Grant wins Red Bull Fox Hunt for the second time

FRESH from his fourth full World Enduro Series season and after helping Ireland to a sensational eight placed finish at the Trophy of Nations in Italy, Omagh’s Kelan Grant won the Red Bull Fox Hunt for the second time on Sunday at Slieve Croob.

The Red Bull Fox Hunt is an exciting mountainbiking spectacle that takes place on a specially constructed three kilometre course over which 300 riders line up for the mass start. Approximately five seconds after the chaos begins, organisers release the two ‘foxes’, on this occasion Gee Atherton and Greg Callaghan, who were hell bent on chasing down the field.

As the foxes pass each rider, they are eliminated. The goal for each competitor is to beat the wily foxes before the finish in Slieve Croob camping site!

And on this occasion, 29-year-old Grant managed to evade capture to claim the overall victory.

He was in fine form from start to finish at the weekend, claiming victory in Saturday’s seeding race before blitzing the course and the 299 other participants, including his Ireland Trophy of Nations team-mates, Callaghan and another Omagh rider, Gary Donaldson, to win the event for a second time after doing likewise in 2017.

“I’m delighted to win it for a second time,” beamed the Nukeproof Sram Factory Racing rider. “I’m glad to win it again. It’s an important event for me because Red Bull do a lot of media and create a lot of hype, so it’s a good one to do well at.”

Sunday’s victory and the achievement in Italy a few weeks earlier with Ireland, have given Grant a timely boost ahead of his winter training schedule and after a 2022 World Enduro Series season that promised much but didn’t really deliver all he hoped.

“The season was very up and down,” he acknowledged. “I knew the potential was there but I had a lot of problems with the bike and stuff, which held me back at a lot of rounds.

“But there were definitely some good spells there, some I was really happy with and others not so much.

“I got a couple of top 30s but nothing too crazy and a couple of top 10 stage results, which I was quite happy with. That’s what I was aiming form top 10 stages, but I never quite finished the full race in the top 10 which is something I’m aiming for.

“And the Trophy of Nations was pretty cool, it was cool to get around with Greg and Gary and it was Gary’s first big race. He got a bit of an eye-opener but he definitely held his own, he did well and there’s nothing better than competing with those boys.

“Overall, the season was a bit up and down but overall it was a good, fun year.”

In the 2023 Enduro World Series, which gets underway in March in Tazmania, Grant will again represent Nukeproof Sram Factory Racing and will again be joined by the legendary figure of New Zealander Sam Hill and talented English rider, Elliott Heap, and the Tyrone man is hoping to find added consistency in his performances and results.