Walker given King of Crankworx boost after Giant Toa Enduro effort

Kawerau rider Matt Walker on his way to a second-place finish on the weekend. Photo/Fraser Britton

Kawerau rider Matt Walker is aiming for King of Crankworx success after a huge confidence boost in the season opener.

Walker, 26, finished second in the Giant Toa Enduro, the first round of the 2017 Enduro World Series and this year's curtain-raiser to the Crankworx season, over a challenging seven-stage course on Sunday.

Walker, who won the race last year when it was not part of the Enduro World Series, clocked a time of 37m 35m 40s - finishing more than three minutes behind New Plymouth's Wyn Masters (37m 31.72s), while Masters' brother Eddie was third (37m 37.95s).

Walker, now a firm King of Crankworx contender, said he was delighted with the "comeback" result after spending much of 2016 recovering from an injured hand.

"I'm pretty stoked - I really surprised myself out there," Walker said. "I know it's a really long season, so starting strong wasn't really a focus, but it was definitely in the back of my mind," he said. "This is something that I wanted to achieve this year - definitely some good momentum."

Weather reports predicting rain would hit early in the day proved all too accurate as the racers, only half an hour into the race, found themselves riding messy mud bogs capable of throwing even the best riders.

"The weather made it very hard work," Walker said. "In one stage I crashed three times. I had been wanting to go as hard as I could but in the end it was just about surviving out there."

Wyn Masters said he found stage three [Hatu Patu, Dammit Janet] the most challenging.

"It was the stage I was most looking forward to," he said. "Someone told me I was second in the race at the top, and then I tried to go way too hard, and it was the biggest mess. I've never seen that stage look like that - I couldn't get out of the ruts."

In the women's field Enduro World series champion Cecile Ravanel from France dominated, finishing three minutes up and winning all but one stage, clocking an overall time of 44m 36.63s. Ines Thoma from Germany was second (47m 51.65s) and Switzerland's Anita Gehrig (48m 25.26s).

Walker said he would now be competing in "as many events as possible" at his home Crankworx - the first of four. The next is in Les Gets, France, followed by Innsbruck, Austria and finally to its Canadian home base in Whistler, British Columbia.

"I may as well give everything a try and see where I'm at. I would rather do as many as I can instead of thinking tactically because I don't want to get down the road and regret it," Walker said.

"I want to compete strongly at all the Crankworx. This has been a huge confidence boost. I'm going to be taking one step at a time though because you never know what could happen but hopefully I'll be up there pushing right at the end in Canada."

2017 Enduro World Series, Rotorua results:

Men:
1. Wyn Masters (NZL) New Plymouth: 37m 31.72s
2. Matt Walker (NZL) Rotorua: 37m 35m 40s
3. Eddie Masters (NZL) New Plymouth: 37m 37.95s

Women:
1. Cecile Ravanel (FRA): 44m 36.63s
2. Ines Thoma (GER): 47m 51.65s
3. Anita Gehrig (SUI): 48m 25.26s