IT’S A NAIL-BITER | Bikesportnz

The Yamaha NZXC cross-country series will go down to the wire again this season.

The fledgling series created by former United States and New Zealand cross-country champion Paul Whibley has grown tremendously in popularity since its inaugural running last year and Sunday’s fifth round of six has set up the 2016 edition for a nail-biting finale near Pahiatua next month.

With just one point to separate friends and rivals Sam Greenslade and Callan May at the start of Sunday’s race in the Riverhead Forest – and still just one point between them at the end of the day – the battle for senior honours could not be much tighter.

There really was no stopping Auckland’s Liam Draper (Husqvarna FE250) on Sunday, the 20-year-old apprentice plumber from Howick romping to a four-minute win ahead of series promoter and organiser Whibley.

However, neither Howick’s Draper nor Manawatu’s Whibley are in a position to wrap up the series win overall and so most eyes were focussed on Sunday’s battle for third place between main title contenders Greenslade and May.

Coatesville’s Greenslade (KTM 250 SXF) eventually won his battle-within-a-battle with Titirangi’s May (Yamaha YZ250FX) to claim third overall on Sunday, forcing May to accept fourth for the day.

Greenslade had started the day one point adrift of May (after the two riders had discarded their one worst score), but the result of their battle on Sunday saw those positions switch around and now Greenslade leads May by one point, meaning it will be a winner-takes-all final round in two weeks’ time.

“I’ve been out injured for a month and was actually quite surprised that I managed as well as I did on Sunday,” said May.

“But when I caught up to Sam (Greenslade) in the forest, I knew I had a chance to beat him.

“I had a terrible start on Sunday and had a bit of work to do to get through traffic. I caught up to Sam and we were having a great battle.

“I was leading him when we came up to a bog. The shorter line was to go straight through the mud. I gambled and I crashed and that was that, with Sam scooting around the outside and ahead of me.”

The final round will be another massive showdown between May and Greenslade, with Draper and Whibley virtually out of contention for overall honours.

Sunday’s winner Draper had crashed out of round one in June and didn’t ride round three in August, while Whibley simply has no intention of winning his own series.

Yamaha ace Whibley (Yamaha YZ450F) had “accidentally won” the inaugural NZXC series last year when, despite deliberately handicapping himself by not riding most of the rounds. He still surprised everyone, himself included, when he ended up accumulating the most points of any rider.

He was not going to allow that to happen this year and so Sunday’s outing at Riverhead was just his second of the five rounds thus far and, despite finishing first and second in the two events he has raced, he finds himself “safely” down in eighth place overall.

The sixth and final round of the NZXC series is set for Pahiatua on December 4.

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