Jan 28th, 10. The inaugural SRAM Tour de Ranges kicked off in spectacular fashion last Saturday with over nine hundred cyclists turning up to take on the breezy and showery Auckland conditions.

Tom Findlay, winner of the inaugural SRAM Tour de Ranges

At the end of the race it was the U23 NZ Road Champion Findlay who took top honours.

"To win SRAM Tour de Ranges as the Under 23 National Champion is great as there were a lot of big names here even though it was a fun ride," Findlay told RoadCycling.co.nz

"It was just great to back up the nationals with this awesome event which is sponsored by Bici Vida's main sponsor Allpress Coffee."

Roadworks laid by the Council the week of the event caused a puncture nightmare for many riders with a much larger number of DNFs than usual, but for those lucky enough to keep their tyres intact it was a great day of racing.

A sedate start up the Sky High climb allowed the majority of the contenders to stay close to the action but the first section of recently laid roadworks played havoc with many.  

Top contender Karl Murray fell victim and found himself out of the race early on as did four of his Black Peloton teammates.

Black Peloton is the newest of a number of teams who have joined the NZ racing circuit this season.  Despite their name, the team race in the blue and white colours of their main sponsor Placemakers.

"We were warned about the roadworks around the circuit and to be prepared but none of us could predict what the race was about to offer us. There were many kilometres of gravel and large rocks on the road, very bad conditions for many riders and as a result there was puncture after puncture," the team reported on their Black Peloton blogsite.

Start of the SRAM Tour de Ranges ©Reece Billington

Further roadworks along this flat section aided a five man breakaway; Findlay, Latham, Brett Tivers, Fraser Bermingham and Brad Carter.

Adding to this events uniqueness was a sprint point located at 55km, midway along the Kaiaua Coastline. A fast sprint by Australian based Kiwi Tivers saw him snatch the sprint title from Findlay.

The main peloton continued to work hard along the Kaiaua Coast, with 8-time Bonita New Zealand Ironman Champion Cameron Brown taking big turns on the front. With a 2m30s deficit at the sprint point the chasing peloton had a lot of work to do if it was to do in with a chance.

A rapid ascent of Snake Hill saw Bici Vida's Findlay claim the King of the Mountain title. A cautious descent in slippery conditions was required for the riders in the lead pack to make the final 20km journey home.

Sprint Ace winners Brett Tivers and Kaytee Boyd ©Reece Billington

A wrong turn by Peter Latham with 3km to go forced the remaining four riders to sit up and wait.

An exciting finished ensued with Tom Findlay taking out overall line honours, U23 title and KOM title in a time of 2:45.

As for the women's race it was a fairly one sided affair with Kaytee Boyd taking out the Sprint point, KOM point and Yellow jersey. Alexandra Neems took out the White young rider's jersey with Rachel Larner claiming the Black master's jersey.

Pencil this race into your diary for next summer, Saturday 22^nd January 2011.

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