Team bid sets new record

Hawke's Bay junior cyclists Regan Gough, Corbin Mason-Smith and Luke Mudgway along with Southland teammate Michael Culling, have set a New Zealand record for their impressive team effort at the 2012 National Track Cycling Championships.

The four boys won gold in the 3000m team pursuit and in the process smashed the previous record by around seven seconds, finishing in 3:27:015 at the championships held in Invercargill over February 29 -March 3.

The three were part of a East Coast contingent of 6 riders, a number of which were Cycling Central Hawke's Bay Club members who returned with winners' medals. Sam Thorpe-Loversuch collected silver in the under 15 points race, Gough also won two bronzes in the under 17 points race and the scratch race, and Kerry Harford returned with three golds in the masters 2 scratch race, points race, and individual pursuit.

The results were all the more outstanding considering Hawke's Bay does not have a velodrome in which they could practice. Thorpe-Loversuch had ridden on a track only twice before, and competed on a borrowed bike.

Gough, 15, said the record breaking group's first ride together was their qualifier, which they won, before beating their own time by seven seconds in the final.

"It was amazing," he said.

"The previous team that set that record have been practicing together for maybe a year. "We hadn't done it before, it was our first time together, and we don't have a velodrome so we have to travel three hours to get on a track.

"We surprised ourselves, big time. We blew it out of the water."

Although they had not previously raced together, the three live within 10 minutes of each other in Central Hawke's Bay and so riding together casually was a "bit of a bonus", Gough said.

Club vice president Robbie Hislop said the result was "phenomenal" considering they only trained on a track two or three times a year.

"We're very, very proud of those guys because they don't get to train on tracks too often.

"They have got raw talent and want to win - they're exceptionally good athletes.

"They are a good bunch of young boys."

Kerry Harford also collected three gold medals in the masters 2 class, one of which was his fourth consecutive win in the scratch race. He, along with the other medal winning racers are all members of Cycling Central Hawke's Bay Club.