Hand prevails against world championship-bound rivals in schools cycling
Christchurch teenager Nick Hand upset his more fancied rivals to claim the senior title at the South Island secondary schools cycling championships on home turf yesterday.
Hand held off the challenge from a quartet of riders all bound for the UCI World Junior Track Championships to win the 39.6km under-20 race which encompassed 12 laps of the motor racing circuit at Ruapuna Raceway.
He had a healthy 10 second margin of the chasers comprising Alex Frame (Cashmore), Pieter Bulling (Southland Boys), Brad Evans (Taieri Boys) and Will Bowman (Christs College), all given the same time to head the chasers. The four combatants are part of the BikeNZ junior team that heads to Italy in two weeks time for training and preparation for the world championships in August.
This time it was Hand’s day against his more vaunted opponents.
Evans claimed the individual time trial honours on Saturday over 3.3km, clocking 4m15s to edge out fellow world championship teammates Bowman and Bulling by six seconds.
The senior girls’ road race honours went to Christchurch’s Olivia Wieblitz who outsprinted Australian Natalie East to prevail in the 30km race after the pair edged clear of a 12-strong bunch in the final dash to the line.
East took out the time trial honours by two seconds over Kate McDonald (Dunstan HS).
The growth of cycling at school level was well spread with the 12 age group winners coming from 10 different schools in Christchurch, South Canterbury, Central Otago and Southland.
The racing was also close with sprint finishes determining the winners in all six titles in the boys’ competition with George Tutton (Christs College) winning the under-17 honours, Liam Aitcheson (Dunstan High) the under-16, Greg Moore (Christchurch Boys) under -15, Jack Ford (Timaru Boys) under-14and Hamish Beadle (James Hargest) in the under-13.
The judges were needed to separate the winners in all of the girls’ categories as well with titles going to Kate Dunlevey (Southland Girls) in under-17, Sarah Nelson (Christchurch Girls) in under-16, Holly Edmondston (St Kevins) under-15s, Caitlin Mercer (Villa Maria) under-14 and Kate Ward (St Andrews) under-13.
Dunstan took out the overall teams honours in the boys’ time trial ahead of Christs College while Villa Maria prevailed in the girls’ over Southland Girls High School.
Full results: www.bikenz.org.nz