Many Southland business men & women will soon be casting aside their suits and ties, and donning their lycra in time for Cycling Southland's Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit challenge at the Stadium Southland Velodrome on Sunday, July 15.
Thirty four Southland businesses have registered to compete in this years corporate challenge, matching the record set in 2011.
A number of experienced teams were back for more, including Fonterra, Harcourts, Opus, YMCA and New Zealand Police, but newcomers Ricoh, Whyte’s Gravel, Amalgamated Builders, BMAC Sheetmetal and Westpac could cause an upset.
Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit organizer Sier Vermunt said there were some “dark horses” in the competition this year already, doing some blistering times during training sessions.
“The ILT number ones, stacked with rugby players who think they can cross-train, are putting the heat on the current division one contenders, Calder Stewart Roofing Rebels and Police teams,” he said.
In 2011, the division one competition was won by the Policy team ‘Hawaii 5 Os’ in a time of 1 minute 13.677 seconds, down on the previous record set by YMCA in 2010 in a time of 1 minute 12.068 seconds.
Enthusiastic audience participation was encouraged, with spot prizes awarded to the most supportive spectators including tickets to the World Junior Track Championships in August up for grabs, Mr Vermunt said.
The corporate challenge event, run by Cycling Southland, is based on the Italian pursuit event in which two teams of four riders take to opposite sides of the track. A rider from each team races at the same time, starting and finishing on the opposite sides of the track. Each rider completes one lap of the 250m track before the next rider in the team takes off, until a total of four laps have been completed. The team with the fastest time moves on to the next stage.
Article courtesy of The Southland Express