September 2011
Cycling:
Big congratulation’s to Tom Hubbard, Winning the second round of the Benchmark Homes series down in Timaru.
Riding an aggressive race, Tom attacked several times during the race and making the last one stick!
He also earned a well-deserved 3rd place overall at the recently held 2 day Timaru tour, held over 5 stages. Winning the stage 4 and placing in a couple others, Tom’s recent string of good results has made him a rider to watch.
Schools racing:
Fourteen girls from the Rangi Ruru Cycling team travelled up to Blenheim on Friday September 9th to participate in the Blenheim Cycle Tour. This tour gives secondary school students a chance to compete in the 4 different events (over 2 days) that make up this tour - the Individual Timetrial, the Hill climb, the Criterium and the Road Race. Students from as far north as Hamilton and far south to Southland enter the tour and it is getting larger every year.
Alice Hay was our outstanding rider in the Under 17 age group. The competition in this age group was mostly faster than in the under 20 age group so the competition was intense. Alice finished 1st in the Hill climb and the Road race, 2nd in the Time trial and 4th in the Criterium. This gave her enough points to be the overall Tour winner and the yellow jersey. Alice also won the jersey for Queen of the Mountains.
Other outstanding riders in this grade were Charlotte Hand, Gabby Gray and Tandy Molina. These girls also show considerable talent and achieved high finishing places in most races. These girls have another year in this grade so we are looking forward to seeing how well they do next year. Fast improvers include Tessa Jenkins (who started riding in August) and Eloise McIntyre. All these girls have been selected to travel to Palmerston North in October to compete in the Nationals.
Also adding to their medal collections at the recent Canterbury Schools team time trial championships a few Wednesday’s ago, the U16 a team won the Amy Dawe Cup for the second year in a row. The inexperienced but gutsy senior team also rode a great race to 4th place.
Mt Biking:
Recently Sharon Prutton travelled to the USA and participated in a 7 day mountain biking tour around Colorado before competing in the world famous Leadville 100. This race of which may of you may have seen at the movies last year “Race across the sky” based around Lance Armstrong’s adventure there, competes over 160km at a starting and finishing altitude of 10,200ft.
PTS Endurance Centre:
Thanks to everyone for their wishes and support during the opening of the new PTS Endurance Centre. Since it opened things have been going great, with big things to come.
Check out the new PTS Endurance Centre’s web page for all information regarding to the Centre or go to the Facebook page.