News

McConnell, King, Brosnan and Hannah shine in Mt Buller

Published Date

Written by Tony Scott

Dan McConnell (VIC), an Olympian from Beijing in 2008, has started off this Olympic year in outstanding form. Dan won the Real Insurance All Mountain Cup Cross Country Olympic race at Mt Buller from Paul Van Der Ploeg (VIC) and Andrew Blair (ACT).

McConnell was in 7th place for the first two laps, but moved through the field well. "I got off to a bit of a sluggish start, it was my first proper mountain bike race in a while, but I was able to pace it well". He commented on the challenging Mt Buller course "The course certainly took its toll on the field, it was a fatiguing course, climbs creep up on you, descents are hard on the upper body and you don't get much recovery, it made for a really tough race".

Second-placed and fellow Victorian Paul Van Der Ploeg rode and worked well with McConnell at some key stages of the race. Paul helped make the key breakaway at the start of lap 4 from seasoned veteran Sid Taberlay (TAS). Today marked the first race in the Elite field for Paul after a stellar results in the U23 category. "It was pretty tough, a huge contrast to racing with the under 23 field, I liked being up there with the big boys". Andy Blair, the season leader after Round 1 in Perth, talked about his third place: "I'm feeling really good, third places in the first two stages of the weekend and to be as close to Dan and Paul as I was, I'm pretty happy with my form".

In the Elite Women's race, Jenni King (VIC) continued her outright dominance of the 2011/12 season with a confident win over Rebecca Henderson (ACT) and Jenny Fay (IRL).

King, who is in seemingly untouchable form, said "I've been training hard all year, so I'm pretty happy with the win". When talking about the course, she noted "It was a rough and challenging course but I enjoyed the descents, they were fun".

Second-placed Rebecca Henderson has been racing both road and mountain bike with a busy schedule, and stepped up to the Elite field today. "Since the new year, the racing hasn't stopped, but I'm happy to go this well". Late last year Henderson was named the Australian 2011 Female Mountain Biker of the year based on an impressive national and international season "I was surprised to get that award but I worked hard overseas last year". Jess Wigan (VIC) won the women's U23 event, and Trenton Day (NSW) took out the men's event.

In the Gravity Cup, Saturday is seeding run day, where riders compete both for starting positions for Sunday as well as valuable points towards the series total.

Troy Brosnan (SA), Dual Junior World Champion, continued the run of form that saw him win in Thredbo setting an amazing seeding time (3:16.58). This placed him almost 3 seconds in front of team-mate and triple world Champion Sam Hill (WA), who was himself 4 seconds clear of the rest of the field. Troy said "I'm happy with my run, but I had a new rear shock fitted that will need to be tuned before the race run tomorrow".

2006 Junior World Champion Tracey Hannah marched onwards towards her overseas goals with a massive win in seeding, being the only woman to go under 4 minutes (3:48.25). Tracey said "I'm happy with my time and I think it was fast enough". In dry and dusty conditions, it will be interesting to see how riders go in their race runs tomorrow.

Sunday sees the final stage of the All Mountain Cup, the 25k Point-to-Point at 9am. In the Gravity Cup, the Elite and Under 19 Downhill races are at 3pm, and all other Downhill categories are at 11am.

All race information from this weekend and for the whole season is available at the Real Insurance 2011/12 Australian MTB Season website.

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Results

Real Insurance All Mountain Cup Elite Male Cross Country Olympic Race Results

1 Daniel McConnell VIC 1:38:17.5

2 Paul Van Der Ploeg VIC 1:38:46.5

3 Andrew Blair NSW 1:40:25.5

4 Sid Taberlay TAS 1:42:10.8

5 Joshua Carlson NSW 1:42:23.8

6 Adrian Jackson VIC 1:43:35.7

7 Neil Van Der Ploeg VIC 1:44:39.6

8 Matthew Fleming NSW 1:44:48.0

9 Peter Kutschera 1:47:12.6

10 Shaun Lewis ACT 1:47:27.6

Real Insurance All Mountain Cup U23 Male Cross Country Olympic Race Results

1 Jack Haig VIC 1:23:24.9

2 Trenton Day NSW 1:23:42.5

3 Robbie Hucker VIC 1:26:35.8

4 Kyle Ward NSW 1:28:52.1

5 Luke Fetch VIC 1:29:50.7

6 Alexander Meyland VIC 1:30:00.3

7 Robbie Rhodes WA 1:30:49.0

8 Blake Polverino NSW 1:31:10.2

9 Tom Goddard TAS 1:34:04.1

10 Sebastian Jayne NSW 1:36:54.6

Real Insurance All Mountain Cup Elite Female Cross Country Olympic Race Results

1 Jenni King VIC 1:37:32.9

2 Rebecca Henderson ACT 1:39:40.7

3 Jenny Fay NSW 1:40:20.3

4 Jodie Willett QLD 1:41:03.2

5 Peta Mullens VIC 1:41:42.3

6 Tory Thomas VIC 1:45:49.0

7 Jessica Douglas VIC 1:50:38.6

8 Lindsay Gorrell NSW 1:52:23.8

9 Kelly Bartlett VIC 1:53:33.3

10 Felicity Wardlaw VIC 1:55:35.4

Real Insurance All Mountain Cup U23 Female Cross Country Olympic Race Results

1 Jess Wigan VIC 1:48:15.4

Real Insurance Gravity Cup Elite Men DownHill Seeding Results

1 Troy Brosnan SA 3:16.58

2 Sam Hill WA 3:19.40

3 Bryn Atkinson NSW 3:23.81

4 Rick Boyer NSW 3:23.86

5 Rhys Atkinson NSW 3:24.02

6 Graeme Mudd 3:27.12

7 Todd Madsen WA 3:28.65

8 Ben Cory ACT 3:28.71

9 Ben Power QLD 3:30.48

10 Angus Maddern SA 3:30.83

Real Insurance Gravity Cup Elite Female DownHill Seeding Results

1Tracey Hannah 3:48.25

2 Shelly Flood VIC 4:15.94

3 Trudy Nicholas 4:20.45

4 Madeline Taylor VIC 4:23.60

5 Michelle Crisp NSW 4:25.71

6 Lisa Mathison QLD 4:31.89

7 Jill Kintner NSW 4:34.16

Real Insurance Gravity Cup Under 19 Men DownHill Seeding Results

1 Connor Fearon SA 3:19.19

2 Joe Vejvoda NSW 3:22.52

3 Henry Blake SA 3:23.70

4 Thomas Crimmins NSW 3:25.84

5 David McMillan ACT 3:25.94

6 Jack Moir NSW 3:26.13

7 Dean Lucas VIC 3:26.48

8 Trent Piribauer VIC 3:26.51

9 Luke Ellison NT 3:31.76

10 Brent Smith NSW 3:32.69

Real Insurance Gravity Cup Under 19 Female DownHill Seeding Results

1 Danielle Beecroft NSW 4:06.76