Casey Brown, Keegan Wright take first wins of Crankworx Rotorua

Casey Brown made her first win of Crankworx Rotorua a decisive one, kicking off her Queen of Crankworx campaign by winning all six stages of the Giant Toa Enduro. The Canadian finished over two minutes faster than second place finisher Ronja Hill-Wright of Australia, though the day wasn’t without some unexpected twists.

“I love racing without really knowing what’s coming up. It was exciting, to say the least,” said Brown. “Then I had a pretty wild Stage Six. Me and Vaea [Verbeeck] had a pileup. That was exciting.” Verbeeck still managed to finish third on the day, despite the crash, giving Canada a second spot on the podium at Crankworx Rotorua’s opening event.

Brown’s win gives the Revelstoke, B.C. racer a strong start to the season-long Queen of Crankworx battle. The enduro awards the most points of any Crankworx events, with 225 points earned for the win compared to a max of 150 available at each of the three downhill events to be held this week. The campaign continues throughout the week, with Brown registered to take on every event open to female competitors over the next eight days of Crankworx competition.

In the Pro Men’s race, local Keegan Wright emerged on top of a close battle with Sam Blenkinsop, with Matt Walker claiming third to repeat last year’s all-New Zealand podium sweep of the Rotorua enduro. Wright chased Blenkinsop all day, eking out a slim 4.8 second margin against his fellow countryman.

“Me and Blenki are always really close,” said Rotorua-local Wright. “He was right before me so I was always trying to chase him down. I always got to the end and thought ‘Far out, he must have smoked me. I didn’t even catch him.’ But obviously we were just back and forth with each other which is cool.”

After kicking off Crankworx with a win, Wright is headed straight to Chile for the opening round of the Enduro World Series. It’s not the last the four-stop World Tour will see of the Kiwi, though, as he plans to rejoin the competition when it returns to Europe in June.

The next event of Crankworx Rotorua is the inaugural Redwoods Downhill race, held at the same site as today’s Enduro. Brown will be joined by Jill Kintner, who will also be vying for the Queen of Crankworx title, and Australian World Cup downhill racer Tracey Hannah. A stacked men’s race will include New Zealand’s Brook Macdonald, Blenkinsop, and George Brannigan take on Polygon UR’s Mick Hannah.