After a wet start to the morning the skys cleared up for the inagural running of the Nelson Classic Open Downhill Mountain Bike Race on Fringed Hill in Nelson. With a good turn out of racers the morning practice went by quickly and it was soon onto loading up the trucks to start the race runs.

First up were the Junior Men with Ethan Halliwell taking out the honors and the cash bonus for being the fastest junior on the hill, soon after Derek Winwood showed his skill and won the 30+ class along with a cash bonus for that. Derek also showed he hasnt slowed down by coming in 5th overall making himself some more cash for a good days racing.

With cash being paid to the top 5 fastest racers of the day the top 4 were rounded out with senior mens class with Kieran Bennett coming in 4th chasing down Hayden McKay who placed 3rd.

The race for first was a hot one and came down to Reuben Miller and Pete Cooper battling it out over the two race runs. Reuben managed to show his skill and fitness and  scrape into 1st by only a few hundredths of a second over Pete taking out the top cash prize.

For the girls Harriet Harper from Blenheim showed the rest how its done taking a comfortable win over Amanda Pearce and walking away with the cash.

After a great days racing everyone walked away satisfied and for the organisers it was great to hold a race where all of the profit made was given back to the riders. A massive thanks to Mountain Dew and also to all of the volunteers who gave up their day to make this race happen.  Keep an eye out for an even bigger and better Nelson Open in 2010!

Be Sociable, Share!

•