Gravel and Tar, Slicks and Stones Wrap-up for 2019
Well, the Gravel and Tar UCI races and the Slicks and Stones 100 event, were run and won for 2019
on January 19th. And what a day it was! With twelve men’s teams in the Classic and eight women’s
teams in the La Femme, the professional races lived up to their name as being the hardest one-day
races in Australasia.
The men’s event was taken out by local rider Luke Mudgway riding for EvoPro, the Irish registered
Continental team, whilst the women’s event went to Brodie Chapman from Australia, riding for the
Oceania Women’s Cycling team.
Interviewed at the finish line, Brodie commented, “That’s the most fun I’ve had on a bike in one day,
ever!”. And she called that, “fun”?
You can view the fantastic videos of the races here:
Classic (men’s): https://youtu.be/_4C9eiU-bzY
La Femme: https://youtu.be/MQTe-YdWxoQ
For Slicks and Stones riders, there was just as much fun. Run over approx. 100kms and covering the
same 40 kms of gravel as the pro events, 49 intrepid riders started. The quality of the field can be
gauged by the fact that 44 of the 49 completed the event, with the first over the line, Brendan
Sharratt (Wanganui) completing the distance at an average of 34.8 km/h. He was closely followed by
Carlos Lopez-Lozano (Palmerston North) and Andrew Pointon.
For those of you thinking about doing the Slicks and Stones Challenge next year, here are a few of
the many comments from those who participated in 2019 …
I think you guys have something pretty special with this event… Really looking forward to it
again next year.
The course was great! Thanks to all that made the event possible.
Excellent event and fantastic group of riders very friendly and helpful. I lost some skin and a
lot of pride but really, really enjoyed the entire day. Thanks very much to all those involved.
Thanks for the great tough day of riding, event was well organised.
I just wanted to say that the event was exceptionally well organised, for which I’m very
grateful.
I had a lot of fun racing on gravel yesterday. I think the Slicks and Stones has potential to
grow into a much bigger event, so I hope you run it again next year.
I’ll be telling all my friends to give it a crack next year!
That was spectacular! Thank you for the awesome event – I’ll definitely be back next year.
So, there you have it – start getting ready for 2020, now.
PS. If you think you’d like to be involved as a non-rider, do let us know. We are on the lookout for
volunteers on the day and in the week or so leading up to the event.