4 Feb 2013

Olympian dominates mountain bike cup in Wellington

6:22 am on 4 February 2013

Olympian Karen Hanlen showed her class to win the elite women's race at the cross country round of the New Zealand mountain bike cup series in Wellington yesterday.

The 32 year old from Whakatane moved her way up the field to take a substantial lead in the last laps of the race.

Her winning time of 1:37.04 was over three minutes ahead of second place Kate Fluker, 25, from Queenstown.

Rotorua riders took the trifecta in the elite men's race, with 21 year old Dirk Peters winning in a time of 1:36.28, followed by Sam Shaw, 20, with 1:39.04, and Carl Jones, 24, in 1:39.50.

Riders are now gearing up for the mountain bike national championships in two weeks in Rotorua.