McConnell and Cooper stamp authority on The Pioneer

All photos from Duncan Philpott

This week, the inaugural edition of The Pioneer is taking place in the South Island of New Zealand. Travelling over 550km from Christchurch to Queenstown, the route skirts, and climbs, the Southern Alps. It takes in singletrack, cycle ways, dirt roads, farm roads, and all sorts of natural challenges along the way. Today, the race started with the Prologue at the Port Hills, which was won by Dan McConnell and Anton Cooper.

At just 37km, and using many trails that are all part of Cooper’s training haven, the Prologue suited the XCO specialists. Both are targeting the Rio Olympics, and are using The Pioneer as part of their preparation.

Cooper and McConnell (c) Tim Bardsley-Smith

But eyes might be turning to the Kona Factory Endurance Teams tomorrow. With four athletes in the race, the teams did give a few minutes to McConnell and Cooper today. But with over 500km to cover in the next 6 days, there’s a very good chance that favour will turn to the North Americans. Team B caught Team A early on and they time trialled along.

Kona get started. Photo: Duncan Philpott

Torpedo7 Shoot to the lead

Erin and Kath took a comfortable lead after a stellar race in the Prologue, netting about a 15 minute buffer. With 5 teams, the racing could be unpredictable. Each team is here with a purpose, and Greene has said they won’t be cruising and just watching their gap.

Master’s Flooded with talent

The Master’s and Grand Master’s categories have pushed deep into the overall rankings, with strong teams from Australia and New Zealand dominating the standings.

Team New World took line honours in the Mixed category, and look set for an excellent week of mountain biking.

Full results are online.

The course above Christchurch was a great example of how smaller cities can be excellent for mountain bikers. While we rode to the start ‘in convoy’ each road did have bike lanes, and the variety of trails right on the edge of Christchurch was a blast to ride. From some natural rock chutes on a good climb, to the handbuilt descent of Flying Nun – the course was just lots of fun.

The camp in Geraldine is like a summer holiday, and the burgers joints and cafes out on the main street are doing a pretty good trade. Bikes are washed, as are riders, and hopefully their kit. Tomorrow is a bigger day, tackling 106km and over 2000m of climbing to race to Fairlie.