CYCLING

International Riders Dominate Stage 1 of NZ Cycle Classic

By Destination Wairarapa

Great Britain’s Christopher Lawless won the opening stage of the New Zealand Cycle Classic in the Wairarapa, New Zealand, this afternoon.

Lawless, a 20 year old, riding for English based team JLT Condor won the 122.1km stage in 2hr 54mins 05secs following a group sprint finish into Masterton, while team mate Alex Frame finished second and Jesse Kerrison from Australian based team State of Matter/MAAP third. The win also gave Lawless the Ricoh U23 rider’s jersey and followed an exciting day of racing around the Wairarapa’s undulating, rural roads.

Following the race, Lawless paid tribute to his team mate George Atkins who worked tirelessly to drive the peloton forward and catch the leading group of four riders (Ryan Christensen, Dylan Newberry, Michael Cuming, Sam Crome) who made a breakaway at 50km. At one point the peloton trailed the leaders by six minutes before it put the pressure on to claw back the time deficit to only one minute with 10km to go.

“Our team were all brilliant today and we were lucky that we were all together and that we didn’t panic when the wind switched. George did a hell of a ride in the cross wind and did a really big turn which basically took us back up to the front group,” said Lawless. “If we carry on like that we’ll have a good tour.”

Lawless, who was thrilled to start the tour with a podium finish, said he will try hard to defend his yellow jersey heading into tomorrow’s 136.4km stage 2 but admits his team will be weary of the wind.


Pictured left to right: Trust House’s Lucy Griffiths, Sam Hill, Sam Crome, Christopher Lawless, Mike Cuming and Cycling New Zealand’s Andrew Matheson. Photo courtesy of Destination Wairarapa

“I am hoping it’s windy again tomorrow because I won’t say I enjoy the wind, but I seem to go okay in the wind. While it makes everyone else a bit stressed, I enjoy it. I enjoy sitting in the gutter and scuttling the wheels … it makes it a bit more fun as opposed to when there’s no wind and you’re waiting for the last 20 minutes to come,” said Lawless.

“Sometimes it’s mentally tiring but you’ve got to be switched on, you never know … especially when you don’t the roads. If you turn a corner there could be a howling cross wind and it can blow the race to pieces and that’s your lead gone. We’ve a good team and hopefully that won’t happen.”

 Leading the New Zealand National team home in fifth place was Brad Evans while Michael Vink, Hamish Schreurs and Nick Kergozou finished in the main bunch. Jack Sowry (Team Sign Factory), the only local rider in the tour, finished 53 seconds behind the winners.

Overseas riders took out the rest of the category race jerseys. Australian Sam Hill (Team GPM Stulz) was awarded the Most Aggressive Rider Jersey; Great Britain’s Mike Cuming (State of Matter/MAAP) was awarded the Sprint Ace Jersey and Australian Sam Crome (Avanti IsoWhey Sports) won the King of the Mountain Jersey. The latter pair were especially pleased to be rewarded following their hard work out in front in the leader’s group for more than half the race.

Stage 2 of the New Zealand Cycle Classic continues tomorrow and features a 136.4km route from Masterton to the wine village of Martinborough, including 8 laps through the town square. Riders are expected to finish at an estimated time of 1.25pm.