Brendan Fairclough edges Aussie junior in the Vertigo Bikes Dirtmasters Downhill

Action on the second Sunday of Queenstown Bike Festival 2015 returned to Queenstown Bike Park for the Vertigo Bikes Dirtmasters Downhill, New Zealand’s original gondola-assisted downhill race.

Seeding runs in the morning sorted the superhuman from the merely mortal, but there was nothing light-hearted about the steep and challenging course designed by Jimmy Carling of Queenstown Mountain Bike Club.

Top seed, Brendan Fairclough (GBR) of the Gstaad-Scott UCI World Cup team took the Open Men’s win with a time of 2:33.95. Second fastest in both the seeding and final run was 17-year-old Max Warshawsky. The promising Australian’s impressive display of controlled speed would have put him second on the Open Men’s podium.

As it was, Andrew Neethling (RSA) of the Polygon UR team claimed that place, more than five seconds behind Fairclough, followed by Invercargill’s Connor Harvey more than three seconds further back.

Warshawsky’s Under-19 Men’s winning time of 2:39.36 proves he is well equipped for a future in the sport. He now travels north to mix it with many others from today’s field for the Crankworx Rotorua Downhill.

Londoner Fairclough has a New Zealand passport through his mother from Waiheke Island but was racing in Queenstown for the first time.

“My run went really well. I had some doubts with all the local boys kicking around and I’ve only been in town for a week and a bit. I had an amazing time and rode really well,” he said.

“The whole course was like a world cup track – it was dusty, always changing, rough. Staying in one piece was the main thing and not flying off the track!”

In the Open Women’s competition, Tracey Hannah took first place with 2:56.10, 16 seconds ahead of Emilie Siegenthaler with Alanna Columb from Queenstown a further five seconds back. Columb is the current NZ national downhill champion and was second in last year’s Vertigo Bikes Dirtmasters DH.

“The track was awesome and I had heaps of fun riding it. There was quite a crowd in Rowdy Roots which I wasn’t expecting. It gave me a bit of a fright but it’s always encouraging when that happens. It’s good to compare my times against the guys and get that confidence up ahead of Crankworx and the World Cup series,”

Tracey Hannah said. She continued “today’s course would work fine as a World Cup track!”

“I always love Queenstown. I think it’s the best place for training in the world in the summer so I love it here.”

Brent Howey won the Master 30+ Men’s category with a time of 3:05.75, whilst Matthew Gillan took the Under-17 Men’s title with 2:56.22 and Rohan Keyes was fastest in the Under-15 Boys with 4:09.55.

The Finale Party at Lone Star tonight marks the end of the main Queenstown Bike Festival 2015. The festival now takes a short break before concluding with the Merrell Tour de Wakatipu, a family-friendly trail ride from Millbrook Resort to Chard Farm winery, on Easter Saturday (4 April).

More information and results are available on the Queenstown Bike Festival’s website at www.queenstownbikefestival.com.