A mechanical failure put an end to junior world champion Anton Cooper's chances of victory in the opening cross country round of the BikeNZ mountain bike cup series in Bluff.
Cooper had problems on the third lap of the four-lap race which took five minutes to fix and cost him victory in the under-23 category, finishing seven seconds behind winner Logan Horn of Christchurch.
The elite champion was Rotorua's Dirk Peters who was part of the New Zealand under-23 team in last year's world champs.
