Date: Monday, 05 September 2011
Posted by: Cycling Southland

Otago claimed a convincing victory in the annual interclub team time trial clash with Southland in Outram on Saturday.

Teams battled a massive headwind on the outward leg of the course but were rewarded on the homeward leg with wind-assisted speeds of up to 70kmh.

After last year's defeat in Invercargill, Otago was hungry for victory. With 14 Otago teams entered across all categories, compared with Southland's four, there was never any doubt the cup would be changing hands.

It was not all plain sailing for Otago, however, with strong performances from Southland to win the masters women's race along with the under-17 girls event, while the masters men 2 came second in their category.

The Huntley Rd course provided some challenges with its seemingly endless undulations, and combined with the very strong southerly there was obvious relief on cyclists' faces when they reached the turn at the bottom of Berwick Hill and finally gained a reprieve.

The Otago masters women were held up with a mechanical issue at the start and were almost brought down on their way home by a wandering dog, while the Southland masters men were grateful for a farmer's quick actions which stopped cattle crossing their path.

The fastest time of the day over the 40km course was recorded by the Otago open men's No 1 team of young guns Alex MacGregor, Scott Thomas and Logan Edgar.

Despite racing with only three members, and stopping for Edgar's chain mishap, they still recorded a very respectable 53min 24sec.

The Otago masters men's A team of Mark Spessot, Brendan Hastie, Paul Gough and Geoff Keogh showed their class and experience to record the second-fastest time of 54min 42sec.

Another three-man team, of Ross Gamble, Kevin Thomson and Tony Chapman, put in the fastest ride over 25km, completing the course in 36min 52sec, ahead of the Otago open women's A team of Tess Molloy, Kat Jones, Nic Shanks and Elyse Fraser in 40min 14sec.

Clubs were awarded three points for a win, two for a second and one for a third place in each category. The final tally put Otago well ahead on 30 points, with Southland on nine points.

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