Kiwi News

Images of the Kiwis at the Olympic Test event

Aug 15th, 11. Overview and photos of the Kiwis racing the Olympic test event, the London Surrey Road Race.

This test event was much shorter than the peloton will tackle in about 12 months time - 140km compared to 250km - but it gave the riders a good insight into the Olympic course.

It had been billed as a sprinter's course, but after just two of the nine Box Hill 15.5km loops they will face next year, the field was split up and it was a select bunch racing towards the finish line.

Unfortunately, a late crash in the field, with just 3km left to ride, reduced the sprint contenders further, but Mark Cavendish kept out of trouble and with the help of this Great Britain teammates he gave the huge crowd what they wanted - the win.

Sacha Modolo (Italy) was 2nd and Samuel Dumoulin (France) 3rd.

All the Kiwis were caught behind the crash

"I think the circuit is harder than people have given it credit for," said American Tyler Farrar, who was disappointed to be caught behind the crash, not able to contest the sprint.

The Box Hill loop includes a 2.5km 4.5% gradient climb, which today split the field and challenged the pure sprinters.

"Nine laps of that circuit will be quite hard, especially for guys like me. There is still a long way to the finish however so there is time to come back. It will be an unpredictable Olympics I think," he said.

After the race Cavendish tweeted "So what better result at the London Olympic Test Event than a win? With the strongest Great Britain Team performance I've ever been part of."

BikeNZ High Performance Road Director Sportif Andy Reid was managing the Kiwi team, led by Julian Dean, to gain as much information as possible ahead of the true test next year.

"It's a pretty neat course. Technically it will be full-on and that will demand full concentration throughout," Reid said. "The course can get tight at times and quite often the field were down to single file with the very narrow corners. Placement in the bunch will be critical and I think it is that technical aspect of the course that will make it very tough.

"I think that it is very possible for the elastic to break and a group could get away."

Reid said the course will be extremely challenging if it is wet.

"Overall we got out of it what we wanted. We didn't need the crash because we were travelling well with the group, well positioned to set-up Julian for the sprint finish," he said.

London Surrey Olympic test race results ....