Merida Karapoti Classic

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Teenager Beats Conditions & Top Competition at Karapoti

Michael Jacques / 06.03.2011

Heavy rain, strong winds, high rivers and lots of mud made this year’s Merida Karapoti Classic the toughest ever seen in the 26 year history of the Southern Hemisphere’s longest running mountain bike event. But of 1100 riders from 12 countries who lined up for the 50k classic through Upper Hutt’s gruelling Akatarawa Ranges, it was a tiny teenager from Christchurch who handled it better than anyone.

Christchurch teenager Anton Cooper shrugged off testing conditions and the country’s best mountain bikers, not to mention his earthquake torn hometown, to become the youngest ever winner of New Zealand’s premier mountain bike race.

Cooper came into the race expected to push a stacked field that included the past three winners, Tim Wilding (Wgtn), Mark Leishman (Roto) and Stu Houltham (Wgtn), the national championship runner up Dirk Peters, top Canadian Thomas Skinner and multisport world champion Richard Ussher.

Extreme conditions on the famous Rock Garden and Devil’s Staircase split the race wide open and by halfway it was a four way battle between Cooper, Peters, Houltham and Wilding. But on the final climb up the 500m high Doper’s Hill the young Christchurch rider went to work.

“Anton just started shredding and I was like, ‘that’s just ridiculous� said Stu Houltham in disbelief after finishing a solid third place.

Only Rotorua’s Dirk Peters could match Cooper’s pace and the two riders were still locked together coming into the final kilometre. “I knew I had to be in front at the last river crossing,� said the 16 year old. “I tried stay in front, but Dirk kept coming past. So I waited until the last minute and just sprinted at the last river crossing and up that last little hill.�

In the end just three seconds separated the two riders, with Cooper stopping the clock at 2hrs 26min 32secs. Houltham followed just 35secs later in third, ahead of Wilding, while multisporter Richard Ussher impressed onlookers to claim fifth place.
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