NZ Cycle Classic – Stage Five

It was clear from the get go today that the wind was going to play a huge factor in today’s race... right from the gun the pace was on and in the first 20 or so km's there where continuous attacks as riders tried to establish themselves off the front.

Two riders managed to ride clear and at one point they had around 30 seconds on the main peleton before being caught just before the first KOM climb of the day.



This was taken out by riders who wouldn’t have an impact on the classification so it worked to our favour taking the pressure off Joe and securing the overall King of the Mountain classification for Team Ricoh.

The peleton continued to hit some high speeds on the fast descent and turned back out onto the main road where the pace continued as the race progressed towards the intermediate sprint points. With this acceleration there were riders who were quickly shelled off the back as they battled in the gusty crosswinds. The sprint was won by Tom Scully with Patrick Bevin in 2nd which helped him out in the final battle for the green jersey.



As we turned back to head around the loop again the pace increased with the race being strung out in the windy conditions which at this point was a mix of a strong cross and head winds. Teams continued to make attacks with nothing sticking. The peleton never really letting any break get out to much over 20 seconds and the race staying pretty much together.

That was until we got word over race radio that Ricoh rider Joe Cooper had got on the front and was driving the peleton hard. It was at a point in the race when he did a considerable amount of damage blowing the peleton apart, putting a huge amount of pressure on the bunch at around the 65km mark.

Joe continued to attack as he headed up the climb taking Jayco rider Nick Aitken with him as they rode off the front. Joe collected the full KOM points on offer much to the delight of Keith from Ricoh Palmerston North who was out on the course.

They continued to lap it out for the next 30km also picking up the sprint points on offer as they raced towards the finish.

It was a nervous time back in the car as we had it reported that Drapac had got on the front to try and reel Joe and Nick back in and with only a 30 second buffer it was always going to be a huge ask for them to stay away in the tough conditions and with just under 10km to go they were caught.

What followed was more attacks off the front, but with no one managing to stay clear the stage was destined to end in another bunch sprint. In the final run into town the Bike NZ team got there impressive lead out train into action and delivered Aaron Gate to the line for the stage win.



It was a pretty successful tour overall for Team Ricoh with Joe finishing 12th in the General classification 1:52 off the winner. He also took out the King of the Mountain jersey and was 4th in the Sprint classification with the team also managing an impressive 5th on the team classification – with only overseas UCI registered teams ahead of us.

Thanks very much to Ricoh for their fantastic support throughout the tour, Chuck Buckley the mechanic and Jorge Sandoval for another great NZ Cycle Classic.

Thanks for reading.

Kristin.

NZ Cycle Classic – Stage Four

Stage four brought along sunshine which was a welcome sight after all the rain yesterday. Roll out time at a leisurely 11am with a relatively short stage of 110km ahead for the riders.

The race took in two laps of a circuit that included a hill climb and a relatively flat section which would be dominated by cross winds.

The race was relatively quiet until we reached the first sprint of the day which was won by Nick Lovegrove of Subway moving him into the virtual leader of the Sprint jersey classification.

First time up the climb and the race was all together, but this was not from lack of trying from different teams trying to get off the front. We knew that Joe was going to need to get some points in the two KOM climbs today in order to secure the jersey and he managed to win the sprint to the top of the climb to take the full points on offer which was great for his overall lead in this classification.

The main peleton reformed after the hill climb and continued to roll along with plenty of teams attacking to try and get a break working.

Just prior to the second sprint of the day Patrick Lane from Jayco managed to ride clear of the main bunch taking the full sprint points followed by two other riders who managed to bridge across and join him. These three went on to pick up the KOM points as well which worked in our favour as they weren’t a threat to the KOM classification (this break also worked in Nick Lovegrove’s favour as they also hadn’t featured in the sprint points and he would take the jersey at the end of the stage).

Once onto the flat section after the climb the bunch reeled the break back in and with 20km to go the race was all together. Over this last 20km there were a few guys that tried to get off the front, but it was clear that a bunch sprint was on the cards, which ended up being won by Drapac followed by Jay McCarthy of Jayco and Patrick Bevin in 3rd.



Another great day for Ricoh with all riders finishing in the main bunch except for Mitch who had another unlucky day with a puncture, Joe keeping the KOM jersey and a change in the overall classification with Jay McCarthy moving into the yellow jersey as well as continuing to hold the U23 jersey. Nick Lovegrove taking the Sprint Jersey from Patrick Bevin.

Tomorrow will be much of the same with another 110km stage (the same loop but in reverse) with another two KOM climbs and sprint’s on offer.

Will be interesting to see if a break manages to stay away or if it ends in another bunch sprint finish.

Until then. Kristin.

Photos from the NZ Cycle Classic

Thanks to Kirsty Kaihau for the photos...

NZ Cycle Classic – Stage Three

Palmerston North turned on the rain this morning and as the riders rolled out for the 154km race the peloton was a sea of rain coats. Neutralised until the riders reached the outskirts of town then racing was underway. At around the 10km mark in heavy rain there was a crash which left a lot of riders scrambling for spare wheels to get back on their bikes and fight their way back into the peleton.

With a sprint coming up at around the 15km mark the pace lifted as riders tried to break clear to claim the points on offer – three riders managed to do this claiming the points and continuing to ride off the front of the main peleton. This was a lead that they managed to hold for a considerable amount of time picking up the KOM points on the way. This was great for us as the three riders had not scored any points in the KOM competition yesterday so it meant that Joe would stay clear to keep the KOM jersey for another day.

Around the 80km mark having been away in the three man break for around 70km one of the riders was dropped from the break and re joined the peleton. At this point there didn’t seem any pressure from the main peleton to chase down the breakaway of two (Sam Bewley of the NZ National Team and Nick Lovegrove from Subway) as they were well down on the general classification and not a threat to the yellow jersey.

As the race turned and headed towards Fielding the speed picked up to around 70km/h as the peleton benefited from a solid tailwind. With 10km to go the break still had over a minute on the peloton who had slowed and didn’t appear too interested in chasing. Nek minut the peloton changed their mind and began closing in on the break in the final km's.

However it was to be the breakaways day as they managed to finish clear of the peleton with Sam Bewley taking the win, Nick Lovegrove second and Patrick Bevin winning the bunch kick for 3rd place. All of Team Ricoh’s riders finished with the chasing bunch.



Thanks to Keith from Ricoh who came along in the car and got to experience being a part of the race convoy with us, it was great to have some company!

No doubt tomorrow will be another day of attacks with the general classification still being fairly tight in regards to time. Joe will look to retain his KOM jersey and hopefully Palmerston North will bring the sun out again for us!

Kristin.

For stage results and overall GC placings visit www.roadcycling.co.nz
Thanks to Adrian Rumney for the photos.

NZ Cycle Classic – Stage Two

Stage two got underway in the NZ Cycle Classic taking in a 143.3km loop around some scenic country roads of the Manawatu region. It was always going to be a tough day in the saddle with the General Classification results being so tight, every team was going to be trying to get away and make it stick in order to take the overall lead.

From the gun, riders tried to get off the front but it took around 30km for a selection to stick with a group managing to stay away which included Joseph Cooper from Team Ricoh.

The first KOM climb quickly came around at just over the 50km mark and was won by Joe which was a great start in this classification – soon, many other riders were beginning to bridge across to the break and it quickly became a group of 20 riders with most of the major teams represented. At this point Ricoh had two riders in this group – Joe who had been joined by Darren Rolfe (who later punctured and was in for a long day of chasing to finally get back on).



The second KOM came around at the 73km mark which Joe also won putting him in the lead of the King of the Mountain classification which would also see him in the jersey with there being only two KOM climbs during the stage.

This bunch set about their work and at one point had well over five minutes lead on the main peleton. Back in the peleton Mitchell Lovelock-Fay was having a rough day puncturing and then having two further wheel changes however all was not lost as he got in a bit of TT training chasing to get back on after these changes!

Up the road to Joe’s group, two riders managed to break off the front and this proved to be the winning move of the day with the bunch not being able to catch them – however a marshal insufficiently directed the chasing bunch, causing the majority of them to miss the right hand turn to the home straight at around 5km to go (Joe included).

This didn’t help the chasers cause! In this confusion the chasing bunch split as people had begun to tire and fought to get their position back.

Joe went on to cross the line in 8th place a little over a minute back from the winning pair or riders.



So all in all a great day for Ricoh – 8th place in the race and the KOM jersey on the shoulders of Joe for tomorrow. Joe also managed to move up a place on the overall general classification and is now in 5th place, 1min 36 seconds off the lead with Team Ricoh sitting in 5th place on the team classification.

Tomorrow should be another interesting day with Stage three taking in a similar course to today, but in reverse.

Thanks to Kristin for the report and Adrian Rumney for the pro photos.

NZ Cycle Classic – Stage One

Yesterday was a day of admin for the team arriving into Palmerston North early afternoon in time to collect riders from the airport and get settled in for the week – There was only one minor hiccup with Australian rider Mitch Lovelock – Fay’s bike not making the flight from Wellington to Palmerston North but thankfully it later arrived on a courier who drove it up from Wellington so it would be here for the morning.

The NZ Cycle Classic ( Tour of Manawatu ) kicked off today with the Prologue ( Individual Time Trial ) which was in the afternoon however it was still an early morning start for the team to make sure everything was in order to run smoothly for the Tour and to also pick up the last rider to arrive this morning Andy Bajic.

Palmerston North turned on a scorcher of a day for the Ricoh Team to get the tour underway on the 7.1km course that started with a circuit of Massey University before heading out to continue the loop on the main road taking in a few small rolling hills and a descent with a sharp turn to come into the finishing straight – It was clear from the start it was going to be a fast course and could be anyone’s race to win

First Ricoh rider to head out on the course was Andy Bajic from Slovenia ( he has been racing here in NZ for the last 3 months ) followed by the 20 year old Mitchell Lovelock – Fay from Australia, Darren Rolfe ( Aus ), Matthew Marshall ( NZ ) with Joseph Cooper the last of the Ricoh riders to head out on course.

Early on a fast time was posted by Michael Vink ( NZ U23 Champ ) which gave the riders something to chase – 9.29 after the first four riders on our team headed out we knew it was up to Joe to see how close he could come to this mark  - And that he did

When Joseph crossed the line he was given a time of 9.29.9 – there was one rider who had ridden a 9.28 to take first and 6 riders all on 9.29 within hundreds of a second of each other – Once results were finalised Joseph’s time was amended to 9.0 which put him in 7^th place 2 sec off the leader and 1 sec off 5 riders who remained on the 9.29 mark. It was fair to say that this was one of the closer results we had seen and will make for an interesting weeks racing!

We are looking forward to tomorrows race which kicks off at 10am taking in 143.4km – it should be a good day out!

Also thanks to the guys from the Ricoh office here in Palmerston North who came out to watch the boys today

Team Ricoh riders results on

Winners time – 9.28

Joseph Cooper – @2” sec (off lead )

Darren Rolf @20”

Mitchel Lovelock – Fay @21”

Andy Bajic @47”

Matthew Marshall @54”

Makara

Flew back into a very cold and wet Wellington on Sunday night after the Tour de Ranges. Easy recovery spin around Makara in the morning with the Meo GP boys, during which we bumped into Glenno who was on good form in a humorous way.

Then today I had a solid list of race prep to attend to for the New Zealand Cycle Classic... pick up Torq race nutrition, have Paris checked over by Capital Cycles (along with new go fast handlebar tape installed), pick up Tufo S3 Lite tubular clinchers in go-fast red from Armstrong Sport and then call in to see Lovers at Ricoh for Team Ricoh tour kit and to have a quick catch up.

Tonight I'm up in Palmy primed and ready for the Tour to begin tomorrow. First up is a 7.1km prologue starting at 2.30pm in the afternoon. Stay tuned to Facebook and Twitter for updates from the Tour.

JC.