Last Sunday we hosted race two of Jorge Sandoval’s North Island Team Series on our 22 km Te Horo circuit. A great turnout of over 90 riders enjoyed near perfect conditions with light winds and dry roads in three separate graded races.

The heavy hitters in Category 2 (A grade) had to complete 4 laps, while the Category 3 & 4 riders raced over 3.

Hampered by injuries and unavailability, Kapiti has struggled to get a viable, competitive team together for the Series this year, but as Sunday's race was on our home turf, we pulled out all the stops and managed to cobble together a team of 5 to represent the Club in the restricted age 50+ Category 4 race.

Our team line-up was Richard Graham, Gary Clareburt, Leon Goodwin, Todd Foster and Steve Roughan, who started in a packed field of 45 riders, the biggest group to race together on the Te Horo course for some years.

For those familiar with the course and its three barrel turns (our Winter Series course), you’ll appreciate the added level of difficulty of negotiating these turns with 45 competitive riders jostling for position. It had the definite possibility of mix-ups, but despite the tight manoeuvring required, the older, cooler heads in Category 4 managed to negotiate all 8 turns in the race without incident.

Thank you to all riders for showing great sportsmanship and care on the course.

Fortunately, the St John's Ambulance crew had a quiet day generally, with only one (non-serious) incident, totally out of the riders' control, (a mother duck deciding to cross the bottom of School Road with her brood of chicks in tow, just as the Category 4 peloton arrived!).

In this unexpected challenge, the riders displayed excellent sportsmanship. One rider went down on the tarmac, and four others had to dismount. However, the peloton showed great care and proper race etiquette by slowing down to allow all but one of the affected riders to rejoin the group.

Like all grades on the day, the Category 4 race ended with a high-speed bunch sprint with around 35 riders still in the mix, making for an exciting finish.

For the Kapiti riders still in contention, the self-preservation instinct took over and while still hitting 58 km/hour across the finish line, Richard Graham and Gary Clareburt took a conservative approach to stay out of trouble, finishing 10th & 16th respectively.

The main bunch in Category 4 averaged 38 km/hour for the 66 kms of the race, so Steve Roughan, Leon Goodman, and Todd Foster rode strongly all day for a respectable finish in the main bunch.

Young club member Bertie McGuigan also raced as an individual in the Category 3 race and despite the flat course not suiting him, Bertie raced well to come home 5th.

All in all, it was a successful event for the Club on the road once again in no small part due to our team of volunteers.

A big thanks to...

Pete Gibbs, Mike Harding, James Brent, Tony Lavaggi, Ian Gordon, Richard Graham, Leon Goodwin, Dave McGuigan, Euan Mason (who is back from racing in Europe for a few months over the northern hemisphere winter), and our dedicated Club Photographer Mark Frickleton, who was once again out on the course taking some fantastic shots of the racing.

The Club would also like to thank and acknowledge Jorge Sandoval for entrusting us with the hosting of the event. Jorge has had a long and successful career organising and managing cycling events, including one of New Zealand’s premier cycling tours, the NZ Cycle Classic. With increasing amounts of red tape and compliance issues now having to be negotiated, it has become very difficult to manage and organise road racing events that are financially viable. As a result, sadly, the NZ Cycle Classic did not go ahead this year, and Jorge has also decided this will be the last year he will run the North Island Series, which is a great pity.

The Club wishes Jorge all the very best for the future.

Article added: Tuesday 15 October 2024