Loic Bruni and Jess Blewitt win Crankworx DH season opener

Crankworx Rotorua kicked off the 2023 downhill season with a star-studded cast of racers. The Elite men’s field was a whose-who of international talent, including race winner and reigning world champion Loic Bruni. On the women’s side, a trio of rising New Zealand talent backed their successes around the world with a solid sweep of their home-track downhill podium.

Canadians in Rotorua

Four Canadians took on the Rotorua DH across elite men’s and women’s categories. Georgia Astle (Devinci Global Racing) led, finishing eighth in the elite women’s race. Bailey Goldstone (Santa Cruz Bicycles) followed in 10th.

Jake Jewett (Pivot Factory Racing) led the Canadian men, sliding to 11th. Reigning King of Crankworx, Bas van Steenbergen (Hyper) started his title defense with a 19th-place finish.

Mud, sun and the return of Crankworx Downhill

Taniwha Downhill’s chutes of roots and steep ruts are challenging to master in good weather. Add two days of rain, constantly changing lines, and it was a wild weekend of riding in Rotorua. Two days of rain during practice kept racers on their toes and made ruts deep and committing. Sun, and Kiwi DH fans, came out for finals.

Winning the men’s race, by a narrow 0.344 seconds, is world champion Loic Bruni (Specialized Gravity Racing).

“The first day of practice was pretty hectic and super difficult because of the rain. Today my run was pretty late in the day so it was tough to stay in the headspace especially with it getting darker in the woods,” Bruni said after his win. “I did a pretty good on the top sections, but I couldn’t really adapt to the track. I was a little bit off pace and off rhythm most of the lap but still trying to push. I did quite a few small mistakes but I was feeling fast by the time I reached the bottom, but missed some lines trying to fight the feeling of being so tired and felt like I had barely made it, so it was super tight in the end”

Despite struggling, Bruni does walk away with the win ahead of Sweden’s Oliver Zwar (Canyon Cllctv) and the U.S.A.’s Neko Mulally (Frameworks Racing).

“It was really cool to make a solid 1 and 1 from yesterday’s seeding and today’s podium,” Bruni said, adding “I’m feeling like I am starting the season in the best way, so I am feeling stoked.”

New Zealand sweeps home podium

On the women’s side, Jess Blewitt returned to a track that brought her junior gold in 2020. The New Zealand racer used that experience to earn her first elite women’s Crankworx World Tour gold medal on Sunday.

“My run went to plan,” Blewitt, said of taming tricky course conditions. “My plan being to keep it rubber side down and that worked. I had got a little bit loose in a few spots but overall pretty happy. Rotorua is a hard track in that you don’t know how much you can really push, so part of me thought I could have gone harder at the bottom but at the same time I think it was a smart race run.”

The three women on the podiums were all from New Zealand, but are all international talents. Junior women’s downhill world champion Jenna Hastings followed in second and Shania Rawson third.

“I had done the big jump twice in practice and it was all good, but then for some reason I was coming in fast, I wasn’t in the right gear, pedalled too late and went so nosey – it was ridiculous,” Hastings said of holding onto a near OTB, and second place. “I don’t know how I held onto it, but I did and then my helmet was all in my vision, I had to re-adjust, and then I was so rattled and knew I had to just get to the bottom. I ended up second so I can’t complain really!”

Results – RockShox Taniwha Downhill

Loic Bruni (FRA) 3:00.348 // Jess Blewitt (NZL) 3:35.792
Oliver Zwar (SWE) 3:00.692 // Jenna Hastings (NZL) 3:42.234
Neko Mulally (USA) 3:01.287 // Shania Rawson (NZL) 3:45.540