Cycling Southland’s annual Corporate Pursuit track event begins tomorrow (Sunday) at SIT Zerofees Velodrome with the first of two race days.
This weekend’s Grading Time Trial will be followed by next Sunday’s (11th) Finals Day where 30 six-person teams from Southland businesses will battle each other to become 2013 Crowe Horwath Corporate Pursuit Champion.
With last year’s champion Southland District Council combination not defending their title this year, the event is wide open with Sunday likely to give an indication as to who will enter Finals’ day as favourite. Fonterra showed it would be one of the teams to beat, winning the Lone Star Speights Roller Racing Challenge ahead of AWS Legal and NZ Fire Service.
Each team will ride off against the clock tomorrow with the fastest 16 qualifiers contesting the Division One Final and the remaining 14 lining up in Division Two.
Co-event Directors Julian Ineson and Sier Vermunt believe this year’s event should be another hotly-contested battle. “This event has become a highlight of Cycling Southland’s packed event calendar and with another large turn-out of teams, from such a variety of businesses shows how popular the Crowe Horwath Corporate Pursuit is with the local business community,” Mr Vermunt said.
“This event brings 180 riders into our facility who might not otherwise have experienced the thrill of track cycling. The fact that most continue in the sport and in the club after the event shows just how addictive it quickly becomes,” Mr Ineson said.
This year’s field is made up of teams from AWS Legal, Amalgamated Builders, BNZ, Colac Bay Tavern, Crowe Horwath, EIS Group Ltd, Environment Southland, Fonterra, Harrex Group, HW Richardson Group, IFS Growth Ltd, Invercargill Licensing Trust, McIntyre Dick & Partners, Mitre 10 MEGA, two teams from NZ Fire Service, NZ Police, Opus International Consultants, PowerNet, Preston Russell Law, Ricoh Southland, SBS Bank, Southern District Health Board, South Port, Speights Ale House, The Radio Network, Westpac, Waihopai Health Services, Whyte’s Gravel Supplies and YMCA.
Colac Bay Tavern, featuring former Southland Stag Jeremy Winders has the honour of starting proceedings tomorrow as the first team away at 12:25pm. Admission is just $2 for adults with children free.