Junior DH Star Sam Blenkinsop Signs With 23 Degrees
provided by 23 Degrees Sports
October 16, 2006 - Junior downhill sensation Sam Blenkinsop of Wanganui, New Zealand, has recently signed a multi-year management deal with 23 Degrees Sports Management. Blenkinsop, who turns 18 later this month and will race his first season as an elite rider in 2007, had a great season in 2006 impressing many people on the international race scene.
However, it was back in 2005 at the World Championships in Italy, when some key people spotted his skill and riding style on the challenging Livigno course, that his name first started to pop up on team radars. Despite his age and lack of international experience, his solid top ten result proved there was potentially a lot more to come. The Gravity Group based in Austria signed Sam for the 2006 race season and he attended a number of World Cup events, with his best result being a 12th in Schladming, Austria, against the World's very best elite riders, and subsequently finishing 2nd overall in the World Cup Junior category.
Prior to that however, it was his exploits on home soil that really had people talking. Early in 2006 he won silver in the Oceania Championships, then took the scalp of two time World Champion, Fabien Barel, in a National Series event. Later in the year as one of the favourites for the Junior World Championship Sam finished 2nd to compatriot Cameron Cole, just 1.1 seconds off the win despite a major crash early in his race.
"I'm really happy to be taking the next step in my international career. There's a lot to racing at World Cup level and to have the support of a management company that takes care of some of the things that take up a lot of a rider's time, is a big thing for me. I also look up to a lot of the riders that are already with 23 Degrees, like Greg (Minnaar) and Justin (Leov), so it seems logical for me to be part of that", said Sam of his latest signing.
"We've been watching Sam throughout 2006 and been very impressed by his skill and race craft, but more importantly by his maturity and dedication to the sport. We had some split time information from the Worlds that told us a lot about his finals run, and then when we saw what he was capable of doing in Schladming, we felt that Sam was clearly a star of the future. Our goal is to help him develop as an athlete and introduce his potential to key sponsors who are ready to work with a young athlete and travel with him from the ground floor to the penthouse", says 23 Degrees CEO Martin Whiteley.
23 Degrees Sports Management was founded in Spain in 2000, and is currently managing some of the Worlds top mountain bike athletes, as well as Team G Cross Honda.
