April 25th, 2012
Tour de Korea update
Tour de Korea stage one
Dodgy wet conditions with a few crashes with a bunch kick for the win. Nick Lovegrove punctured twice which was unfortunate. The rest of the team finished safely in the main bunch. Not much to report from the opening day.
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 99th. 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.
April 18th, 2012
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling aim for similar success in Korea
The SUBWAY® Pro Cycling leaves tomorrow to race in the UCI 2.2 Tour de Korea where it hopes to have similar success to last year.
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.
April 14th, 2012
Team media statement and race summary; Around Brunner
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling dominated the Around Brunner cycle race in Greymouth today filling the top three places.
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
