Motatapu Madness

Anton Cooper was a marked man from the moment he jumped on his bike at this year’s Motatapu Speight’s Summit Mountain Bike event, in NZ’s South Island.

Cooper was the course record holder, the New Zealand and World Junior champ and a recently signed member of Cannondale’s Factory Racing team.

As well as the pressure of being a sponsored rider, Cooper had to contend with a field keen to add such a

prestigious scalp to their trophy rooms. And, to make it even more difficult for the young gun, he had only flown in from Europe 48 hours earlier and had spent most of his prerace preparation time dealing with a serious stomach bug.

Cooper’s main rival, Dirk Peters, and NZXC team mate Carl Jones, opted for a tag-team approach,

where one rider would attack and the other sit on the lead group and let them chase. Peters said the tactic

worked a treat, with Peters overcoming some mid-race mechanicals to cross the line first, in 1:47:33, beating Cooper by five minutes and bettering Anton’s 2011 course record by 50 seconds.