Kaikoura teenager Oli Clark fired the first shot of the 2025 season with the overall win in the opening downhill round of the Mountain Bike New Zealand national series in Dunedin.

The national series began on Saturday with cross-country which doubled as the first round of a new UCI Continental Series which attracted several riders from Australia including triple Olympian and two-time world championship medallist, Rebecca Henderson.

Clark, 18, produced a stunning ride down the drying track after weekend rain at the Signal Hill course, clocking 2:45.56 in the downhill final. The Gravity Canterbury rider, who enjoyed two Junior World Cup top-10 finishes last season, finished just under four seconds clear of Yeti Factory rider Tyler Waite, who was the top qualifier.

“The run was good as the track had dried out a lot from the seeding run,” said Oli. “I made a few mistakes at the top so I was pretty angry and rode fast at the bottom and happy with the result.”

The day before during Saturday’s cross-country, the riders had a challenging wet and slippery race over an arduous seven-lap test on Signal Hill, for the first round of the Continental Series.

Professionals Anton Cooper and Ben Oliver slipped clear but duelled wheel-for-wheel throughout the 90-minute battle with the eight-time national champion edging Oliver in the sprint for the line.

“It was super-fast and muddy. To battle with Ben Oliver for seven laps was what I expected to happen,” said Cooper.

“To be honest it could have gone either way. Ben was possibly slightly stronger than me today. It was one of those courses – on the second half of the course there was not much you could do but recover so I made the pace up the climb quite fast. Riding a hard-tail was quite a challenge with a high post in the conditions – really strong in some sections but tough in others. Overall I am happy to start the year with a win and I have a lot of form to build on.”

The second round of the Continental Series will see downhill racing at Coronet Peak, Queenstown and cross-country in Taupo.

Results: Cross-country, Elite men: Anton Cooper (Christchurch) 1:31.35, 1; Ben Oliver (North Canterbury) at 1sec, 2; Sam Fox (Australia) at 7:03, 3.

Downhill, overall male: Oli Clark (Kaikoura) 2:45.56, 1; Tyler Waite (Hawkes Bay) 2:49.29, 2; Jonty Williamson (Manawatu) 2:50.31, 3.

Caption: Oli Clark in action on the way to the downhill win. (Credit: Jenna Wells)