BikeNZ team takes surprise lead in French cycle tour

Commonwealth Games bound cyclist Pete Latham takes the leader’s yellow jersey into the second day of the AS-en-Provence Tour in France.

Latham (Te Awamutu) led home the New Zealand team who won the team time trial at the start of the four-day tour which is the final hit out for BikeNZ’s endurance track squad before they go into final camp for Delhi.

Remarkably the New Zealand team recorded the fastest time for the 18km team time trial in Salon de Provence despite losing more than a minute fixing a mechanical problem with Marc Ryan’s bike.

They clocked 21:05 with four riders – Latham, Ryan, Westley Gough and Aaron Gate – after an ill Myron Simpson fell off the pace early and Shane Archbold was dropped.

The team managed the hot conditions well against some strong French teams, starting fifth to last on the road. After Simpson was dropped, Archbold (Timaru) took a corner too deep just after halfway and lost the back wheel and could not get back on.

Disaster hit when the handlebar extension on Ryan’s bike came off and after an attempted fix, the experienced Timaru rider continued on the normal drops and held the extension to ensure it did not cause damage. Therefore he was unable to take his turn in the lead as was Gate, leaving the team pursuit powerhouses of Gough and Latham to drag the team home at over 50kph.

“We reckon they lost over a minute with the stoppage and issues and the boys were pretty disappointed with their fine. But they received a real surprise when the favoured Aix en Provence combination came home in 21:12 as the final team on the road, and we had won by seven seconds,” said coach Stuart McDonald.

“No-one could really believe it. We had to make a fast change into the team kit to get to the podium with Pete getting the yellow jersey and Wes the white jersey as leader of the young rider classification.”

Tomorrow’s second stage is 149km and the kiwis expect plenty of attacks from the local French teams.

Results, AS-en-Provence tour, stage 1 (18km team time trial): New Zealand 21:05, 1; AVC Aix En Provence at 7 seconds, 2; Martigues Sport Cyclisme at 18 sec, 3.

General classification, stage 1: Peter Latham (NZL) 21:05, 1; Westley Gough (NZL) same time, 2; Aaron Gate (NZL) same time, 3; Marc Ryan (NZL) same time, 4.