BikeNZ pair impress in major US road race

BikeNZ riders Jo Kiesanowski and Catherine Cheatley continued to push their claims for selection for the Beijing Olympics with strong performances in the high profile Liberty Classic in USA.

Kiesanowski, riding for her Tibco team, finished seventh after challenging in breaks throughout the 93km race in blazing heat of 30C deg at Philadelphia.

Dutch Olympian Chantal Beltman won the event with Kiesanowski seventh just behind the winner and Cheatley 14th also home in the main peloton.

Kiesanowski was in an early nine-strong break that came back to the field and went clear in the decisive break with three riders, all from the High Road Team. They used team tactics to deal to the New Zealander.

"When you have three riders from the same team in a break, we could never take a risk coming to the line with Joanne Kiesanowski," said Beltman.

A team-mate drove the break, another attacked on Lemon Hill in the last lap and when Kiesanowski was forced to chase, Beltman jumped to make the winning break.

It was an impressive rider however for Kiesanowski with Cheatley following her win last weekend with a powerful finish at the front of the main bunch.

Fellow kiwi Lauren Ellis finished 40sec behind the winner while her Jazz Apple and New Zealand team-mate Emma Peterson was 9m27s in arrears.

Compatriot Glen Chadwick finished in the peloton in the men’s Philadelphia International over 251km, with the blazing temperatures playing a major part.

Denmark’s Matti Breschel took out the sprint with Chadwick finishing in the main peloton for Team Type 1 in 6:14.47 while fellow New Zealanders Greg Henderson (Team High Road), Jeremy Vennell (Bissell) and Heath Blackgrove (Toyota United) did not finish.

Across the Atlantic Beijing Olympic track rider Marc Ryan was the best of the New Zealand team in the demanding Memorial Phillippe Van Coningsloo race in Belgium.

Ryan, part of the pursuit team for Beijing, finished in 26th place, 1min 48sec behind the winner in the 174km road race with teammates Chris Macic 46th and Sam Bewley 68th – both finishing in the main bunch.

In Scotland, Olympic hopeful Kashi Leuchs managed 44th place in the fifth round of the UCI Mountainbike World Cup at Fort William.

The Cannondale Vredestein team rider finished 8min 32sec behind winner Florian Vogel (SUI) in his final outing before the world championships to be staged in Italy in two weeks.