Win for PureBlack Racing at Redlands Classic

 Today PureBlack Racing’s Roman van Uden made his mark in spectacular fashion at the Redlands Classic in California, the first big race in the United States calendar, winning the Criterium and the Sprint Ace jersey in the third stage of the 4-day event.

Greg Cross, Business Director, PureBlack Racing said, “We came to the United States to make our mark early in the season and we had set the objective of taking one of the five victories that Redlands has on offer this weekend, which we did today. Redlands is one of the oldest and most prestigious races in the US so it’s fantastic to pick up our first big win here against a world-class field.”

“Roman rode an amazing race which was reinforced by a huge amount of support from his team mates,” said Carl Williams, Sports Director, PureBlack Racing. “Today’s Criterium contained a large number of sprint jersey points so the team’s objective was to race really aggressively right from the start to accumulate as many sprint points as possible. After yesterday’s race which was extremely demanding and hot we knew there would be a lot of tired riders out there tonight. Roman won three sprints and as we got down to final laps Roman pulled away in a break-away of about seven riders to make it first over the line.”

Greg Cross said, “The size of the field in the race alone is about three times what you’d experience in New Zealand. To see all the PureBlack Racing riders active during the race was an awesome sight.”

“Carl Williams added, “The race was broadcast on television, live on the internet through Cycling TV, and on all the social media channels. To hear PureBlack Racing and New Zealand all night and to see Roman on the podium with the New Zealand flag was really special. It’s probably the biggest Criterium of the year in the US and any result here is steeped in history. We’re happy to take our place in the history books.”

The starting team for the Redlands Classic was Tim Gudsell, Glen Chadwick, Daniel Barry, Scott Lyttle, Mike Northey, Shem Rodger, Roman Van Uden and James Williamson.

The twelve-strong PureBlack Racing team relocated to the US two weeks ago for a six-month campaign of racing in North America.

Last weekend PureBlack Racing had a successful United States debut at the San Dimas Stage Race in California with Roman Van Uden winning the King of the Mountain jersey and Mike Northey winning the Sprint Ace jersey.

For more information on the team and racing schedule see www.pureblackracing.com