Cycling: Is Christie win sign of things?

YEAH BABY! Jason Christie celebrates after winning the elite men's road race title in Napier yesterday. PHOTO/Alphapix, John Cowpland

UNFANCIED rider Jason Christie's victory in Napier yesterday is perhaps an indicator that lucrative professional contracts won't necessarily equate to national bragging rights.

If anything, it is a great opportunity for the underdogs in cycle-dom to show the movers and shakers on the professional circuit what they are all about.

The 25-year-old from Ashburton warded off a pack of pedigree riders to land a maiden road race crown at the Big Save Elite Road Cycling National Championship.

"I said to a few friends that I was coming here to win but I didn't really know how to on a new course," said Christie after the nationals was shifted this year to Napier following a six-year tenure in Christchurch.

He won the 180km race in testing westerly gusts to stop the clock at 4:35.03 to be 16 seconds clear of Auckland professional Dion Smith (ONE Pro Cycling) with ex-Olympian Robin Reid (Tasman) third at 17 seconds.

But previews to the event last week suggested the elite crop were coming off a layoff from overseas while others had track cycling ambitions to the Rio Olympics later this year.

2015 champion Joseph Cooper, of Wellington, said: "It's definitely hard as we finished our season in October and haven't raced for more than three months so we have no race legs."

Cooper, who finished ninth, said the World Tracks Championship and the Down Under meeting in Australia in a fortnight were what many were building to.

"Everyone has a different season and everyone's peaking at different times."

However, the 30-year-old Avanti rider said that should not detract from Christie's emphatic statement.

"You know all the pro guns want to take the [silver fern] jerseys to Europe to show off and it's difficult to win them so it's no mean feat from Jason to come away with the win."

Christie has knocked on the doors of a World Tour career or Pro Continental ride but no one has opened them yet so he was hopeful to find some traction after yesterday.

Cooper said the former under-23 national champion had made "a couple of right moves to take the race by the scruff of the neck".

"We just gave the breakaway group too much rope.

"We weren't working 100 per cent to reeling him back in so it was minor stuff up."

The break went early with a 12-strong group forming in front by 50km, with most of the World Tour riders nestled back in the peloton.

World Tour rider George Bennett's hopes vanished with mechanical issues on the climb.

The powerful group behind that included the likes of Jesse Sergent and fellow World Tour stars Sam Bewley, Patrick Bevin and Greg Henderson, ran out of legs as they chased behind.

It was left to Christie to make his move and while Smith, James Oram, Reid and Hamish Schreurs got within 10 seconds at one stage on the final lap, they ran out of fuel and tarseal.