Promising Hawke’s Bay rider Tyler Waite was third in the junior men’s final and moves to second overall midway through the 10-round season.
He was joined by fourth placings for elite Lachie Stevens-McNab, his second of the season, and fellow Rotorua rider Kate Hastings in junior women.
Queenstown rider Jess Blewitt (Cube Factory) was eighth in the elite women’s race.
Blewitt set a fast early pace, bagging another top-10 finish 7sec behind winner Nina Hoffman (Germany) to move into the top 10, having scored points in four of her five races this season.
There were plaudits for a remarkable performance from two-time junior world champion Erice van Leuven as the New Zealand teenager finished 12th in the elite final.
She only recently returned from five months’ rehabilitation off the bike from injury, and in her second race moving to the elite ranks.
There were four Kiwis in the top 12 in the junior men’s final with Tyler joined by Jonty Williamson (Palmerston North, sixth), Malik Boatwright (Queenstown, eighth) and Leogang round winner Oli Clark (Kaikoura, 12th).
New Zealand’s factory in junior women, which van Leuven led in recent years, continued with four riders finishing in the top 10 at La Thuile.
They were led by Rotorua teenager Kate Hastings, who finished fourth in the final, to move to seventh overall after scoring in her last three rounds in her first season in the world series.
Fellow Rotorua rider Bellah Birchall was fifth, Queenstown’s Indy Deavoll sixth and Tauranga’s Eliana Hulsebosch eighth.
There is no break for the gravity riders, who move to the sixth round this weekend at altitude in Pal Arinsal, Andorra, with a joint round with cross-country riders.
— APL
