Once again it was off to Rotorua for round two of the North Island Cup with slightly more favorable weather conditions this time.

The track seemed to hold up alright in the dryer conditions (although I didn't race, I do know because I rode it afterwards on a hardtail with poked forks and no front brake and managed to hold on so it must have been ok!)

The course followed much of the old favorite taniwha dh track with one of the new sections at the top leading into 'the river' bypassing the step down section in the main line that was used in the last race, rejoining shortly after and, much to the delight of mavis and the burger king team, avoiding the long pedal that we had in the north island series race last year. A new twist in the mattress straight added some variety further down the track and had me almost crashing through the tape riding it blind, as I'm sure many other riders did.


//BROOK MACDONALD
Brook and Wyn were on their new Ancillottis (I'm not sure what the plural of Ancillotti is?) for the first time looking good and the bikes obviously working for them with Brook 5th in Pro and Wyn in 10th. Not bad for the first time out on the bike.

Come pro race run, of course the big news was that Sam Blenkinsop was there for his first race back in NZ after his World Cup win in Schladming. The flying Scottsman Ben Cathro (a TV3 news writer would be proud of comming up with that nickname!) seeded 1st once again with Blenki just 1sec behind. The crowd waited with baited breath as Cathro Came down the track, last man on the hill with Blenkinsnozzle having posted a 3:07, 2 seconds faster than Cathro's seeding time ...and then he knocked over the timing board! It made for a few tense moments but eventually Cathro's time came out over the speaker with a stunning 3:04, taking the win once again. It was a Scottish affair on the elite men's podium with 3 of the buggers in the top 5 and the international whitewash continued in the Elite Women's class with niether of the kiwi girl's able to hold off the french rocket Emmeline Ragot.


//BEN CATHRO

As always there were a few casualties over the weekend Glenn Haden was heading home looking more than a little sore after a crash in race run left him with what looked like a nasty break to his collar bone. Hope to see Glenn back on the bike soon, all the best mate!

Dan Sims impressed the crowd on the last steep section of the course with a high speed ejection, although more impressive than the crash itself was the fact that he walked away from it.. Unfortunately I wasn't shooting on that part of the chute but did manage to swing round in time to catch a few blurry shots of the action:

//DAN SIMS

I've become quite accustomed to having a bit of a bitch and a moan about something on here after each race, so here's my 10cents for this one: A sweeper is there to clear the track, to make sure everything is clear for the next group of riders coming down NOT to have a timed run! It kind of defeats the purpose of having a sweeper if they don't want to stop on the track because they know they're on the clock.

Results:

PRO MEN:
1 Ben Cathro 23 Scotland 3:04.27 
2 Sam Blenkinsop 808 Wanganui 3:07.44
3 Joe Barnes 715 Scotland 3:08.47 
4 Gary Forrest 24 Scotland 3:10.19 
5 Brook MacDonald 29 Napier 3:11.29 
6 James Dodds 11 Rotorua 3:12.59 
7 Hayden Lee 717 Rotorua 3:13.17
8 Edward Masters 18 New Plymouth 3:13.32
9 Matt Scoles 7 Alexandra 3:13.39
10 Wyn Masters 3 New Plymouth 3:15.76

ELITE WOMEN
1 Emmeline Ragot 771 France 3:31.75
2 Harriet Harper 52 Blenheim 3:47.54
3 Rita Langley 772 Takaka 4:20.70

UNDER19 MEN
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL- SEEDING OVERALL
1 George Brannigan 800 Hawkes Bay 3:16.80 +0:00.00 1- 3:20.70 13
2 Richard Leacock 645 Wellington 3:21.61 +0:04.81 2- 3:20.79 20
3 Daniel Heads 650 Tauranga 3:22.19 +0:05.39 3- 3:24.36 23
4 Campbell Robertson 657 Auckland 3:24.65 +0:07.85 4- 3:26.88 28
5 Jake Davis 636 Rotorua 3:24.68 +0:07.88 37- 5:38.32 29

UNDER17 MEN
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL- SEEDING OVERALL
1 Louis Hamilton 795 Rotorua 3:19.44 +0:00.00 1- 3:21.39 15
2 Daniel Franks 801 Christchurch 3:21.22 +0:01.78 3- 3:30.98 19
3 Jay Barrett 767 Hawkes Bay 3:25.13 +0:05.69 2- 3:25.32 30
4 Adam Lynskey 790 Hawkes Bay 3:30.06 +0:10.62 4- 3:33.86 43
5 Simon Barratt 712 Wellington 3:31.50 +0:12.07 7- 3:35.69 46 

SENIOR MEN
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL- SEEDING OVERALL
1 Kurt Lancaster 671 Levin 3:22.15 +0:00.00 2- 3:28.05 22
2 Scott McGregor 674 Bay Of Plenty 3:24.28 +0:02.13 11- 3:40.35 26
3 James McConachie 786 Christchurch 3:24.52 +0:02.37 25- 5:19.48 27
4 Jeff Hunter 749 Canada 3:25.70 +0:03.55 12- 3:43.14 31
5 Steven Pattle 675 Rotorua 3:25.79 +0:03.64 5- 3:31.92 32 

MASTER 1 MEN
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL- SEEDING OVERALL
1 Mike Metz 688 Rotorua 3:27.28 +0:00.00 1- 3:39.75 36
2 Rob Smail 689 Rotorua 3:33.93 +0:06.65 3- 3:46.42 53
3 Cameron Bisset 803 Cave 3:42.40 +0:15.12 2- 3:41.94 73
4 Matthew Vircavs 750 Auckland 3:51.81 +0:24.53 4- 3:56.28 94
5 Dave English 814 Nelson 3:56.90 +0:29.62 5- 3:58.19 105 

MASTER 2 MEN
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL- SEEDING OVERALL
1 Dave Hamilton 691 Rotorua 3:37.57 +0:00.00 1- 3:35.50 60
2 Graeme Hunt 692 New Plymouth 4:12.33 +0:34.76 2- 4:15.18 118
3 Michael Stylianou 802 Nelson 4:28.87 +0:51.30 4- 4:35.54 135
4 Dave Rose 840 Rotorua 4:33.70 +0:56.13 3- 4:32.25 141 

HARDTAIL MEN
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL- SEEDING OVERALL
1 Asher Ellery 827 Tauranga 4:13.37 +0:00.00 1- 4:21.29 120
2 Tim Adams 695 Nelson 4:22.11 +0:08.74 3- 4:37.84 130
3 Ricky Clift 760 Wellington 4:25.25 +0:11.88 4- 4:47.44 131
4 Conor Benson 830 Auckland 4:30.06 +0:16.69 2- 4:31.71 137
5 Todd Smith 832 Hastings 4:45.51 +0:32.14 7- 5:10.79 144 

OPEN WOMEN
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL- SEEDING OVERALL
1 Madeline Taylor 630 Napier 4:06.53 +0:00.00 1- 4:13.91 114
2 Sophie Tyas 631 Auckland 4:16.39 +0:09.86 2- 4:21.05 123
3 Sophiemarie Bethell 627 Auckland 4:17.34 +0:10.81 3- 4:23.78 124
4 Alice Kevern 686 Rotorua 4:21.63 +0:15.09 4- 4:25.93 128
5 Annika Smail 797 Rotorua 4:26.03 +0:19.50 5- 4:32.77 133 

UNDER15 BOYS
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL- SEEDING OVERALL
1 Kurt Summerfield 605 Auckland 3:32.02 +0:00.00 1- 3:31.32 49
2 Jacques Vosloo 778 Rotorua 3:40.40 +0:08.38 2- 3:38.08 65
3 Leo Sandler 604 Auckland 3:43.78 +0:11.77 3- 3:45.19 80
4 Lawrence Cawte 601 Rotorua 3:46.05 +0:14.04 4- 3:50.53 84
5 Connor Hamilton 766 Rotorua 3:54.86 +0:22.84 5- 3:56.86 101

Any rumors that myself and Byron Scott were seen cross country riding in the forest instead of racing are completely unfounded and not true!
...it was freeriding and we busted some sick bar spins and tail whips and rode off some mean drops