Alexandra Super D kicks off Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand

Bradley Harris and Louise Ferguson take their first Crankworx wins, besting field of international elite.

The first race of the Crankworx Summer Series New Zealand has wrapped, with Louise Ferguson and Bradley Harris taking the first pro wins of the series and distinguishing themselves as the masters of jank.

The Alexandra Super D served up three rocky tracks, a tasty sampler of the area’s distinctively technical and gnarly terrain, linked together for an 11+ minute race run.

“It feels amazing,” said Ferguson of her podium topping finish. “Really unexpected, but really good. I was just riding my bike and I ended up coming in first.”

Ferguson, who hails from Scotland but now calls Queenstown home, clocked the fastest times on the first two sections of track, and the second fastest on the last.

“My favourite stage was Stage Two. I got a little bit sketchy at the bottom, but it was just really rocky and there were big compressions one after the other and when you got it right it felt so good.”

Her final time of 13:13 managed to ward off a stacked field of pros including Vaea Verbeeck, the 2021 Queen of Crankworx, Red Bull sponsored Harriet Burbidge-Smith, and Canada’s Casey Brown, who grew up 10 minutes from Alexandra.

“It was a good day,” said Brown. “Yesterday was very slippery in practice. You had to kind of just remember that the rocks are now grippy and the dirt is now slippery. Kind of backwards from yesterday. It was just kind of observing the trail ahead of you. I didn’t really have much practice yesterday or anything, so you’re still kind of riding on the edge, interpreting the trail as it comes at each stage.”

“You had to be really careful where you put your pedals and where you put your pedal strokes, where you placed your bike on the trail,” she added of Alexandra’s techy terrain. “You had to ride pretty gingerly because there are a lot of secret rocks sticking out in places where if you do take a full pedal stroke you’ll clip a pedal on a rock. You had to be super aware of your surroundings and observe the trail carefully. I was stoked to just be out there. You get a full taste of what these trails are like and what the Matangi Station bike park is like…It’s been great. I’ve got family here. My mom’s here, my aunt and my sister came and watched today. It’s pretty cool. I never thought in a million years that Crankworx would come to Alexandra.”

Third place went to young Kiwi rider Jenna Hastings, coming off a win in the Downhill race at Crankworx Rotorua, her top pro result to date.

Full results – Alexandra Super D: Pro Women

1. Louise Ferguson (GBR)
2. Casey Brown (CAN)
3. Jenna Hastings (NZL)

On the men’s side, the locals came out swinging on their backyard tracks, with Alexandra’s Harris coming out on top.

“It’s great,” he said of winning on home turf, “it is just the best feeling!”

Times among the men were tight. Another local, Matt Scoles, was in the lead at the first split. Australia’s Dan Booker had the fastest time through the second. Harris took the third, with his strong and consistent times enough to push him into first with an overall time of 11:04.

“Definitely the second,” he said in answer to which stage was the most challenging, echoing Ferguson. “It was really physical, and you just have to get a good rhythm going. You just had to keep the flow going and try and stay on the track.”

Booker would take second on the day, with the New Zealand National Downhill Champion, Sam Blenkinsop, taking third.

“I’m stoked to get third at the end of the day,” said Blenkinsop. “The trails are amazing. I had fun yesterday in the wet, and then today in the dry it was like two different days of riding. So what we had was amazing weather and amazing people riding, and the trails were amazing. So it was sick here in Alex. I had a good weekend.”

Full results – Alexandra Super D: Pro Men

1. Bradley Harris (NZL)
2. Dan Booker (AUS)
3. Sam Blenkinsop (NZL)

Super D is a unique discipline in mountain biking, in that it links together multiple Downhill tracks to create one long track. Racers in the Alexandra Super D tackled a total of 5km of trail, dropping 678m over their total runs.

A total of 86 total racers tackled the first race of the series, including 25 CWNext racers, 14 amateurs and 47 pros.

Overall, the Crankworx Summer Series brings the best of summer – sun, road trips, bikes, friends, party shirts, adventure, and real fruit ice cream – as local riders face off against their mountain bike heroes.

The full schedule of events and locations includes:

November 27-28: Matangi Station Mountain Bike Park, Alexandra

December 3-4: Skyline Queenstown

December 4-5: Queenstown

December 9: Cardrona Alpine Resort

December 11-12: Bike Glendhu, Wānaka

Disciplines/events:

Alexandra: Super D

Queenstown: DH and Pump Track

Cardrona: Air DH

Wānaka: Dual Slalom