Surprise sprint win for climber Emma Crum

Crum wins the Elite women's HGM Auckland 1000 ©RoadCycling.co.nz

Dec 11th, 11. Like many fun riders behind her, HGM Auckland 1000 winner Emma Crum had no idea the course would be so hilly - but for her that was a good thing.

Crum is a climber - she has won the Queen of the Mountain title at NZ's Bev May Women's Tour three times - and she used the hills to her advantage early in the race today.

"It was pretty hard right from the start. I was trying to push the pace up all those hills - I didn't really realise there were so many of them," she told RoadCycling.co.nz

With 30km to go in the 110km race, Crum was out in front of the rest of the women's field with World Duathlon Champion and former NZ Road Champion Rushlee Buchanan for company.

The 22 year old said she had to dig deep, really deep - so much so she was throwing up a tad in her mouth.

When the trio were eventally caught, Crum expecting to not have anything left in her tank, but some smart positioning helped her take a somewhat surprising sprint victory ahead of Buchanan and Kaytee Boyd.

"I got in a position behind Rushlee and managed to jump out at the right time. I am really happy, I can't believe I won it," Crum said.

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