Club Race – 9-Nov photos
Photos thanks to Kirsty Kaihau
Morgans Property Advisors Track Cycling – 3rd November 2013 Johnston Park Feilding
It was Tour de Manawatu day and most cyclists in the region belted out 116km, 80km or 45km in the morning with mixed success. A number of regular competitors stayed home to recover but a hardy bunch made the trip to Johnston Park to compete in perfect conditions. A hot dry track, light to no wind and a warm day made up the conditions that saw an unprecedented 6 track records broken over the flying quarter mile distance.
The programme began with the Flying Quarter mile time trials followed by 3 lap handicap graded races then 4 lap scratch races and the programme wound up with graded long handicap races. The fastest Flying Quarter mile of the day went to the winner of the 80km event at the Tour de Manawatu Jordan Castle in a time of 25.84 seconds beating the previous mens under 19 record by 0.36 seconds. This made it a special day for Jordan as he also won each of the other 3 races he contested to make it a 5 out of 5 day. The Senior Mens records was broken by Jaycob Humphreys by 0.68 seconds. The Womens under 19 record was broken by Kate Stewart by 0.64 seconds as she prepares to represent New Zealand at the upcoming Oceania Track cycling Championships in Invercargill.
Tour de Manawatu Race Report – 116 km
You don’t get much better days in the Manawatu than last Sunday, not for riding a bike at least.
The Tour de Manawatu is a fun ride, but it’s really the biggest local race of the year. Well organized, a great course, good traffic management, and usually a strong bunch of riders.
In contrast to other years, the start and first section down Napier Rd to Ashhurst was fairly civilized, with few random high speed attacks. A small group lead by Neil Martin did make a break about halfway along, but couldn’t get much more than 100 m and were hauled back as we went through Ashhurst.
With the first climb imminent though, the bunch was getting itchy and the paced was pushed up the hill out of Ashhurst such that a split formed. A solo effort then by Campbell Stewart saw him leading up the Watersheds, but also a “rabbit” for the other junior riders. In catching him the front bunch split again and a few dozen then remained as we pressed onto Colyton at speeds exceeding 60 km/hr at times. The attacks then started thick and fast nearly all the way to Cheltenham, but few breaks managed to last more than a minute or two.
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Cycle Shirt
The La Femme cycle shirt is available for purchase when ordering online.
Sizes available are small, medium, large and x-large. See sizing chart below.
The winners of each race (long and short) will receive a yellow jersey.
