Bike Buller

Mountain Bikers Crank Stage 2 of the Bike Buller MTB Festival

Press Release / 10.03.2014

Mountain bikers cranked it up on the renowned downhill single tracks today at Stage 2 of the Bike Buller MTB Festival, presented by Kona, and goes into today’s final stage as race leader.

Stage 2 held on Sunday 9 March, was made up of three different elements; the popular Mavic CrossMax Enduro where riders hit laps on a downhill circuit of approximately 7.5km, over a time-frame of 3 hours and 45 minutes, before they flew off down the hill to the finish at Mirimbah. The Northside Express Chair Lift formed part of each lap (with times for ski lift NOT included in a riders overall time); and placing’s determined by the most laps ranking above those with less.

Alex Swann cranked out 8 laps (1 of 4 people to do so, but with the quickest overall time); not bad considering last years’ crown for most number of laps went to Gravity Enduro World Series Rider Josh Carlson who also clocked up 8 laps. Kate Maffett was the only female to crank out 7 laps in the allotted time – a fantastic performance.

Placing’s in the Premier Category for Stage 2 saw Will Geor and April McDonough once again dominate, with results calculated by the quickest three laps of the downhill circuit, plus their descent time down the ‘Super D’.

Those in the top order after yesterday’s stage  used race tactics during the Mavic CrossMax Enduro which saw most of the riders going for the overall weekend win, whilst others headed out for the overall Stage 2 win.

In the women’s field, Jody Bush sat just one minute behind April McDonough, so having 3 x World 24 hour solo MTB Champion Jess Douglas in the same starting time-slot seemed favourable. Whilst Douglas still sat 20 minutes behind on the general classification, the pair were able to push each other through three fast and wild laps and a cranking descent down the Delatite. (You can read more on Jess and Jody’s day from Jess Douglas’ Stage 2 blog HERE)

However McDonough was still able pip Bush by just over 3 minutes to keep her premier category lead.

For the men’s premier category, Geor holds just over a 3 minute lead on Joey Esterhuyzen, with placings staying the same moving into Stage 3 today

Part three (Stage 2b) was the ‘Super-D’; a flowing 12km 1100 meter vertical descent, also finishing at Mirimbah.

Shannon Rademaker took line honours with the fastest Stage 2b Super-D descent in a time of 39 minutes and 35 seconds; and Junior U18 Rey Logan took out the women’s title in a time 54 minutes and 41 seconds.

Other highlights of the day were the Red Bull team located at the bottom of the Chairlift, providing refreshments for all ridings along with some pumping tunes on each lap.

As one content competitor summed up, “I had awesome fun, and it was great to have the staggered starts – good for chasing people, so it made the stage really interesting; plus I love the downhill single track.” Said Jason Beetles of Sydney returning with a group of mates for the second year running.

The final stage at Bike Buller MTB Festival 2014 is the Cornhill Cranker, a 25km XC that uses parts of the Copperhead Trail. Results and Review available this afternoon.

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