January 30th, 2012
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Harrison wins Blackball Classic
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Tayla Harrison won the prestigious 100 kilometre Blackball WMC Cycle Classic on the South Island’s West Coast on Saturday.
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.
January 28th, 2012
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.
January 27th, 2012
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;
