Small Event Down Under Draws Top Pros

November 29th, 2010 1:23pm

While most of the mountain bike world works on their golf game and off season fitness, the seasons down under in Australia  are turning warmer and the action is just getting started.  This past weekend, the Aussies raged at a huge music and sports festival called Newton's Nation held at Mount Panorama in New South Wales, Australia. As part of the sports program, the event hosted a Downhill race which ended up fielding a list of riders that resembled a small  World Cup.

How about showing up at a low key race to get some training runs in and seeing names like Sam Hill, Chris Kovarik, Ben Cory, Bryn Atkinson, Rhys Atkinson, Jill Kintner, Nathan Rennie etc. on the start list? Because that is what happened at this event.  A who's who of Australian Downhill for sure. On a relatively short course Transiition Bikes continued their domination just as they did in the PRO GRT series in the states with Bryn Atkinson winning the mens division and Jill Kitner crushing the women.

The win is a good sign for last years PRO GRT winner Atkinson as he is coming back from a painful thumb injury that required surgery and kept him out of the last race of the season.

The winning Atkinsons description of the weekend is as follows:

"The little hillside meant a short track, only 1.20ish. But turned out to be pretty quality, with plenty of ripping turns, rocks, off camber and high speed sections, the combo of all this made the racing really tight. Sunday's racing was in the rain, it seem's like we can't escape it.. I had a pinner of a run and took the win over Ben Cory with Sam in 3rd. Jill was ripping, and won the women's event by a mile. Nice to be riding Downhill again, my new thumb works great!"

Men's Finale

1. Bryn Atkinson - 1.22.89

2. Ben Cory - 1.23.68

3. Sam Hill - 1.25.38

4. Brandon Vittiaho - 1.26.02

5. Rhys Atkinson - 1.27.31

6. Chris Kovarik - 1.28.12

14. Nathan Rennie 1:32.58

Women Finale

1. Jill Kintner - 1.37.89 (30th place mens)

Here is a course video shot by Bryn Atkinson on the Mount Panorama course.

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