Kiwis finish Tour de l'Abitibi in 1st and 2nd

Jul 25th, 11. They led the Tour de l'Abitibi from the opening stage and today 18 year old Kiwis James Oram and Dion Smith finished the Nations Cup tour in the same positions.

After their success in the opening stage of this U19 UCI Nations Cup event the Kiwis defended their lead by delivering solid time trial results, pulling back breaks and stealing interim sprint bonus seconds.

Oram and Smith finished today's 93.8km 7th and final stage in the main bunch, 4sec behind the first two riders. By the time they reached the finish line, Oram had an 18sec overall lead on Smith, who was 5sec ahead of the 3rd placed rider from the USA.

Together with George Hubbard, Tom Nicholson and Hamish Scheurs team NZ finished 2nd to the US in the Nation's Team Classification.

Overall it was a great success for the young team and shows New Zealand cycling has a fantastic future!