Gravity Enduro: Shaw and Hastings go two-from-two

Rotorua's Sam Shaw on his way to a win in the second race of the Giant 2W Gravity Enduro. Photo / Mead Norton

Rotorua's Sam Shaw and Jenna Hastings are proving to be the dominant forces in the Giant 2W Gravity Enduro series.

The pair put together some solid runs to take the men's and women's wins in race two on Saturday, both backing up their wins in race one.

Shaw finished first with an overall time of 16m 49s, ahead of Nigel McDowell (17m 17s) and Seff Curle (17m 19s).

He said he was stoked with the win and to back up the result from round one.

"I did the same preparation as the first round with a cross country mountain bike marathon style race the week before."

Shaw said he took a day off work on Friday before the race and rode some of the stages.

"The stages were sick and the weather was great. I didn't ride as composed as I would have liked, making a few too many mistakes on each stage.

"I never expect to win an event. There's always so many variables and anything can happen on race day."

Hastings was the first female with a time of 20m 50s, ahead of Frances James (21m 54s) and Lynette Deacon (22m 44s).

She said she hoped she would podium overall but did not expect to win.

"It feels amazing to win this race. I'm super stoked that I not only won, but I also pedalled the six stage.

The Giant 2W Gravity Enduro race two podium. Photo / Mead Norton

"I started off pretty good, not too tired on the hills but then the last hill up to Box of Birds was hard and I had a bit of a bad run down there due to being tired."

Event director Craig Murray said race two was "epic" and the team delivered another great event with more than 500 riders hitting the start line.

"Eyes were on the weather all week and the forecast was very accurate with heavy rain dropping just after prize giving which was great.

"We designed a different style of trails compared to race one and turned up the dial on technicality for both the short and long categories. We are looking forward to changing it up again for race three."

Race three, which doubles as an Enduro World Series qualifier, is sold out and takes place on February 22, 2020.

- Supplied content

Giant 2W Gravity Enduro Race Two - Six-stage podiums

Men:

1st Sam Shaw (16m 49s), 2nd Nigel McDowell (17m 17s), 3rd Seff Curle (17m 19s).

Women:
1st Jenna Hastings (20m 50s), 2nd Frances James (21m 54s), Lynette Deacon (22m 44s).