Opus International Consultants have been part of Cycling Southland’s Corporate Pursuit event for six years, but that doesn’t mean the team is too serious to enjoy themselves.
Cycling Southland’s Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit is a business teams’ pursuit event at the Stadium Southland Velodrome and continues to grow in popularity.
This year’s pursuit will see the grading time trial on Sunday and main event on July 15, with a capacity field of 34 six-person teams.
Opus are determined to do well but team member Sarah Hamilton revealed a rather different form of motivation, jokingly suggesting she had entered to see what would be on the food table.
The team also has some rivalry going on with fellow competitor, The Southland Times.
They share the same coach and schedule, as well as some banter through emails.
“There’s a bit of trash talking,” Hamilton said.
The Opus team even emailed the Times’ crew a photo of themselves with a bike made for Olympic great Sarah Ulmer, saying that’s the bike they would be using this year.
Rather than Olympic-designed bikes, Opus will use the kit provided by Cycling Southland and stick to the training times allocated to each team.
“We only have been to three training sessions and we have two left to go,” Hamilton said.
Event organizer Julian Inesonsaid Opus would be one of the teams to have a male member’s legs waxed publicly at Sunday’s grading time trial.
A highlight for Ineson was seeing the families and friends dressed up and making noise at the final, which was Cycling Southland’s main fundraiser of the year.
RIDE IT
What: Cycling Southland’s Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit.
When: Grading time trial, Sunday July 8: Noon till 4pm. Main event, Sunday July 15: 9.30am till 5pm.
Where: Stadium Southland Velodrome.
Numbers: Capacity field of 34 six-person teams have entered.
Who to watch: Last year’s winners, The Police.
Article courtesy of The Eye