Sam celebrates victory in RaboDirect New Zealand Club Championships senior road race in Hawkes Bay. credit: Don Kennedy

Sam Horgan, riding for his Canterbury club Pegasus, entered the senior time trial as defending champion and was one of the favourites in the road race. His unheralded younger SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team mate Simon Binney was competing at the Club Nationals for the first time with only one club race win to his name prior to Sunday. 

Tauranga based Binney rode strongly and by the third lap of the 28 kilometre circuit was the only under 23-rider near the front of the combined senior and under 23-event. 

“It is without doubt my best win ever,” Binney said. “It’s only the second win I’ve ever had on a road bike,” the former mountain biker said. “I’m stoked, really rapt.” 

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling General Manager Hayden Godfrey said he was very pleased with the Club National’s results for members of his team riding for their clubs, singling out Binney for praise.                                                                                      

“Simon has been quietly going about his business and building up more experience and to see him win a national title is great reward for the effort he has been putting in. We knew he had good potential and took a bit of a punt signing him for the team, but this result more than justifies that decision.” 

Godfrey says he now looks forward to Binney building on this success and pushing for inclusion for SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s larger events like the Tour of Southland. 

Horgan only returned from the Tour de Korea last week and was a little uncertain about how he would back up from the gruelling tour but defended his time trial title in impressive fashion last Thursday. He also won Sunday’s road race in a sprint from Dan Warren (Ramblers Cycling Club Inc) and Andy Hagan (Port Nicholson Poneke Cycling Club). 

His four hour and 27 seven minute victory was hard-earned after a brave seven-strong group had gone early in the six-lap race and had established a five minute 40 second lead approaching the halfway point of the race. 

Horgan and Hagan worked hard and eventually caught the leaders on the final lap with Horgan proving too strong in the final sprint. The double win matches his Club Nationals Under 23 effort in 2009. 

“It was so hard,” Horgan said. “I thought that four minutes was about as much as we could let the leaders go. When we heard it was 5:30 it meant we had to go much earlier than I had wanted. It took everything to catch them.” 

Starting in January with a runner up effort to his teammate Paul Odlin in the National Elite time trial against some of the country’s best professionals, Horgan has had the best five months of his career. 

As well as wining the Oceania time trial in Queenstown, Le Race and the Tour of Canterbury and breaking Odlin’s Canterbury Time Trial Association record in March, Horgan also won two stages of the Tour de Lakes last month before racing in Korea. 

“I’m looking forward to a break now before building up again in the spring and working towards The Tour of Southland and then January’s elite nationals,” Horgan said. 

On the first day of the championships SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Dylan Kennett (Pegasus) won the under-19 time trial in impressive fashion with his 33 minute 51 second time the fastest of the day over all the grades. 

Kennett punctured in the under-19 road race twice which took him out of contention.

The team now turns its attention to round three of the Benchmark Homes Elite Racing Series being held near Rangiora in Canterbury on Saturday 19 May.

Going into the final short 46 kilometre stage Sung Baek Park’s yellow jersey lead over his two closest rivals was very tenuous and SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Paul Odlin only needed one second to move into the tour’s top 10. 

It meant the stage was far from a procession and provided 55 minutes of exciting racing action with SUBWAY® Pro Cycling very active. There were relentless attacks and at one stage racing even got directed the wrong way, straight into the path of one kilometre of backed up traffic – 109 riders v’s traffic made for an ‘interesting’ situation resulting in racing being neutralised to get it back on track. 

Nearing the end of the stage as Misari Motorboat Racing Park – host site of rowing competitions in Seoul’s 1998 Summer Olympics – came into sight Paul sent his SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team mates to the front to set up for the stage win. 

Unfortunately it didn’t quite pan out for Paul and the team over the final frantic run in to the finish line with Ken Hanson (Team Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies) again rising to the challenge, edging out Alexander Serebrayakov (Team Type 1 – Sanofi) and Chan Jae Jang (Terengganu Cycling Team) for the win, and handing his team its third stage win of the week. Park finished the final sprint in 16th place and just held on for the tour win. 

The week finished with Paul staying 23 seconds behind tour winner Sung Baek Park from Korea (KSPO) and just outside the top 10. He was well supported by Pete Latham, Wes Gough – who found out during the week he had made the New Zealand Olympics’ team – Sam Horgan, Matt Gorter and Nick Lovegrove. 

Even after numerous attacks and break away attempts during the week every stage ended in a sprint finish. The team raced well, featured in a number of breaks that were always bought back by aggressive racing and thankfully avoided some of the carnage that took place. 

Stage five saw riders taken out by official event motorbikes and stage four was cancelled due to the extreme weather but overall the team’s General Manager was satisfied with all the riders finishing well in the team’s second international event of the year. 

“It was a fast intense tour,” he says. “The guys took what chances they could and raced well against a good international field.” 

The team now refocuses on its domestic racing over the winter months with Sam racing at the RaboDirect National Club Championships in Hastings this week. 

Tour de Korea LEADERBOARD

Individual General Classification (Yellow jersey): Sung Baek Park (KSPO)

Points Classification (Blue jersey): Maximiliano Richeze (Team Nippo)

Young Rider Classification (White jersey): Kyung Gu Jang (Arbö Gebrüder Weiss-Orbendorfer)

King of the Mountains Classification (Polka-Dot jersey): Sung Baek Park (KSPO)

Teams General Classification: Team Optum presented by Kelly Benefit  Strategies)

Asian Teams General Classification: Uzbekistan Suren Team

The New Zealand Olympic Committee announced its track team plus reserves built around riders who achieved podium performances at the recent world championships in Melbourne and reflects Bike NZ’s increased world class performances. 

Gough won two bronze medals in Melbourne; in the team’s pursuit with Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate and Marc Ryan and in the men’s individual pursuit (IP). He smashed his personal best during IP qualifying before going even faster when it counted to make the podium with a time of 4min 16.945 seconds. 

Gough received the news today in Korea where he is racing with his SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team in the Tour de Korea. SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s other BikeNZ endurance track team member Pete Latham missed out on Olympic selection but Team General Manager Hayden Godfrey says he has handled it well and is focused on finishing well in the Korean Tour. 

“Obviously it’s hard when one rider in the team makes it and another one doesn’t. We are very happy for Wes but feel for Pete, who has handled the news today like the true professional he is.” 

The New Zealand Olympic Track Cycling team is:
Men: Shane Archbold (Timaru), Sam Bewley (Rotorua), Eddie Dawkins (Invercargill), Aaron Gate (Auckland), Westley Gough (Waipukurau), Ethan Mitchell (Auckland), Marc Ryan (Timaru), Jesse Sergent (Feilding), Simon van Velthooven (Palmerston North). Reserve: Sam Webster (Auckland). 

Women: Rushlee Buchanan (Te Awamutu) – subject to quota confirmation, Lauren Ellis (Hinds), Natasha Hansen (Invercargill), Joanne Kiesanowski (Christchurch), Jaime Nielsen (Hamilton), Alison Shanks (Dunedin). Reserve: Katie Schofield (Dunedin) – subject to acceptance of final qualifiers.

Sam is near the front of this stage 3 counter attack

 Tour de Korea stage two 
After stage one’s wintery start to the tour the riders were greeted with warm conditions for stage two’s 200km stage. The course was mostly flat with just one KOM at 160km. The team stayed safe and finished the stage in the bunch. The stage was won by American, Alex Candelario from a small break of three riders 30sec in from of the man bunch. Nothing much separating 1st to 99^th. Again, not much to report from day two. 

Stage three’s 135 km from Gwangju to Yeosu saw Paul Odlin from SUBWAY® Pro Cycling  get in an early break with one other rider. They had two minute lead at the 45km mark. The break was caught and another bunch sprint saw time bonuses move Chan Jae Jang (Terengganu Cycling Team) into the leaders jersey. 

The Tour suffered major disruption yesterday with torrential rain resulting in the cancellation of stage four. Rain had fallen overnight across much of South Korea and increased during the morning in the country’s southern provinces. Race officials deemed conditions too dangerous for the riders to start the 176km fourth stage between Yeosu and Geochang in the south of the country. 

Weather permitting the race resumes today for the 170km stage five between Geochang and the city of Gumi. After three stages, home-based rider Chan Jae Jang (Terengganu Cycling Team) leads with the USA’s Alexander Candelario (Team Optum) and Ireland’s David McCann (RTS) both within ten seconds of the South Korean. 

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Pete Latham, Westley Gough and Paul Odlin all lie with 45 seconds of the leader.

Paul Odlin wins last years sprint jersey

Oceania Champion Paul Odlin won the tour’s sprint jersey and the team’s General Manager Hayden Godfrey is confident the team will again perform well continuing its fine run of form as it tackles its second international event of the year. 

“We have racked up a series of good results in New Zealand and had a solid hit out in Singapore last month,” Godfrey said. “We are looking forward to stepping it up a notch against some strong international teams.” 

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling is taking a team of six to the eight stage 1100 kilometre tour. Godfrey said the team had been selected on form with all the riders going to Korea riding well and deserving of their places. 

“Paul (Odlin) and Sam (Horgan) had a very strong Oceania Championships last month with wins in the road race for Paul and time trial for Sam. Nick (Lovegrove) won Graperide and Sam won Le Race, with the team dominant in both races.”    

Odlin demonstrated his form with a win in Around Brunner on Saturday, a race which saw Horgan come third in their final hit out before leaving for Korea. 

“The guys who raced in Brunner were strong and going well. We are also really happy to have national track representatives Wes (Gough) and Pete (Latham) joining us for Korea to further strengthen the line-up,” Godfrey said. 

“The team is going better at this time of year than it was last year, and both Pete and Wes performed very well for New Zealand on the track at the recent world champs in Melbourne. But it’s a little bit of an unknown going from four minutes to four hours so it will be a bit of a wait and see to see how they adjust.”

Gough won two bronze medals in Melbourne – in the team pursuit and individual pursuit – and set the second fastest time by a New Zealander winning the bronze medal. Gough and Latham are both aiming for Olympic selection for London. The team is named in late June. 

Godfrey said that although a clear goal was a stage win he felt the team had enough strength to adjust and adapt to whatever happens on the road. 

“Last year’s race had some long tough climbs. We think this year’s route is a little flatter which will suit us better, but we’ll know more once we get there.” 

The UCI 2.2. tour includes a mix of pro Continental and Continental teams from Asia and the United States. The event starts on Sunday 22 April and finishes on the following Sunday. 

It passes through 10 cities in Korea including Incheon, Buyeo, Gwangju, Yeosu, and Yeoju.

Oceania Road Champion Paul Odlin continued his run of fine form to beat his SUBWAY® Pro Cycling teammates Dylan Kennett and Sam Horgan to the line after breaking away from the leaders five kilometres from the finish to win in three hours and six minutes. 

Kennett and Horgan crossed the line 24 seconds after Odlin with veteran cyclist Gordon McCauley, who for the past year has been focused on triathlon and ironman racing, clinging on to Horgan’s wheel to finish a very credible fourth. 

The pace was on right from the start of the 130 kilometre race with numerous early attacks and very aggressive racing on a course that did not offer any challenging hill climbs. 

The early aggression took its toll and resulted in a bunch of 17 leading riders as the race approached Jacksons and the turn off towards Lake Brunner and Moana.

With 25 kilometres remaining an elite group of seven riders that contained Odlin, Kennett and Horgan from SUBWAY® Pro Cycling, Dan Barry and Will Bowman from Benchmark Homes, Tom Hubbard from the Homestyle team and McCauley had formed at the front of the race. 

This group continued to race aggressively with the key moment coming 15 kilometres from the finish where Bennett and Odlin bridged across to McCauley and Horgan who had escaped up the road after another series of vicious attacks. 

Once the four riders regrouped it was obvious it was going to be a SUBWAY® Pro Cycling win, it was just a matter of which rider from the team would cross the finish line first. 

McCauley knew he was the odd rider out. “Even though I have not raced much in recent times I still can read a race and I just made sure I was in any move that had a Subway or Benchmark rider in it,” he said. 

“Once it was only four of us away and I was with three Subway guys I settled for fourth as I was just happy to be there; I felt like I was in a Subway sandwich over the last 10 kilometres.” 

Odlin his team planned to go hard early and put the pressure on from the start. “The attacks did start early and just didn’t stop,” he said. “Breaks would go, then get reeled back in and we’d reform, then another break would go again.” 

“We were very keen to force things along and keep the intensity high. We were outnumbered by another team so were keen to take the race to them. It was just what we needed before Korea next week and to finish one, two and three was great.” 

Odlin said he was really happy with the win and it showed he was still in good form for next week’s Tour de Korea where he hopes to defend the sprinters classification jersey he won last year.  

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling General Manager Hayden Godfrey was very pleased with the day’s results. 

“It was just what the guys needed before Korea. Sam and Paul have been in good form and Dylan had a really good ride too after a bit of a break. The intensity was there today and they rode well as a team; it was a very good hit out.” 

Provisional results

1          Paul Odlin                     Christchurch      3:06:07.7

2          Dylan Kennett               Christchurch      3:06:30.7

3          Sam Horgan                  Christchurch      3:06:38.0

4          Gordon McCauley         Auckland          3:06:39.2

5          Daniel Barry                  Christchurch      3:07:59.2

6          Tom Hubbard                Christchurch      3:09:27.5

7          Will Bowman                 Christchurch      3:10:45.0

8          Dillon Bennett               Christchurch      3:13:48.5

9          Brad Evans                   Dunedin            3:13:48.5

10         Sam Steele                   Christchurch      3:13:49.2

11         George Tutton               Christchurch      3:13:49.7

12         Scott Thomas               Dunedin            3:13:50.2

13         Mark Spessot               Mosgiel            3:13:52.2

14         Jacob Grieve                Dunedin            3:13:52.7

15         James McCoy               Christchurch      3:13:59.0

Paul wins Around Brunner. Credit Murray Cave Photography

Kennett and Horgan crossed the line 24 seconds after Odlin with veteran cyclist Gordon McCauley, who for the past year has been focused on triathlon and ironman racing, clinging on to Horgan’s wheel to finish a very credible fourth.

1          Paul Odlin                     Christchurch      3:06:07.7,

2          Dylan Kennett               Christchurch      3:06:30.7

3          Sam Horgan                  Christchurch      3:06:38.0

4          Gordon McCauley         Auckland          3:06:39.2

5          Daniel Barry                  Christchurch      3:07:59.2

6          Tom Hubbard                Christchurch      3:09:27.5

7          Will Bowman                 Christchurch      3:10:45.0

Horgan wins Le Race. Credit: Bruce Wilson

Horgan’s team mate, Oceania Road Race Champion Paul Odlin, looked to have the win secured until he crashed on the final corner of the descent into Akaroa.

“It’s not how I like to win a race, but I’m happy the win stayed within the team and I’m pleased Oddy (Odlin) is okay and got up to take second,” Horgan said. “He would have been able to hold on for the win and I really feel for him because he was going really well today. It was terribly bad luck.”

Horgan said that it was a day when team tactics played out “perfectly,” and that also having team mates Tayla Harrison and Dylan Kennett with him in the closing stages was vital. “We had the numbers around the top of the Summit Road in the final stages; four of us out of the seven leaders were from SUBWAY® Pro Cycling so it was looking good.”

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s General Manager Hayden Godfrey was very pleased with the team’s performance. “They put themselves in a good winning position and as a team rode a good strategic race, riding smart,” he said. “We had the numbers at the business end of the race so it was good to have Sam as a back up to still cross the line first after Paul’s crash.”

Odlin was disappointed to have crashed so close to the finish but was also pleased the win stayed with the SUBWAY® Pro Cycling Team.

Hamish Schreurs from the Benchmark Homes team was third, six seconds behind Horgan.

Reta Trotman successfully defended her 2011 women’s title setting a new course record of two hours 56 minutes and four seconds.

Ideal conditions allowed Trotman to lower Jo Buick’s existing record by two minutes 46 seconds.

Results:
Men, 100km: Sam Horgan (Subway Pro Cycling), 2.40.55, 1; Paul Odlin (Subway Pro Cycling), 2.41, 2; Hamish Schreurs (Benchmark Homes), 2.41.01, 3.
Women, 100km: Reta Trotman, 2.56.04, 1; Haley Mercer, 2.59.48, 2; Sia Svendsen, 3.08, 3.

Paul is very happy as he crosses the finish line near Queenstown to win the Oceania elite Road Race. photo credit: Bruce Wilson

Odlin won the Oceania Road Racing elite title near Queenstown two weeks ago and was crowned National Time Trial champion in January.

He is currently the number one ranked rider in the UCI Oceania Tour rankings and the SUBWAY® Pro Cycling Team is the second ranked professional team.  

Odlin says he is in good form and wants to go one better than his second place he achieved in 2010. 

“We want a win for the team,” Odlin said. “It doesn’t have to be me it could also be Sam (Horgan) or even Tayla (Harrison).” 

Even without last year’s winner Josh Atkins who is overseas Odlin is well aware there are several very strong riders racing that are more than capable of challenging him and his team mates for the win. They include former World Junior Champion and recently retired professional Jeremy Yates who won the event in 2009 and Daniel Barry from the Benchmark Homes team. 

Odlin, Horgan and Harrison are joined by Dillion Bennett and Dylan Kennett in the SUBWAY® Pro Cycling Team for Le Race.

Paul Odlin and Tayla Harrison with Rolleston School students

“The school was just buzzing,” school spokesperson Alison Twentyman said. It was a great morning having the SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team visit; it was inspirational.” 

Twentyman said it was great to give the children the opportunity to meet and be inspired by two of the team’s riders, current New Zealand elite Time Trial and Oceania road race Champion Paul Odlin and New Zealand Under 19 World Championship team member Tayla Harrison. 

Close to 600 children watched some exciting video footage of the team racing and then had lots of questions for the two professional riders before excitedly cheering on the Rolleston School students who raced the two SUBWAY® Pro Cycling riders in a ‘slow race’ across the school’s quadrangle. 

“It was a wonderful opportunity for the children,” Twentyman said. “The staff enjoyed it too and a couple of them couldn’t stop talking about the new bikes they wanted.” 

PR Manager for SUBWAY® Pro Cycling John McKenzie said the riders really enjoyed the school visit and it was not only great for them to connect with the students but to also share messages about the health and fitness elements of cycling, setting and achieving goals and the importance of safety while riding.