Rotorua Bike Festival: Sam Gaze wins elite race

The Telecom Inner City Street Criterium yesterday brought a close to the 10-day Rotorua Bike Festival. Here riders warm up for the elite race yesterday afternoon. Photo/Stephen Parker

If the Rotorua Bike Festival named an MVP, Cambridge's Sam Gaze would take the prize.

Gaze, 18, won the Telecom Inner City Street Criterium elite race yesterday near the Village Green.

He controlled the race well, pulling away from Whakatane's Ryan Wills in the last lap to claim a hard-fought victory.

The A Grade race featured only eight riders yesterday but had plenty of talent including Rotorua pro cyclist Aaron Perry and local up-and-coming talent Sam Phipps.

Interestingly, Gaze is recognised as a mountain bike rider not a road cyclist, and won the national cross-country mountain bike champs last Saturday in Rotorua as well.

"I have had quite a successful time here," Gaze said about the Rotorua Bike Festival.

"I have put in a lot of hard work over the summer and it is good to see it paying off."

Gaze said he did a lot of training for mountain biking on the road bike.

"I do about 70 per cent on the road bike. Most of it is just keeping up base skills and fitness."

Despite taking top spot in the cross country and street criterium events, Gaze said his favourite event of the Rotorua Bike Festival was probably the Skyline Sprint Warrior on Mt Ngongotaha.

"It brought back the love of riding for me," he said. "But, on a whole, the guys here have put on a great festival."

He thanked his sponsors for their support during the festival, Cyclezone Rotorua and Specialized New Zealand.

The street criterium marked the end of the 10-day Rotorua Bike Festival yesterday.

Cycling Rotorua rider Wills finished second in the street criterium followed by Phipps, in third.

Wills was recently signed by a pro cycling team in Germany called Bike Aid.

He said the race yesterday acted as good training for his upcoming season overseas.

The street criterium saw riders racing around a 700m track next to Eat Streat and the Village Green, with four races held throughout the afternoon.

About 100 people gathered around the track to watch the last race, while others watched from bars and restaurants in Eat Streat.

"I thought the atmosphere was brilliant," Cycling Rotorua president and event organiser Peter Clark said.

"Everyone that raced today said they enjoyed it and we received great support from the public and spectators."

The other big event staged during the closing weekend of the Rotorua Bike Festival was the Giant 2W Gravity Enduro, which was held on Saturday.

Wellington's Rosara Joseph won the women's race and Christchurch's Justin Leov won the men's race.