Timaru's Dale Christoffersen put his long training hours in Columbia to good use when defending his Rivercity Tour speed skating title in impressive fashion over the weekend of racing.
The southerner won the Premier Men's grade, claiming all but one of the tour's eight stages, but the racing was not as lopsided as it appeared on the result sheet.
Whanganui's Andrew Jones has shown considerable improved form over the last year and ran Christoffersen close in all the races, while taking an impressive win in the 10km points race at Kowhai Park, along with six runnerup placings.
Considering Christoffersen recently placed 13th in the world in the 100m sprint event this was speed of an impressive level.
Racing was held at Kowhai Park on Saturday morning and then the Mega Mitre 10 car park that evening – a planned mid-afternoon jaunt along the river walkway was cancelled without a district council consent for road closure.
On Sunday, the action transferred indoors to Jubilee Stadium.
Christoffersen is more of a specialist sprinter, but was confident of doing well over the longer distances on Saturday morning.
Although showing speed, he had opted for a bit of caution on Kowhai's twisting circuit around the carpark next to the playground.
"I wasn't feeling the track. Dust, it gets a little bit annoying."
Returning to a self-training regime, Christoffersen has been getting his feet back on the ground after the high of competing at the world championships in Columbia, where his 13th in the 100m sprint was only 0.25s off third place in a crowded field.
He improved across all areas except for a crash in the 500m, when there was moisture on the track.
Christoffersen headed over early to South America where he trained with the strong Cali club, whose members made up 70 per cent of the Columbian national team.
With 6-8 hour sessions per day, his development was immediate, although the $5000-7000 price tag for overseas travel made it probably a one-off.
"If I could go back to Columbia, I'd go in a heartbeat. It's living the dream."
Still, he was happy to offer any tips to the next generation of young skaters taking part in Whanganui.
"It's wicked awesome to see the kids striving to be like us older skaters. Because I was there [at that age]."
Behind Christoffersen and Jones was Dunedin's Mark McCormack, Valley In-Lines Hadley Beech and Palmerston North's Sam Portch.
Those three were usually covered by a blanket on the points table as they battled for third overall with McCormack finishing with 119 points, Beech 118 and Portch 117.
Newcomer Thomas de Meyer of Hamilton showed impressive speed with a third in the 200m time trial.
The Premier Women's tour was won by defending champion Ariana Snook, also Timaru.
A friendly and relaxed competitor off the track, the NZ World team member is all aggression and power on it.
She had too much straight line speed for young Whanganui rising star Renee Teers, despite Teers taking the race to Snook at every stage.
Snook won all six outdoor stages, with Teers second and fellow local Monique Cleeve third.
However, in the last two stages inside Jubilee, Teers found her mojo and bolted to an easy 400m win, before pulling a high speed last lap pass on Snook in the 3000m for another great win.
Palmerston North's Serenity Griffith was third in both races, but couldn't pip Cleeve for third overall.
Christoffersen won the Keown Honda-sponsored 666 Time Trial at the Mitre 10 Mega carpet in a time which was only 100th of a second slower than the record held by legendary Cantabrian Ollie Jones.
Snook won the Creative Aluminium 666 Women's time trial, breaking the long standing record set by Whanganui's Rebecca Smith.
B Grade was the closest competition with locals Chase Morpeth and Drew Brennan taking on Auckland's Joshua Wood and Hamilton's Jake Duggan. Brennan made the early running with two wins at Kowhai Park to Morpeth and Wood's one each.
Morpeth struck back at Mitre 10 with two wins and was headed for tour victory at Jubilee until a huge crash when he was leading the 400m race forced a DNF.
Brennan then had a sniff of the overall win before being forced wide by back makers in the final race.
Morpeth took the last race but Wood claimed the overall tour with his second placing, while Duggan was fourth and Ocean Woolley the first woman home in fifth.
C Grade was a family affair with Whanganui's Keira Hodgson putting some competitive fire behind her great technical ability to win six stages for the overall title, while younger brother Lucas picked up two stage wins for second overall.
Whanganui's Keira Brennan was second in the 1500m at Kowhai Park and third overall, with newcomer Tazia Parker overcoming a big crash to take fourth, while Gabby Valentine turned up on the Sunday to grab a third placing.
The Masters Grade was won by Hamilton's Scott Moody, after early leader Andy McDonell withdrew injured.
Hamilton's Paul Cleeve was second and Whanganui's Krystine Davies third.
The Primary/Novice Grade was dominated by Zoe Duggan of Hamilton, who won 7 stages.
Second place was Whanganui's Mikayla Wason, who was very consistent with seven runnerup placings.
Her teammate Annalise Strachan was third as she got faster as the tour progressed and was the only skater to take a stage win from Duggan.
Jade Aitken was a good fourth and Whanganui's Hadleigh Smith won the Special Stage.
