Cycling: Swiss tops mountainbikers

Swiss rider Claudio Caluori won the first round of the national mountainbike series near Napier yesterday.

Caluori won in 2m 32.06s. The 26-year-old is the Swiss downhill champion and is ranked 29th in the world.

Bryon Scott, of Auckland, was second in 2m 33.64s and Des Curry, of Rotorua, who is in his first year of pro-elite competition, finished third, only 2.05s off the winner's time.

Two others in their first year of pro-elite competition, Reon Boe of Levin, and Craig Pattle of Rotorua, also finished in the top 10 in the McKinnon Forest at Aropaoanui, 30km north of Napier.

New Zealand champion Justin Leov of Blenheim, fresh from Europe where he improved his world ranking from 85th to 20th, had a disastrous day, snapping his bike in half. Levin's Nathan Rankin, the 2003 national series winner, also crashed.

In the women's competition, Britain's Tracy Moseley, who is ranked third in the world, won in 2m 55.51s, followed by 16-year-old Scarlett Hagen, of Queenstown, who was second at the junior world championships in Europe last year.

They finished 33th and 39th respectively in the overall competition.