16/01/2011 - Cycling Southland’s ILT New Year Cycling Series culminated today with its traditional Criterium Race around Ascot Park Hotel.
Five grades made up of riders from all over the South Island battled the tight demanding course and the elements throughout the day with the weather gods playing ball until the final stages of the last race of the day, the Open Division One race.
The Under 17 Division Two riders started the day and their race was dominated by Josh Carpenter and Hamish Beadle, who quickly made up the head-start the rest of the field was given. Carpenter narrowly beat Beadle into second place in the final 100 metre sprint for the line, while Liam Haggerty was third.
In Under 17 Division One, Josh Haggerty was never threatened, riding solo for all of their 25 minute race to claim a brilliant solo win. Visiting rider Holly Edmonston from Waimate finished in second place.
The Open Grade was split across three divisions. Division Three saw Tony Hammington live up to his pre-race favourites tag to pull clear on the final lap over the husband and wife combination of Neil Jamieson and Erin Criglington who finished second and third respectively.
Division Two saw a mix of young talent and wily experienced campaigners do battle. Dunedin’s Justin Stott proved too strong in the dash to the line winning in style from birthday boy Andrew Lienert and Mid South Canterbury’s Ryan Miller.
And in the day’s feature race, Division One, New Zealand Junior representative Alex Frame again showed his class to claim the major money from Te Anau’s Logan Edgar and Otago’s Brad Evans placed third.
Cycling Southland Chief Executive Nick Jeffrey is delighted with the start to the year. “The great thing about these last four days is that our local riders and club members have been able to line up alongside some of the country’s elite and test themselves in all of the cycling disciplines – road, track and crit racing.”
“To be able to watch the best in the business train, prepare and race is a real added bonus and shows the benefits of having the BikeNZ High Performance squad based at the ILT Velodrome.”
“Certainly they have a full on 18 months ahead, through until London in 2012 and we are going to be seeing plenty of them. I watched their endurance session on Saturday which also included some of our development riders. How great is it for these young Southlanders to train alongside Ali Shanks, Tom Scully, Jesse Sergent and co?”
Cycling Southland’s Southland Track Championships will be held next week on Tuesday and Friday nights and Saturday before the RaboDirect National Championships start at the ILT Velodrome on February 25th.
Crit Photo Gallery
Above: Ray Robinson sets himself to battle his fellow Open Div 2 riders.
Above: Hammer Time! Tony Hammington breaks free to claim the win in Open Div 3.
Above: Tom Beadle on the charge over his bars in Open Division 1.
Above: Tony and Julian Ineson and Nick Jeffrey following the prizegiving
Crit Video Highlight