Anton Cooper. Photo / Trek World Racing
A mechanical failure put paid to Anton Cooper's chances of victory in the opening cross country round of the mountain bike series in Bluff yesterday.
The junior world champion suffered a mechanical problem on the third lap of the four-lap race, a problem which took five minutes to fix and
cost him victory in the under-23 category.
Christchurch's Logan Horn ended beating Cooper by seven seconds, while the elite champion was Rotorua's Dirk Peters who was part of the New Zealand under-23 team in last year's world championships.
Horn said he had hoped to have enough to hold off Cooper and he acknowledged the importance of the mechanical problem.
"I was confident in the position I was in, but Anton would have beaten me if he didn't have the mechanical, and he pulled it back to a really close finish,'' Horn said.
