Australian Sam Fox mixed work with competition to become the first Australian in 10 years to win the men's elite cross-country title at the UCI Oceania MTB Championships in Queenstown.
The honours were shared in the elite racing with New Zealand’s Paris Olympian, Sammie Maxwell dominating the women’s race to defend her title.
Fox became only the second person in 10 years to win the elite men's title, with Anton Cooper (New Zealand) winning every edition since 2016.
The duo was closely matched early with Cooper pushing out to a 30-second lead after three of seven laps before a flat tyre proved costly. After limping back to service, the Lapierre Racing Unity professional found himself well down on the Australian and was unable recover the time.
Fox finished just shy of a minute clear to add the elite crown to his Australian national honours last week with Cooper finishing second for his 12th consecutive Oceania Championship medal since 2013. Rotorua’s Sam Shaw finished third.
It continues a rewarding time for Fox, who has recently finished as a fulltime professional and is mixing work with racing.
"It has been a busy couple of weeks, I finished up our national titles in some pretty torrential conditions and back to work with Cycleways in Christchurch, so I didn't get to touch the bike until course recon yesterday," said the Australian.
"The fun-is-fast adage is really paying off. I had a lot of momentum from the last year of training professionally and kind of carrying that through with less volume. Obviously that momentum will drop off as the training volume does as well but riding the wave for now."
Maxwell confirmed her status as Oceania's top female cross-country rider with another dominant display in the elite women's race.
The former under-23 world champion opened a 90-second lead early on powered away from the field to take the title by nearly 15 minutes on her closest competitor Zoe Cuthbert (Australia), with Mary Gray (New Zealand) completing the podium.
"It's such a brutal course and if you can't quite get up the climbs, the lap times get way slower, so I knew it was going to be a matter of keeping within my limits for the first bit of the race.
"It was good, got all the climbs, so I was happy,” said a delighted Maxwell on her back-to-back Oceania titles.
In under 23 events Ethan Rose (New Zealand) made it two in a row and kiwi Marie Laurie won the women’s honours.
The men's race was close competition between Rose, the Trek Future Racing professional, and Australian Harry Doye who were locked together for two laps until the Australian pushed clear. Rose upped the pace to reclaim the lead and from that point he dominated, going on to claim the title by more than three minutes.
"It's tough around here, lots of steep climbs and not really many places to rest. So, I paced it pretty well and let a few guys ride off at the start hoping they would go a little hard and then pull it back," said Rose.
After finishing second last year, Christchurch rider Marie Laurie claimed her first under 23 Oceania title to add to her under 19 crown from two years ago. The rising Kiwi star who won the first round of the recent Continental Series was in a league of her own, finished well clear of Ella Menigoz (Australia) with kiwi Amelie Mackay.
The under-19 men’s title went to Australia’s Connor Wright and New Zealand’s Kayley McMillan.
Wright pushed clear in the men ahead of New Zealand’s Fletcher Adams James Climo.
McMillan dominated the under 19 women's race to add to her honours after success in the Continental Series, with the Waikato rider winning in impressive fashion from compatriot Millie Junge and Annie Kleywegt (Australia) third.
The XCO Short Track and the Downhill competitions are on Sunday.
Results:
Male, Elite: Sam Fox (AUS) 1:27.11, 1; Anton Cooper (NZL) at 58s, 2; Sam Shaw (NZL) at 5:30, 3.
Under-23: Ethan Rose (NZL) 1:26.41, 1; Harry Doye (AUS) at 3:15, 2; Reuben Page-Brown (AUS) at 4:37, 3.
Under-19: Connor Wright (AUS) 1:04.52, 1; Fletcher Adams (NZL) at 1:54, 2; James Climo (NZL) at 3:03, 3.
Female, Elite: Sammie Maxwell (NZL) 1:26.38, 1; Zoe Cuthbert (AUS) at 14:41, 2; Mary Gray (NZL) 3 laps, 3.
Under-23: Marie Laurie (NZL) 1:37.44, 1; Ella Menigoz (AUS) at 3 laps, 2; Amelie Mackay (NZL) at 4 laps, 3.
Under-19: Kayley McMillan (NZL) 1:18.55, 1; Millie Junge (NZL) at 5:18, 2; Annie Kleywegt (AUS) at 8:39, 3.