KONA PROJECT 2014 EPISODE 1

he Kona Team had an amazing start to the season last weekend at Eagle MTB park in Adelaide, South Australia for the first national race. Connor Fearon and Andrew Crimmins from the Kona Team as well as Tegan Malloy and Matt Taylor from the Kona Australia Team took part in the first round of the Australian National Race Series at the Eagle Mountain Bike Park. Our riders owned the race, having such a good time on their Kona Operators.

Adelaide local Connor Fearon had a fantastic weekend. He got the best time in both qualification time and race day. He won the race with a run 1.44 seconds faster that the second place. Racing on home turf on his birthday meant a ton of local fans and friends to cheer for him and the Kona Team. Connor considers himself lucky to have ridden his Kona Operator to victory on his birthday in front his home crowd; something very unique that simply doesn't happen everyday.

Andrew Crimmins, our new Kona Team member who is only 16 years old, had a great qualifier with the second best time, just behind teammate Connor Fearon. Although he suffered a mechanical midway through his race run, he managed to keep pushing hard, win the junior class and finish with the fifth best time overall.

Tegan Malloy, who races junior, proved to be the fastest women out there. She beat all the junior and elite women in both qualifier and race day, she is a very impressive young rider.

Matt Taylor had a good run and finished fourth junior despite flatting. This just makes him eager for the next race.

Overall it was an excellent season opener for the Kona Team with three first place podiums, impressively fast race runs, a birthday party, and let's not forget the great onsite support provided by Ty Mclean of GroupeSportif and our good friends at SRAM. It was also a great occasion for Matti, Connor and Andrew to get together for the first time as a team for the beginning of what promises to be a very exciting season.

Stay tuned and have a good ride!