Kiwis warm up for Tour of Britain with UK success

Rico Rogers ©Node4Giordana

Sep 4th, 12. Brit based Kiwis Rico Rogers and Mike Northey warmed up for next week's Tour of Britain with podium successes over the weekend.

Racing for their team Node4 Giordana Racing, the duo tackled the Newport Nocturne Criterium on Saturday night and the Jef Schils Memorial road race on Sunday and came away with a 1st and 2nd place respectively. 

On Saturday, Northey and Rogers showed their collective speed to not only pull back what looked like a race winning break, but to have enough energy left for the NZ Criterium Champion to sling Rogers ahead to take the victory.

It was 34 year old Rogers' second win this season.

On the podium in front of the 15,000-strong crowd - where a band was playing and the streets were lit up by generators, creating a fantastic atmosphere - Rogers received not only the standard prize money, he won his weight in beer!

The next day the team raced again at the Jef Schils Memorial road race in Essex, a "National A" grade event.

The team dominated the race, taking the first five places with Northey stepping up to the podium for 2nd.

Mike Northey ©Node4Giordana

These latest results are a great confidence booster for the Kiwis and their team as they prepare for the September 9-16th Tour of Britain where they will face the world's top teams including Garmin Sharp, Liquigas Cannondale, Orica GreenEdge and Team Sky over eight stages and 1,350km.

Although neither Kiwi has contested the Tour of Britain before, they are both familiar with week long stage races.

Rogers was a standout rider during the Asian tours in 2010 and Northey had plenty of success amongst the USA stage racing circuit last season.