Fine and mild conditions greeted the 51 riders taking part in the senior and junior races along with the social riders in Woodlands on Saturday.
For the juniors this was a final hit out before next weekend’s Yunca Junior Tour of Southland. They completed one lap of the Woodlands circuit with Hunter Gough leading home Tyla Green and Morgan Borrie.
The senior race was a two-lap handicap around the Woodlands circuit. A strong limit group were sent on their way with the other groups progressively following and finally scratch with a 22 minute delay.
Reports from on the course said that limit were all working well together and this was confirmed at the end of the first lap when Limit had maintained its advantage of 6 mins over the next group, which by then consisted of the Limit 2 and 3 riders. They were followed 3 ½ mins later by Break 2 and they in turn were followed a further 3 ½ mins later by a group consisting of the Break and Scratch riders.
In the end the others could not catch Limit and in a great result for the ladies Tayla Lumsden held off a fast finishing Helena Rikiti with Sam Kopae third in a time of 1hr 49mins. A short time later the Limit 2 and 3 group finished just 13 seconds ahead of a fast finishing group heading by scratch riders Travis Kane and Hayden Strong. Travis holding off Hayden to be awarded the fastest time of 1hr 31mins.
I’d like to thank Shirlene, Paul, Craig and Ken for marshalling, Lindsay for setting up the course, Brendan for doing the handicapping, Robin for managing sign in and all the other things he does and Bruce and Danielle for their assistance in making this a successful race.
A special thanks to Gus and Pauline at the Woodlands Tavern for not only hosting prize giving but for providing some additional spot prizes and a donation to Cycling Southland. Thank you for your support of cycling.
Report courtesy of Race Manager David Simpson