SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Lovegrove takes sprinters jersey at New Zealand classic road cycling tour
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Nick Lovegrove backed up yesterday’s impressive effort to take the lead today in the sprinters classification
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Nick Lovegrove is interviewed after winning the sprinters jersey at the New Zealand Cycle Classic in Manawatu today
at the New Zealand Cycle Classic in the Manawatu.
Lovegrove attacked the field just over two kilometres before the first sprint of the day to win valuable sprint points and take the lead in the sprinters competition.
Lovegrove’s usual strengths are time trailing and breakaway efforts over rolling and flat terrain. The Auckland based rider used these strengths well yesterday to escape from the field and stay away for most of the stage with BikeNZ’s Sam Bewley. It resulted in a well earned second place for the stage after Lovegrove failed to match the finishing power of Olympic bronze medallist Bewley in the sprint for line honours.
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling Team Manager Graeme Miller said the team was keen to take the sprinters jersey home but it would “be hard to keep it (the sprinters jersey) with a rider who can’t sprint.”
Miller however says he has a “cunning plan” to try to keep the sprinters jersey on Lovegrove’s back tomorrow.
“We have a few things we can do tomorrow to hopefully keep the jersey. We’ll see what happens and how the race goes but we have options to try to keep the jersey until the end of the race.”
Lovegrove said it was a rewarding day that saw a team plan work out perfectly to put him in a position to take the jersey.
“I’m really happy to have the jersey. Its great reward for all the work the SUBWAY® Pro Cycling boys put in today.”
Australian Jay McCarthy (Jayco–AIS) was second over the line today which moved him up into the race leader’s yellow jersey. Fellow Australian Thomas Palmer (Drapac) won the bunch sprint and New Zealander Patrick Bevin (Hudson Gavin Martin) was third.
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Paul Odlin remains well placed overall, lying in sixth position on general classification just over one minute and 30 seconds behind tour leader McCarthy.
Tomorrow’s final fifth stage is a 111 kilometre circuit stage that starts in Palmerston North and loops through rural areas north of the city including Ashhurst before finishing back in Palmerston North about 12.15pm.
Leading provisional results, stage 4, 111km: Thomas Palmer (Drapac) 2.29,08, 1; Jay McCarthy (Jayco-AIS) same time, 2; Patrick Bevin (Hudson Gavin Martin) same time, 3.
General Classification after stage 4: McCarthy 9.57.53, 1; Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) at 3 seconds, 2; Campbell Flakemore (Genesys Wealth Advisors) at 1:17, 3.
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Lovegrove second on stage 3 of New Zealand classic road cycling tour
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Nick Lovegrove placed second on an exciting stage three of the New Zealand Cycle Classic in Manawatu today.
BikeNZ rider Sam Bewley outsprints SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Nick Lovegrove to win today’s third stage of the New Zealand Cycle Classic in Palmerston North.
Lovegrove escaped early in the 155 kilometre stage with New Zealand track cycling representative Sam Bewley, riding for the BikeNZ National team, and with Brodie Talbot (Expert Team).
The three riders quickly established a comfortable lead in cold and wet conditions, until Bewley and Lovegrove dropped Talbot with 75 kilometres remaining.
“It was a long tough day,” Lovegrove said. “There were plenty of climbs and it took a while for the bunch to let the gap go. Sam (Bewley) was strong and set a good tempo and we worked well to build a lead.”
Lovegrove said he and Bewley had to “dig deep” to hold off the chasing peloton over the closing stages of the race. At one stage the gap back to the chasing riders was over six minutes but that had closed to eight seconds by the finish line.
Lovegrove said Bewley did the bulk of the work on the run in to the finish as he was “pretty cooked” and that he simply could not match the finishing power of the Olympic bronze medallist in the sprint for line honours.
“It was good to fly the flag for SUBWAY® Pro Cycling and it gave the other guys in our team; especially Oddy (Paul Odlin), the chance to conserve energy for the next few days,” Lovegrove said.
Bewley said he had not planned on spending 140 kilometres out the front with only one or two other riders, but that it “just sort of worked out that way.”
“With Nick and I both 16 minutes down on general classification luckily the guys from Drapac team weren’t interested in catching us which definitely worked in our favour,” Bewley said. “The final 30 kilometres into the wind though was the hardest 30 kilometres I’ve done in my life.”
The stage result did not affect the overall leaders with Australian Darren Lapthorne (Drapac Professional Cycling) retaining the tour lead. He holds a narrow three second advantage over fellow Australian Jay McCarthy (Jayco –AIS).
Tomorrow’s penultimate fourth stage is 111 kilometre circuit stage from Palmerston North through Bunnythorpe, Awahou and Ashurst.
Provisional results:
Stage 4, 155kms: Sam Bewley (BikeNZ) 3.52.05, 1; Nick Lovegrove (Subway Pro Cycling) ST, 2; Patrick Bevan (Hudson Gavin Martin) 3.52.12, 3.
Overall after four stages: Darren Lapthorne (Drapac Professional Cycling) 7.38.16, 1; Jay McCarthy (Jayco-AIS) at 3 seconds, 2; Campbell Flakemore (Genesys Wealth Advisors) at 1m:14s, 3;
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Odlin amongst leaders in New Zealand classic road cycling tour
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Paul Odlin was one of six leading riders separated by just thousandths of a second after the opening prologue of the New Zealand Cycle Classic in Palmerston North today.
19-year-old Australian Campbell Flakemore (Genesys Wealth Advisors) won the opening seven kilometre individual time trial in nine minutes and 28 seconds to take the tour’s yellow jersey in his first international race.
The top six riders all clocked 9min 28sec, firming up pre race predications the tour will be closely fought.
Christchurch rider Michael Vink (Mico-Protrain) was the highest ranked New Zealander, placing second. He finished ahead of Damien Howson (Jayco-AIS, Australia), Nick Aitken (Jayco-AIS, Australia) SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Odlin, Joseph Cooper (Ricoh, Wellington) and Bike NZ’s Sam Bewley, with the top seven riders separated by less than a second.
Tomorrow’s second stage is a 143 kilometre loop starting and finishing in Palmerston North.
Provisional results, Stage 1, NZ Cycle Classic, Palmerston North, 7.1km time trial: Campbell Flakemore (Genesys Wealth Advisors, Australia) 9.28.180, 1; Michael Vink (Mico-Protrain) 9.29.233, 2; Damien Howson (Jayco-AIS) 9.29.280, 3.
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling feels confident about New Zealand classic road cycling tour
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling feels confident the New Zealand classic road cycling tour’s move to Manawatu will suit its riders when it starts on Wednesday. 
The UCI 2.2 international cycle tour started in Wellington and the Hutt Valley, and more recently has concentrated in the Wairarapa. This year it has moved to Manawatu, attracting what Race Director Jorge Sandoval says is the strongest field in the 25 year history of the event.
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Team Manager Graeme Miller agrees with Sandoval, saying the field is “the best ever to assemble in New Zealand,” and is looking forward to planning what he hopes is a successful tour for SUBWAY® Pro Cycling.
“It is great to see Jorge move the race to a new location,” Miller said. “It was a good race in the Wellington region but I think it will be a much more exciting race this year with lots of changes in the lead and plenty of close racing.”
Miller said the move to Manawatu suited SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s style of racing, with less hill stages, and he had expectations the team should perform well during racing.
“With Paul (Odlin), the National time trial champ in the team, who also has proven he can sprint, we are expecting to mix it up this year. Being a flatter tour will mean it will be tightly contested and we’re expecting very strong side winds which New Zealand riders excel in.”
Miller said SUBWAY® Pro Cycling were excited to have Westley Gough and Pete Latham join the team after a successful World Cup track campaign that saw Latham claim gold in the Individual Pursuit. Gough and Latham will be joined by the elite National Championships Time Trial silver medallist Sam Horgan and the strong Nick Lovegrove.
“It means we have options and a few cards to play,” Miller said.
There are 21 teams from USA, Australia and New Zealand headed by US-based Team Type 1 Sanofi, a full UCI Continental team initially established to raise awareness of diabetes.
Other leading teams include Team Jayco, a UCI Continental team under the Australia Institute of Sport programme that includes defending champion Patrick Lane and the strong Australian combinations of Drapac and Genesys Wealth Advisers.
BikeNZ has selected a five-man team from their endurance track programme for the tour as the riders prepare for the national track championships and the upcoming UCI World Cup in London. These form part of their campaign towards the track world championships in Melbourne in April and the Olympics in July.
Team pursuit riders Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, Myron Simpson and Aaron Gate will be joined by omnium world silver medallist Shane Archbold in the New Zealand team for the five-day tour
The Tour begins with an individual time trial on Wednesday in Palmerston North with all road stages looping back to Palmerston North before the final circuit stage around the city on Sunday.
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Kennett wins classic Southland race
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Dylan Kennett won a furious sprint to take out the Gore to Invercargill cycling classic on Tuesday.
Kennett finished ahead of fellow scratch riders Pieter Bulling and Mark Spessott winning in a time of one hour 38 minutes and 30 seconds for the 64 kilometre race.
A double bronze medallist at last year’s junior world track championships, Kennett was well supported by his SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team-mates Tayla Harrison and Dillon Bennett.
“We all took our turns until we caught the big bunch and then our job was to get on the front and stay out of trouble,” Kennett said.
“It was great team work from SUBWAY® Pro Cycling with Tayla getting in the breakaway once we were at the front of the race, meaning that I could save my legs for the sprint. When Tom (Scully) attacked, Dillon (Bennett) sacrificed himself to get me back up to the leading group and then all I had to do was mark Tom and leave the sprint as late as possible due to the strong headwind.”
Kennett managed to kick off Scully’s wheel and out into the lead to take his first win in SUBWAY® Pro Cycling colours.
