auckland rider Sacha Earnest.

Both cross-country and downhill riders will return to Signal Hill on Sunday to compete in the Altherm New Zealand Championships.

Results Design Windows UCI Oceania Cross-Country Championships:

Male, Under 15: Cam Anderson (Marlborough) 52:04, 1; Joe Millington (Auckland) 53:39, 2; Finn McKenzie (Marlborough) 54:35, 3

Under 17: Joel Dodds (Australia) 45:35, 1; Max Preece (Rotorua) 47:24, 2; Coen Nicol (Taupo) 47:43, 3.

Under 19: Ethan Rose (Christchurch) 1:14:24, 1; Domenic Paolilli (Australia) 1:16:31, 2; Jacob Turner (North Canterbury) 1:19:14, 3.

Under-23: Cameron Jones (Nelson) 1:28:07, 1; Josh Burnett (Southland) 1:28:20, 2; Matthew Dinham (Australia) 1:30:56, 3.

Elite: Anton Cooper (Christchurch) 1:23:05, 1; Cameron Ivory (Australia) 1:23:47, 2; Daniel McConnell (Australia) 1:24:45, 3.

Female, Under 15: Caoilinn Gray (Te Miro) 43:17, 1; Amber Nicol (Taupo) 56:57, 2.

Under 17: Rebecca Hufflett (Nelson) 36:03, 1; Mia Cameron (Taupo) 36:23, 2; Annabel Bligh (Christchurch) 38:17, 3.

Under 19: Isabella Flint (Australia) 1:17:09, 1; Phoebe Thompson (Australia) 1:19:44, 2; Zoe Nathan (Nelson) 1:26:46, 3.

Under-23: Zoe Cuthbert (Australia) 1:11:26, 1; Sammie Maxwell (Taupo) 1:12:28, 2; Jessica Manchester (East Auckland) 1:17:44, 3.

Elite: Rebecca McConnell (Australia) 1:26:33, 1; Josie Wilcox (Nelson) 1:27:35, 2; Holly Harris (Australia) 1:37:30, 3.

CAPTION: Rebecca McDonnell and Anton Cooper in action on their way to winning respective cross-country  titles at the UCI Oceania Championships in Dunedin. (Jemma Wells Photography)