CYCLING

Hard day on the saddle for riders in women's tour

By Women Tour of NZ

With all five riders in the Top 5 on GC from the USA cycling team, the Australian riders decided to get aggressive on Stage 3 of the Trust House women’s tour of New Zealand.   They threw plenty at Team USA and were rewarded with stage success.

"We gave it everything," stage winner Katrin Garfoot  from the Australian national team said and she is in third place only 18 seconds behind new tour leader Evelyn Stevens – USA team.

The race started slow with riders conserving energy for what laid ahead, ten laps of a 12km circuit with a tough hill climb each time around in hot conditions.

The action started with three laps to go, after a small group of thee riders, containing Tayler Wiles from team USA, Ellen Skerritt from Hi 5 Dream Team and Joe Hogan from Tibco attacked at the top of the hill managing to get away and create a lead of 55 seconds over the main bunch.

This didn’t last long as the USA and Australia national teams force the pace next time up the hill and once again the bunch was all together with two laps to go.

On the penultimate time up the hill, nine riders manage to break away containing some of the strongest riders in the tour such a Stevens and Megan Guarnier from USA, Lauren Stevens from Tibco SVB, Katrin Garfoot and Rachel Neyland from Australia national team, Tessa Fabry form Hi 5 Dream Team, Lucy Coldwell and Miranda Griffiths from Holden Racing Team and Ruth Corsett from team Fagan Motors.

They quickly gain a lead of 30 second that with 10 km to go grow up top over three minutes, from here was to come the stage winner of day three And a new tour leader.

The ride of the day was from DNA-K4 Gabrielle Pilote-Forting from Canada After the breakaway of nine riders went off, Gaby attempted to bridge the 2 minute gap alone. She didn't quite make it across, but the heroic solo effort earned her the Fagan Motors Young Rider's White Jersey.










First ten places Stage 3

Place Surname, name Team Time Gap
1 GARFOOT, Katrin AUS 3:41:18
2 GUARNIER, Megan USA
3 STEPHENS, Lauren TIB
4 CORSETT, Ruth FAM
5 COLDWELL, Lucy HOL
6 GRIFFITHS, Miranda HOL
7 FABRY, Tessa HID
8 NEYLAN, Rachel AUS
9 STEVENS, Evelyn USA 00:03
10 Gabrielle PILOTE-FORTIN,  
DNA 1.25

Top ten places General Classification

Place Surname, name Team Time Gap
1 GUARNIER, Megan USA 7:57:58
2 STEVENS, Evelyn USA 00:03
3 GARFOOT, Katrin AUS 00:18
4 NEYLAN, Rachel AUS
5 STEPHENS, Lauren TIB 00:42
6 COLDWELL, Lucy HOL 01:05
7 GRIFFITHS, Miranda HOL
8 FABRY, Tessa HID 01:30
9 CORSETT, Ruth FAM 02:25

Tomorrow stage is the hardest in the five day tour; this is the “Queen Stage” of the 2015 Trust House Women’s Tour of New Zealand.  In this day riders will climb four major hills, two of them the hardest and longest of the tour, the 6km long up The Wharaw hill half way thru the stage and the final, a top of the mountain finish to the top of Admiral hill, a 12km hill climb.