More silverware for New Zealand junior cyclists

New Zealand cyclists grabbed their second medal with a superb silver medal in the women’s team pursuit at the UCI Junior World championships in Italy today.

They produced a superb effort to record the second fastest qualifying time and were edged out by Australia in the final – the first time New Zealand has fielded a women’s team pursuit combination at this level.

The combination of Liz Steel (Christchurch), Alexandra Neems (Auckland) and Georgia Williams (North Harbour) rode a superb 3:36.941 to be seven seconds behind the Australians but three seconds clear of third fastest Netherlands.

Australia turned up the heat in the final, pushing to a new world record mark of 3:26.808 to overtake the kiwi trio in the gold medal ride-off but it was nonetheless a strong performance from the New Zealanders.

“The team did a superb job and Alex Neems in particular was tremendous with two pulls of a lap and a half at the front after her excellent individual pursuit yesterday,” said coach Stu Macdonald.

Pieter Bulling produced an outstanding performance to finish fourth in the boy’s points race.