CYCLING

Kiwis descend on Cadel Evans Road Race

By Aaron S Lee

Reigning national road race champion Jason Christie is one of 14 New Zealand cyclists set to start the second annual Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday.

There will be a significant Kiwi presence at the second annual Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong, Victoria, on Sunday, January 31.

More than a dozen New Zealand cyclists are expected to make the start at of the 174-kilometre elite men’s road race featuring 217 riders spread over 22 teams, including nine WorldTour squads.

The 14 riders include Sam Bewley (Orica-GreenEge), Greg Henderson (Lotto Soudal), George Bennett (Team LottoNL-Jumbo), Scott Ambrose (Team Novo Nordisk) Hayden McCormick (ONE Pro Cycling), James Oram (ONE Pro Cycling), Dion Smith (ONE Pro Cycling), Tom Scully (Drapac Pro Cycling), Joe Cooper (Avanti-IsoWhey Sports), Thomas Hubbard (Data#3 Cisco Racing Team), Sam Dobbs (Attaque Team Gusto), Morgan Smith (Kenyan Riders Downunder), Nick Miller (Kenyan Riders Downunder) and recently crowned national champion Jason Christie (Kenyan Riders Downunder).

“I'm really looking forward to making my debut in the Cadel Evans road race,” said Christie, who will debut his new national kit at the race. “Having grown up and admired Cadel as a role model, it's fantastic to be lining up in his event, and even more special to be wearing the fern as New Zealand national champ.”

The 2015 national champion and Christie’s former teammate is also ready to race.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” said Cooper. “I have a strong team to slot into after most of the guys did Tour Down Under and should be motoring.”

Destructive thunderstorm threatened the race on Wednesday by causing flash flooding, which resulted in widespread property damage and 18 people needing rescue.

However, former world champion and Tour de France winning cyclist Cadel Evans, who retired after finishing fifth at the inaugural event last year, assured the race was good to go during the official press conference of his namesake’s race.

“I just rode on a bit of the course now, and wanted to make sure none of the sides of the road had been washed away,” Evans told reporters on Thursday. “It’s a bit of a concern there, not so much if it’s going to rain or be sunny, more so if the portions of land that the roads go on are going to still be there on Sunday.


“The Minster of Sport, Mr John Eren, told me this morning that it was once in a ‘100-year storm’ so that’s good for us for [the next] 100 years of race organisation.”

The two-day event features both elite men’s and women’s UCI cycling races, as well as a mass participation ride that has attracted more than 4,000 riders including Evans himself, who is recovering from a recent knee operation.

The men’s race, which features three laps of the Geelong circuit, which closely follows the 2010 UCI Road World Championship course, was upgraded from UCI 1.1 classification to 1.HC for 2016, while the 113km women’s race was upgraded to 1.2 status.

Aaron S. Lee is a cycling and triathlon columnist for Eurosport and a guest contributor to NZ Bike Magazine.
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