CYCLING

Gate shows class in Dynamo Race Three

By Dynamo Events

Waiting to launch his sprint just 100 metres from the line, the 2012 Olympic Bronze medallist Aaron Gate took a deserved win over his breakaway compatriot, Ryan Christensen of the Speed Works Cipollini team, in a dramatic finale of Race 3 of the Dynamo Events Team Championship. 

The rain soaked roads of the rolling Tokoroa course certainly didn’t slow the flurry of attacks during the opening kilometres in the Mens Elite race, everyone seemingly very keen to get the action going early on. Eventually a break of 11 escaped, with Series Leader Frank Sutton of the Te Awamutu Cycling Club and second placed Michael Torckler of the Blindz Direct team content to watch from the main bunch. 

Up front the Dynamo Invitational team were well represented with four riders in the break, as were Spoken Cycles with three. Also in the strong break were Blindz Direct’s Joshua Aldridge, BikeLab’s Steve Furminger, Speed Works Cipollini’s Ryan Christensen and Webscope’s Cameron Wynniatt. 

The group worked well despite the rolling countryside, until the 2013 Omnium World Champion Aaron Gate, riding for the Dynamo Invitational team, started to liven up proceedings by stringing it out at the front. The only other rider able to roll through was Christensen, the rest now instantly gapped.

The two quickly forged a 45 second lead despite the chasing efforts from Ryan Wills of Spoken Cycles, while Dynamo’s Roman van Uden, looking after his teammate Gate, tried his best to rein him in. 

“It was hard to get that gap, that’s for sure,” explained Gate, “we were just working really well together and it paid off because we managed to get a gap and hold onto it for the final 20km”.

The two ploughed on, van Uden forced to drop back, their lead on Wills increasing until a passing cargo train stopped the race, “I was just thinking ‘Oh no! Please be a short train!’” laughed Gate afterwards. The race commissaires timed the stop at 30 seconds just as Wills crested the hill to spot them starting off again, “I saw they had stopped and the gap came down from roughly 45 to 20, I figured it was a train but I was all or nothing, do or die”.

Undeterred, Gate and Christensen powered on, Gate overpowering Christensen in the run in. “It was a hard day out,” said Gate, “the wind hung around, which made it a good hard race. It’s amazing how hard 120km can be sometimes!”



A late attack by Torckler kept Sutton on his toes, eventually finishing one place behind the Blindz Direct rider to successfully hold onto his Race Leaders jersey. 

Equally, the weather and rolling terrain made Natalie Kerwin’s win even more impressive in the Elite Womens race. With the decisive break of Cycling New Zealand’s Pip Sutton, Madison Farrant of the Speed Works Donna team and Bikelab’s Grace Anderson ahead, Kerwin used her Ramblers Cycling Club teammate Ashleigh Neave to help bridge the gap and join the three. 

“We worked quite well together,“ explained Natalie, “we got more of a gap but they were finding it pretty tough out there. With about 20km to go we hit another hill and I just rode off the front”. 

Despite not knowing the course and having never gone for such a long solo attack before, the Hawkes Bay rider “just kept drilling it! I looked behind a few times but saw no one. I am so stoked for the win, especially leading into the Elite Nationals”.

“It’s an awesome series,” said Kerwin afterwards, “we are just not used to team racing, it’s such a different dynamic. We normally race individually so this is quite cool, there are a few more tactics involved”.

Team tactics were also played well in the other three racing categories. Black Spoke Racing’s Aaron Strong taking another win over Thermal Chemistry’s Glen Carabine to extend his lead in the Category 2 race, Albany Bike Club’s Category 3 Race Leader Steve Taylor retained his jersey despite the superior sprint of his nearest rival, Black Spoke Racing’s Adam Smith, and while Tony Songhurst of Team Molteni took the solo win in Category 4, Cycling Rotorua’s Chris Groome’s fourth place meant he will hold his series lead over the Christmas period.

The Team Championship Series resumes after the Elite Road National Championships, the riders returning to the testing roads of Cambridge on 7th February.


The    “Dynamo    Team    Championship”    Cycling    Series

Race One:    Sunday    11    October    2015    – Te    Awamutu
Race Two:    Sunday    22    November    2015    – Hamilton
Race Three:    Sunday    13    December    2015    – Tokoroa
Race Four:    Sunday    7    February    2016    – Cambridge
Race Five:    Sunday    13    March    2016    – Pokeno
Race Six:    Sunday    3    April    2016    – Tokoroa

www.dynamoevents.co.nz