Henderson and McConnell win Mt. Buller cross country

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Dan McConnell and Bec Henderson won the the elite cross country races at round 2 of the Subaru Australian Mountain Bike National Season at Mt Buller on Saturday. Both made it two-in-a-row for the weekend after also winning Friday's eliminator.

Elite men

In the elite men's race, the hot favourites were always McConnell and Jared Graves. McConnell had a landmark year in 2013, winning the first UCI World Cup round of 2013 in Germany, and racing well through the year to finish second in the World Cup Series. This was the best result for an Australian since Cadel Evans in 1999.

Graves won the first round of the Australian series in Adelaide. While better known as a living legend in the gravity side of the sport, the former four cross world champion and excellent downhill racer has been focusing on fitness as a key element to develop to ensure his good results in enduro racing continue.

Graves led from the start line climb, and held a 16-second lead at the end of lap 1. A race pattern developed for the first few laps, with Graves extending his lead each lap on the technical descents that are a feature of the first half of the Buller course. The chase group of McConnell, Michael Crosbie, Cameron Ivory and Dylan Cooper would then consistently contract the lead on the steep climbs of the latter half.

The unknown element at this stage was whether Graves could maintain the pace on a course more suited to the specialist climbers like McConnell.

Nearing the end of lap 4 of 7, McConnell made the widely predicted move in the singletrack to take the lead, and then over a small road climb to the finish area, he accelerated and established a seven-second lead. He would ride confidently to extend this lead over the remaining laps to give the dual Olympian his first win for 2014.

"It's good to start the season with a win. My form seems to be coming along pretty good, so I'm happy with that" said McConnell. He reflected on the race pattern, "My start wasn't so good, but in the middle part of the race I started riding better technically, I was able to get a good rhythm and build a good gap".

Graves would ultimately finish second, and retain the national series leader's jersey in the process, but it wasn't all smooth sailing.

"I had a really good crash at the start of lap 2 and cartwheeled over the bars, but I walked away from that thankfully," said Graves.

Despite the cross country success, his goals are in the enduro discipline internationally. "My training's been going good, I'm looking forward to getting as fit as I can for the Enduro World Series, that's what this (riding cross country) is all about for me".

Third place overall was taken by Cameron Ivory, who also secured the win in the under 23 category at the same time after some close racing with Michael Crosbie.

Elite women

In the elite women's race, Henderson was the clear favourite. Her 2013 was one of the best in history for an Australian female rider, and saw her win the World Cup Series for the under 23 women. Jenni King and Tory Thomas were always going to challenge, and the three girls rode together as a bunch for the first two laps.

On lap 3, Henderson decided to put the power down, and rode the fastest non-start lap of the day, 40 seconds faster than Thomas and King. She would ride confidently from here to ultimately win by 1:43.

"Today's the first race of the season back for me. I was pretty nervous coming in to this one," said Henderson.

She spoke of the key move. "The first two laps, I played the tactics well and lap 3 was when I put the hammer down. Sometimes out of sight is out of mind, I could settle into my own rhythm and go from there."

Adelaide round 1 winning King would eventually finish in second place after a tough battle with Thomas who finished third, and King also retained her Subaru season leader's jersey.

King said, "It was quite a tactical race, quite a bit of cat and mouse. I was gaining a lot on the descents, and Tory was climbing a bit better than me. I was surprised to pass her at the end. I'm stoked to retain the series leader's jersey."

Emily Parkes took the win in the under 23 category.

Juniors

For the second round of the season, the under 19 category was upgraded to have international ranking points.

Local Mansfield rider Mitchell Greenway set the early pace in the men's race to open up a lead of a minute from Reece Tucknott and Liam Jeffries. Greenway rode on to extend the lead throughout the race to take a dominant under 19 win.

Jeffries, riding in the under 19 category by choice is actually under 17 rider and made a move on the second to last lap up to second where he would finish, Tucknott rounded out the podium with third.

Greenway won by a massive margin of almost two minutes despite a crash, and said, "It's really good... pretty surprising to have won by such a gap and it's really good to get the international points and hopefully go overseas. I'm stoked with it."

In the under 19 women's race, Sara Mills initially lead over Ellie Wale. A series of crashes and passes ensued from both riders as the lead swapped, and Wale ended up taking the win.

Like Greenway, Wale was happy to win a race that helps her race internationally. "It's my goal to represent my country and do well in my sport, so I'm glad this race was a good one for me."

Downhill tomorrow

The weekend's action will conclude with downhill seeding and racing all day Sunday. In the elite men's downhill, the battle will be on between Troy Bronson and Connor Fearon, after Fearon took the spoils in Adelaide with his first win at the elite level.

In the elite women's downhill round one winner Danielle Beecroft will be back to try and continue her dominant start to the season.

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