Great teamwork keeps Kiwi in yellow

Jul 23rd, 11. It was a tough battle, but the junior Kiwi team dug deep and retained James Oram's yellow jersey in the Tour de l'Abitibi in Canada today.

In 35 degree temperatures, the Nouvelle Zealande team of Oram, Dion Smith, George Hubbard, Tom Nicholson and Hamish Scheurs had to work hard to reel back a threatening break in the U19 UCI Nations Cup event.

"Today's Stage 5 was the longest and by far the hardest stage of the tour!" Oram told RoadCycling.co.nz. 

The day might have ended with a field bunch sprint with Oram and Smith finishing safely to retain their 1st and 2nd place on the General Classification, but earlier in the day their individual and team positions were definitely under threat.

"Breaks and attacks constantly had to be brought back by the team in a light but swirly cross wind. For the first 80km Dion and I had been doing turns every minute with the boys to keep the bunch together," Oram explained.

"10km from town a group of 15 slipped away while we were regrouping, meaning another mammoth chase for us. It took us 20 minutes of hell to bring it back, but we did! Somewhat to Jono's amazement and concern [Jono Hailstone, team manager].

Behind three French riders who took 1st, 2nd and 3rd -  after sitting in all day for the second day in a row - Smith finished in 10th place and earned a 2sec bonus, he is now 17sec behind his teammate and 3sec ahead of the 3rd placed rider from the USA. He sacrificed his sprint jersey to help the team goal.

The Kiwis' great teamwork denied Team USA any opportunity to move further ahead in the all important Nations Cup competition which they still lead by a slim 4sec margin.   

"A day that could have ended our tour finished in satisfaction that we only have two stages to go!" Oram said.

N.B The leader's jersey is not actually yellow, it is brown - but that just doesn't sound right!