Oceania form features in strong bike squad for World Cup

BikeNZ have named a strong squad to contest the UCI track cycling World Cup in Australia this week.
A 14-strong squad will fly out from Christchurch tomorrow for the World Cup in Melbourne, which carries important qualifying points for next year’s world championships.

The team is led by world champion Alison Shanks in her first significant international competition since claiming her rainbow jersey in March. She warmed up with two solid rides in winning the Oceania title in the individual pursuit in Invercargill this week.

She is joined by the other two members of the medal-winning world championship team pursuit, Kaytee Boyd and Lauren Ellis, with Waikato’s Rushlee Buchanan forcing her way in for the first time after some excellent performances at the Oceania Championships.

The experienced Joanne Kiesanowski is the other newcomer following victories in both the scratch race and points race in Invercargill.

The men’s squad is anchored by the Olympic medal winning team pursuit squad of Sam Bewley, Jesse Sergent, Marc Ryan, Peter Latham and Wes Gough. They broke the New Zealand record yesterday, bettered only by their Beijing Olympic medal winning efforts.

Young Invercargill rider Tom Scully receives his first selection in a full New Zealand elite squad after some impressive displays this week.

New Zealand will field a full three-man sprint squad of Eddie Dawkins, Simon Van Velthooven and Adam Stewart.

The competition begins on Thursday.

Meanwhile the Oceania Championships were wrapped up when the road race honours were decided in cold and wet conditions in Gore.

Australian Michael Matthews made it a double when he took out the overall men’s honours over 113kms, to follow his performance in winning the under-23 time trial in the overall fastest time of the day.

With a number of defections, Matthews proved too strong to hold off Southland’s Matt Marshall with Alex McGregor (Otago) pipping Southland’s Patrick Williamson for third.

Australia’s Bridie O’Donnell, third in the time trial, cleared out to win the women’s race over 95km, winning by more than nine minutes to Karen Fulton (Tasman) and Rochelle Gilmore (AUS).

Otago’s Grad Evans won the under-19 title with a dominant display from Australia’s Jack Bennett.
The BikeNZ team for the UCI World Cup in Melbourne is:

Men: Sam Bewley (Rotorua), Eddie Dawkins (Invercargill), Wes Gough (Waipukurau), Peter Latham (Te Awamutu), Marc Ryan (Tinaru), Tom Scully (Invercargill), Jesse Sergent (Feilding), Adam Stewart (Canterbury), Simon Van Velthooven (Palmerston North).

Women: Kaytee Boyd (Auckland), Rushlee Buchanan (Te Awamutu), Lauren Ellis (Tinwald), Joanne Kiesanowski (Christchurch), Alison Shanks (Dunedin).

Oceania Road Race:
Men, 113kms: Michael Matthews (AUS) 3:09.25, 1; Matt Marshall (Invercargill) at 3s, 2; Alex McGregor at 2m 19s, 3.

Under-19, 113kms: Brad Evans (Otago) 3:11.52, 1; Jack Bennett (AUS) at 12m 23s, 2.

Women, 95kms: Bridie O’Donnell (AUS) 2:50.03, 1; Karen Fulton (Tasman) at 9m 23s, 2; Rochelle Gilmore (AUS) same time, 3.