Holly Harris continued her rise in elite level mountain biking with a double victory in the Victorian rounds of the Cross Country National Series.
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Following on from her third places in rounds three and four on home soil two weeks ago, Harris blew away the competition in Mount Taylor on the weekend to claim top spot on the podium on both days.
"I won the first day by nearly a minute,” she said.
"I was with the girls for most of the race and then I rode off on the last two laps and on the second day I just felt really good and just rode off the front so I didn't really see many girls that race so it was really cool.”
One of those wins was over Olympian Rebecca Henderson. It is Harris’ first year in elite level women and she was amazed to win by comfortable margins.
"It was a bit of a shock actually, I wasn't expecting it at all,” she said.
"I had just been on a team training camp all week so I was pretty tired coming into it.
"I had the legs on the day. It was pretty amazing, especially since they are really experienced racers and I am still getting used to racing at the elite level so I was absolutely lost for words, I was really shocked.”
Her performances on the weekend have her in the top three in the series rankings.
Harris wasn’t the only New England Mountain Biker to land a spot on the podium.
Katherine Hosking claimed second in the junior women behind New Zealand’s Jessica Manchester on both days while sister Isabella took out third.
There were also some strong showings from younger members of the club.
"Katherine got two seconds against a really strong field,” Harris said.
"Two of the kiwi girls came over and they have a lot of racing experience and the track really suited them so she had an amazing performance.
"A lot of the 2 Wheel Academy kids had their first races in a while so they did some really excellent performances as well.
"Thanks to all the NEMTB people, the club was really supportive over their and they were the biggest club at the race.
"It was pretty cool to have such a strong presence from the Armidale club 14 hours away.”
Harris’ schedule is only going to get busier over the next month with the Oceania Championships and the final rounds of the National Series coming up. She has put in plenty of work into training in preparation for the events.
"They are some of my main races so I am doing a lot work for those ones," she said.
"Just trying to get as much training in as I can and making sure I am well rested.
"Pretty much just sticking to the program.”
The next event for the local club is their 12 Hours in the Piney event on April 1. Harris said a lot of work goes into making the day a success and encouraged the community to get behind it.