Courteney Lowe keeps Young Rider jersey

Courteney Lowe - far right  - retained the Young Rider jersey today ©Rachel Byus

May 7th, 11. 20 year old Kiwi Courteney Lowe powered into the Young Riders' jersey in yesterday's JMSR opener and kept it today with an impressive Top 5 finish.

Today's 103km hilly Stage 2 of the Joe Martin Stage Race had attack after attack, but every escape attempt was chased down and no-one managed to break free of the aggressive peloton.  

Lowe, who started the day in the red, white and black jersey of the Young Rider leader, kept safe in the bunch until a mishap towards the end of the stage threatened to ruin her day. 

"With about 20km to go a girl came down a couple in front of me and I went over top," Lowe told RoadCycling.co.nz.

Fortunately the Kiwi landed on the other rider, giving her a soft landing.

"I time trialed it back on for about five or so kilometres.  At the finish Kate and I didn't have much support so tried to be smart and position ourselves behind a couple of the good sprinters. It was more a conicidence we finished together," she said.  

Lowe finished 4th and her Kiwi teammate Kate Chilcott 5th. After Lowe and Chilcott, the next Young Rider finished 15sec later.

The stage was won by Tibco's Megan Guarnier, teammate of Kiwi Jo Kiesanowski who won this stage two years ago. Today, Kiesanowski won the interim sprint and helped Guarnier win the stage and take the lead in the General Classification.

After two stages Lowe is 6th on the General Classification and leads the Young Rider competition by 31sec.

The Waikato/Bay of Plenty rider is in her first season as a Kiwi International.  Along with Chilcott she is racing for FCS Cycling Team, based in Bartonville, Texas, a 40 min drive outside of Dallas.

"Kate emailed the team, and they said they would love to have her and wanted to know of another Kiwi that wanted to come over. At the time I was also looking for a team, and to go in one with Kate for my first big trip away was perfect," Lowe explained. She is racing for the team until the start of July when she heads back to New Zealand for a semester at University.

Tomorrow's Stage 3, the penultimate stage of the NRC event is a 98km road race, and Lowe is promising fireworks.

"I want to be agressive tomorrow, apparently there is a long downhill before the finish, so I'm not sure how that will go. I'm hoping something will get away but I will see what happens," she said.

Kiwi results

Kiwis at the Joe Martin Stage Race

• St4: Kiwis show it to the Americans at JMSR
• St3: Louis Crosby rides into Young Rider jersey
• St3: Top day for Kiwi women at JMSR 
• St2: Photo finish for Roman Van Uden in JMSR
• St2: Courteney Lowe keeps Young Rider jersey
• St1: Top Kiwi performances in JMSR uphill TT