Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post / Sport

Cross-country: Groombridge makes it three titles in a row

By Andy McGechan
Hawkes Bay Today·
16 May, 2018 06:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Brad Groombridge won the national cross-country title near Mosgiel at the weekend. Photo / Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com

Brad Groombridge won the national cross-country title near Mosgiel at the weekend. Photo / Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Taupo's Brad Groombridge has completed the task he'd promised to right from the start of the season when he wrapped up the national cross-country title near Mosgiel at the weekend.

He had arrived at Saturday's venue for the fourth and final round of the 2018 New Zealand Cross Country Championships series as firm favourite.

Results from only three of the series' four rounds would be counted, with riders to discard their one worst result, so his 1-1-9 score-card from the previous three rounds put him in an ideal position to clinch the crown on Saturday.

His nearest rival, Taupo's Nathan Tesselaar, had a 4-3-1 score-card after three rounds and so all Groombridge needed was a solid result on Saturday, or to at least finish ahead of Tesselaar, to grab the senior title for 2018.

Groombridge finished runner-up on Saturday, behind Queenstown's former national motocross champion Scott Columb, with Tesselaar claiming third spot, and this was easily enough for Groombridge to celebrate overall victory.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

This was Columb's first appearance in the cross-country series and so he was no threat to Groombridge for the title overall.

"It was a great track and pretty testing," said Motorcycling New Zealand cross-country commissioner Chris Smyth.

"It was a real thinkers' track, with lots of soft and treacherous areas on the course, and it became a battle of attrition too, with quite a few riders failing to finish thanks to their bikes either overheating, throwing a chain or running out of gas."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Tesselaar settled for overall runner-up for 2018, with Hamilton's Phil Goodwright, Stratford's Josh Hunger and Raglan's Brandon Given rounding out the top five on the day.

Saturday's result not only gave Groombridge his third consecutive national cross-country title, but it meant he collected the over-300cc four-stroke class title as well.

Given won the under-300cc four-stroke title and Napier's Mackenzie Wigg won the over-200cc two-stroke title, while Te Awamutu's Rachael Archer became the first female to win an all-gender class, claiming the under-200cc two-stroke title.

It was a double celebration for the Archer family, with Rachael's father, Kevin, winning the over-45 years' Super Veterans' title.

Stratford's Karl Roberts won the 35-44 years' Veterans' title and Thames rider Natasha Cairns topped the women's grade.

Meanwhile, Eltham's Adam Loveridge won the 90-minute junior grade race, held earlier in the day, that result allowing him to snatch the title away from the young man who had led the series at the start of Saturday morning, Napier's Bryn Codd.

The top five finishers in the junior race on Saturday were Loveridge, followed by Cambridge's Callum Paterson, Raglan's Coby Rooks, then Codd and Cambridge's Michael Henry.

Loveridge was also able to claim the over-85cc two-stroke class trophy, while Rooks won the over-200cc four-stroke title and Ngaruawahia's Luke Lempriere won the junior 85cc title.

In terms of final overall junior grade rankings, Loveridge's 2-1-7-1 score-card gave him the crown ahead of Paterson (1-20-4-2) and Codd (3-3-2-4), with Loveridge discarding his seventh placing from round three, Paterson ditching his 20th from round two and Codd dropping his fourth placing from Saturday's finale.

- Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Sport

Rugby showdown: Local teams gear up for Baywide semis

09 Jul 06:00 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

03 Jul 10:00 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

'It’s a big deal': Young gamers chase international esports glory

30 Jun 06:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Rugby showdown: Local teams gear up for Baywide semis

Rugby showdown: Local teams gear up for Baywide semis

09 Jul 06:00 AM

Whakarewarewa dominated Te Puna with a 57-10 win in Rotorua.

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

03 Jul 10:00 PM
'It’s a big deal': Young gamers chase international esports glory

'It’s a big deal': Young gamers chase international esports glory

30 Jun 06:00 PM
'Biggest summer of cricket' shapes up for Bay Oval

'Biggest summer of cricket' shapes up for Bay Oval

25 Jun 07:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP