Another weekend of Kiwi success

Sep 6th, 10.  While many of our Kiwi internationals are heading back to NZ, others are still busy racing in Australia, Europe and the US - and they are still winning!

NZ Track team take on the roads of Europe

Latham and Gough swapped their track bikes for road bikes this week ©BritishCycling.org.uk

Six Kiwis, who will ride the track at the Commonwealth Games next month, raced the Four Day AS en Provence Tour in France.

On the opening day they stunned the competition by winning the team time trial.

Peter Latham led the New Zealand team to record the fastest time for the 18km course, despite the team losing more than a minute fixing a mechanical problem with Marc Ryan's bike.

They clocked 21m05s with four riders – Latham, Ryan, Westley Gough and Aaron Gate – after an ill Myron Simpson fell off the pace early and Shane Archbold was dropped.

Disaster hit when the handlebar extension on Ryan's bike came off and after an attempted fix, the experienced Timaru rider continued on the normal drops and held the extension to ensure it did not cause damage. The team had to rely on Gough and Latham to pull the team home, which they did at  50km/h.

"No-one could really believe it. We had to make a fast change into the team kit to get to the podium with Pete getting the yellow jersey and Wes the white jersey as leader of the young rider classification."

Over the following two stages the Kiwi trackies hung in over the hilly course and saved their energy for the final day when again they made the podium. Latham finished 3rd.

"Overall it was an excellent effort from the guys. We ended up with a stage win on the first day, a third and a fourth and most importantly they got in some tough racing against strong competition and now go into their track programme with a great base behind them after nearly three months of road racing in Europe," said BikeNZ coach Stu MacDonald.

Logan Hutchings in the USA

Hutchings is currently racing the Tour of Austin, in Texas, with his team Hotel San Jose.  After two of the four stages, Hutchings' 4th in the opening stage time trial and win in the Stage 2, 50min criterium has him leading the overall points based competition.

A pile of rewards in Australia

Two stage wins, five jerseys worn, and two won, was the haul from the four Kiwis in the Hyster Total Rush team at the Tour of the Murray River.  James Williamson held the leader's and U21 jerseys after his great win earlier in the week. Gordon McCauley wore the Sprint jersey and won the King of the Mountain and Most Aggressive jerseys, won a stage and finished 3rd overall in the 14 stage tour. 

Three Kiwis in the team earned Most Aggressive awards during stages, Jason Allen (twice), McCauley (twice) and Williamson. The fourth Kiwi in the team, fastman Alex Ray, earned a 2nd stage placing.  The Hyster Total Rush team won the overall Teams' Classification.

Another Kiwi, Rico Rogers (Swan Hill Rural City Council), earned four 2nd places before bowing out in Stage 10.

Other Kiwis in the race didn't fare so well.  Jeremy Stephens (Placemakers / Black Peloton) crashed badly and his tour ended with a hospital visit earlier in the week.  After an impressive dismount, which saw him shoot up in the air, the Napier rider was lucky not to suffer broken bones, but he was badly cut and grazed.

Solid ride from Kiwi women in Holland

Four Kiwi women completed the seven stage Ladies Tour of Holland today.  While a third of the starters dropped out during the tour, Linda Villumsen, Emma Crum, Emily Collins and Karen Fulton joined the world's top riders who made it to the final General Classification.  

Villumsen, who placed 3rd in the 2009 time trial at the UCI World Road Championships, and is a medal hopeful again this year, placed 4th in the Stage 6 time trial. 

RadioShack stagiares

RadioShack stagiares Clinton Avery and Jesse Sergent have started a busy week of one day races in Belgium.  In the first race of the week, the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens in Leuven Avery joined the early break in the 13 x 14.1km course.