Gutsy rides allowed 13-year-old Robyn Turnbull and 14-year-old Brittany Couper to win first and second places at the Marsden Wheelers' Junior Prize 20-kilometre cycle race on Saturday.
Turnbull and Couper worked together efficiently as a team and managed to ride past slower riders as well as staying away from the faster
riders in the handicapped race. Turnbull then attacked Couper and accelerated to the finish line to win by 12 seconds.
The fastest junior rider in the 20-kilometre race was 15-year-old Georgia Walker while fastest overall time went to senior woman Simone Ackermann.
The 20-kilometre cycle race, along with the 40-kilometre race for older riders, started and finished at Kokopu School near Whangarei and was the last race in a summer series for school-aged children.
Marsden Wheeler junior coach Ruth Jarman said it was really exciting to see the younger riders using the techniques that they had been taught. "We have been meeting every Saturday morning over the summer holidays and practising cycling skills such as time trialling, sprinting, climbing hills and how to win cycle races."
The 40-kilometre race attracted a number of senior riders including Oceania duathlon champion Katherine Anton and Ben Evans, Lee Johnstone and Mathew Zenovich.
Hide Hashimoto and Brett Hill rode strongly together as the two riders who had the greatest head start and managed to capture first and second places. However most of the other handicapped groups joined together just before the finish line on top of the little hill at Kokopu School. It was then a headlong scramble up the hill with Ryan Bell coming in third and Katherine Anton at fourth.
First junior rider on handicap was Nadya Worthy and fastest junior was Mathew Zenovich. The rider with fastest overall time in the 40-kilometre race was Lee Johnstone.
RESULTS:
20-KILOMETRE HANDICAPPED RACE
R Turnbull (U15W) 38:15 (8min), 1; B Couper (U15W) 38:27 (8min), 2; G Walker (U17W) 37:07 (5min), 3; Fastest time - S Ackermann (SW) 36:52.
40-KILOMETRE HANDICAPPED RACE
H Hashimoto (M2M) 67:46 (15min), 1; B Hill (M2M) 67:59 (15 min), 2; R Bell (SM) 60:44 (5min), 3; Fastest time - L Johnstone (M2M) 56:04.
