Tayla wins the prestigious Blackball WMC Cycle Classic on the South Island’s West Coast on Saturday

In an impressive display of strength the 17 year old Christchurch rider rode away from his two breakaway companions on the final lap of the 25 kilometre race circuit to record his best senior result. 

“With one lap to go I attacked the two riders I was with, built up a lead and was rapt to win the race solo by over three minutes,” he said. 

“It was a tough challenging circuit and I’m looking forward to more good results in SUBWAY® Pro Cycling colours.” 

There was sponsorship and prizes of more than $4000 up for grabs, and newly-crowned BikeNZ Under-19 coach and former national champion Gordon McCauley showed he still has some bike racing form finishing fourth.

Harrison’s breakaway companions Hamish Schreurs and Tom Hubbard held on to finish second and third.

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.

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;

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.

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.

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.

Paul racing in his new national champion skin suit fior the first time

Odlin recorded 19 minutes and 40 seconds on the Tai Tapu course, taking two seconds off Michael Vink’s record set in 2010. Racing has only resumed on the Tai Tapu course this summer after the September earthquakes caused damage to the road making racing not possible. 

Odlin was very happy to lower the record, saying he was keen to lower it even further. 

“It was a really hard effort coming back into the wind,” Odlin said. “But I’ve got the bug now and I’m keen to lower this time substantially, and so is Mike (Vink).”

Latham took out the men’s 4000m individual pursuit over Australian Mitchell Mulqueen to highlight the New Zealand performances at the Beijing Velodrome, the venue for cycling at the 2008 Olympics. Latham, who turned 28 last week, topped qualifiers in 4:26.100.

 He had to use all his experience to win the final against the Australian, who started strongly to open a two second lead after 1000m. Mulqueen was still ahead at the three-quarter mark but Latham’s experience and conditioning came to the fore with a superb final 1000m in 1:06 to earn victory in 4:25.964.

Latham’s next race for SUBWAY® Pro Cycling is the New Zealand classic road cycling tour of Manawatu from January 25 to 29.

Paul leading the road race

The team mates, who finished first and second in the championship’s elite time trial on Friday, made the first key break of the day’s racing with Odlin striking out on his own to take the lead at the half way point of the gruelling 183 kilometre  race.  

Odlin and the break were eventually reeled and in and in the closing stages Michael Vink created New Zealand cycling history as the first rider to take out the under-23 national title and finish first across the line. As well as winning the race in four hours 38 minutes and nine seconds, he finished six seconds ahead of senior elite winner James Williamson from Central Otago.   It completed a very successful weekend for the young Christchurch rider who also won the under-23 time trial on Friday. 

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling General Manager Hayden Godfrey said he was very satisfied with the team’s efforts at the National Elite Championships and was happy to see 20 year old Vink defend the under-23 title he won last year and for Williamson to win his first national title.

“For SUBWAY® Pro Cycling to have two guys on the podium and claim another national title was great,” he said. “We stuck to our plan for the road race where we had two riders in the day’s key break but they just ran out of gas after feeling the effects of Friday’s time trial efforts.” 

Only 13 riders from the starting field of 70 completing the race.  

“It is a tough course and you have to be absolutely one hundred percent on your game to stay in contention,” Godfrey added. “There is nowhere to hide on Dyers Pass and climbing that hill 11 times really takes its toll. Michael and James both rode very well and deserved their wins.”

Jeremy Yates (Mico Protrain, East Coast North Island) was second in the elite race finishing one minute and 49 seconds behind Vink and Jeremy Vennell (Team Bissell, ECNI) was third 16 seconds after Yates. 

Patrick Bevin (Team Bissell, Waikato Bay of Plenty) was second in the under-23 race, six seconds behind Vink, with Josh Atkins (Canterbury) coming third 16 seconds after Bevin. 

Vink and Williamson have both ridden for SUBWAY® Pro Cycling in the past. The team now turns its attention to the New Zealand Cycle Classic in the Manawatu later this month. 

Godfrey said he was pleased to have the year underway and is looking forward to a busy calendar of racing in New Zealand, Asia and Australia with a roster he says includes a strong mix of youth and experience. 

Results, RaboDirect National Road cycling Championships, 183km:

Elite: James Williamson (PureBlack Racing, Southland) 4:38:15, 1; Jeremy Yates (Mico Protrain, East Coast North Island) at 1:49, 2; Jeremy Vennell (Team Bissell, ECNI) at 2:04, 3.

Under 23: Michael Vink (Mico Protrain, Canterbury) 4:38:09, 1; (course record); Patrick Bevin (Team Bissell, Waikato Bay of Plenty) at six seconds, 2; Josh Atkins (Canterbury) at 22 secs, 3.

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Paul Odlin won in 49 minutes and 35 seconds beating his teammate Sam Horgan by 21 seconds. The SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team mates were the only two senior elite riders to go under 50 minutes with both riders beating World Tour Pro rider and pre race favourite Jesse Sergent who recorded 50 minutes and 3 seconds for the 40 kilometre course to finish third. 

Odlin, who at 33 was the oldest in the field today, said the win was his best in New Zealand and it was his first senior elite national title. He paid tribute to his SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team mates, management and support staff and his family, who he stressed laid the foundation for his success. He also said his preparation was a key to today’s result, and that it was a key New Zealand summer event he had targeted. 

“To pull this result off is really special and after building up for it I’m just really relieved,” he said. “Things had gone really well during the week but there were some nerves as today got closer. The great support I had from my wife Holly and from my SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team really helped.” 

Odlin said he paced himself well on the outward leg of the course and held a three second lead over the field at the turn around point in Leeston where riders turned into a head and side wind. 

“It got harder and then harder again on the return leg. I did dig deep and had a few thoughts that it wasn’t good enough but in the end it was good enough to get the result and I’m really happy.” 

Odlin said he realised Pro Tour prologue winner Sergent may not have been in peak form at this time of year but was still very satisfied to have beaten him.  Horgan said he was happy to be beaten by his team mate and was also very pleased to get on the podium. 

The SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team now turns its attention to Sunday’s road race being held on a 15.6 kilometre circuit that includes the tough Dyers Pass climb the men do 11 times to complete 186.6 kilometres. 

Hayden Roulston won last year’s elite men’s road race in a time of four hours 43 minutes 29 seconds, with Melbourne-based professional Greg Henderson second and Jeremy Yates (Team Mico Revolution – Hawkes Bay) third, both 29 seconds behind Roulston. 

Roulston and Henderson are both not racing this year due to their Pro Team commitments leaving Yates as the favourite in his last National Championship event. 

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling Manager Graeme Miller said the road race was a very tough event to win, but felt it was more open this year and that several of the SUBWAY® Pro Cycling riders were “more than capable of stepping up for a result.” 

The SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team for the road race is; Odlin, Horgan Nick Lovegrove and Matt Gorter (elite men’s road race). Dillion Bennett, Simon Binney and Scott Creighton race in the Under 23 event.