Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club duo smash old record in thriller

Junior riders Jack Whittall (left) and Frankie Wright set a new Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club record for the under-15, 12.4km sealed handicap race last week.Photo / Arthur Uden

Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club's junior stable has unearthed another exceptionally talented duo in Jack Whittall and Frankie Wright.

Whittall (Cambridge High School) set a record time of 18.25 minutes for the under-15, 12.4km sealed handicap race to Te Mawhai, starting and finishing in Bank Street last week.

In a Titanic battle up the home straight, Whittall pipped fellow scratch marker Wright (St Peter's School, Cambridge) for honours, bettering the previous race record, set by Jack Carswell in 2017, by three seconds which equates to approximately 40 metres.

Second placed Wright was credited with the same time as the record breaker. The two 14-year-olds averaged a fraction over 40kph on restricted gearing.

The main purpose of junior gear restrictions is to help the young rider develop a good cadence and avoid injury of joints during physiological development by pushing too high a gear.

Past record holders of the out-and-back junior race to Te Mawhai include Te Awamutu professional road rider Hayden McCormick.

In this kind of form, Whittall and Wright are destined to feature prominently in Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club's two-day Junior Tour to be based at Goodwood School in Cambridge on April 4-5.

One hundred and three riders signed on for week six of the Spoken Cycles Summer Series road races last Tuesday.

Hamilton teenager Zakk Patterson took out the A grade in a time of 34.17 minutes, out-sprinting the vastly more experienced Michael Torckler (34.18), with Josh Lane third at eight seconds.

Three Waikato-BOP riders, Patterson, Jack Carswell and Reuben Webster have been named in Cycling New Zealand's 13-strong team to contest the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships to be staged in Cairo in August.

It reportedly will be the first time that the championships have been staged in the Middle East, and will be held in a new velodrome in Cairo, Egypt from August 16-21.

The New Zealand team, to be coached by Tim Carswell and Hayden Roulston, will be one of the youngest in recent years with many of the riders also eligible for the 2021 junior world championships.

Week six, Summer Series, results:

A grade: Zak Patterson 34.17, 1; Michael Torckler 34.18, 2; Josh Lane 34.25, 3.
B grade: Oliver Watson-Palmer 36.22, 1; Maui Morrison 36.22, 2; Mat Davis 36.23, 3.
C grade: Liam Cavanagh 39.18, 1; Hunter Brodie 39.18, 2; Antony Brown 39.19, 3.
D grade: Vernon Corbett 43.47, 1; Marcus Woutersen 43.47, 2; Zach Bonetti 43.47, 3.
E grade: Kevin Gilbert 46.26, 1; Sarah Carswell 46.27, 2; Mark Swney 46.28, 3.
F grade: Neil MacPherson 49.46, 1.
Under 15, 12.4 sealed handicap race: Jack Whittall 18.25, 1; Frankie Wright 18.25, 2; Josh Rowe (1.75 minutes) 20.36, 3.