Castle happy to get 'payback'

LEADING RIDERS: Jordan Castle, front, would win the 68th River City Wheel Race on Saturday while Campbell Stewart would claim the 10km points race and the open scratch. Photo/BEVAN CONLEY

PALMERSTON North rider and New Zealand squad member Jordan Castle left nothing to chance to win his second River City Wheel Race at the Cooks Gardens Velodrome on Saturday.

Castle, the 2013 winner, had also been a favourite last year with the Kiwi sprinters away in Paris, but did not work in concert with fellow Palmerston North rider Campbell Stewart and they left it too late to catch the front markers in the six lap handicap.
This year, Castle started at the back on scratch with fellow national squad mates Stewart and Jeremy Presbury, who had to recover from cuts to his hands after a hard fall earlier in the event with New Plymouth rider Jacob Lester.

To give an idea of how much ground the back markers had to make up, fellow rider Blair Gray was front marker with only five laps and 10m to ride.
The back three, who train together at Cambridge, immediately got into their work and drafted each other around the track, racing hard to clear the other groups which were forming.

Gray held his lead in the 15-man field for a few laps, before the riders from the Men's Masters group - including Jamie Hodgkinson and Jonathon Leonard, made their way up to him to form a group of four.

At this point, Stewart had fallen off the pace, but Castle had now teamed up with fellow international Zac Williams and the pair motored up to the leading bunch by the time the leaders met the final bell - rather than last year when they did not catch the others until halfway around the final lap.

Castle would not be denied and kept his head down, powering to the line, followed by young riders James Cuff and Dan Waluszewski.
Delighted, Castle stuck out the tongue and punched the air after crossing the line.
"It was pretty cool to be here with all the boys in the [NZ] squad," he said.
"It just adds another element to [the victory]."

The New Zealand sprinters had just got back from competing in Tasmania.
"Tasmania was heaps and heaps of wheel races, so that was good preparation for it," said Castle.
"I just wanted to represent the West Coast and get a little bit of payback."
Cuff and Williams had been the winners of the two qualifying races for the 68th annual wheel race earlier in the afternoon.

Earlier, Castle had been in a thrilling race in the playoff for 3rd/4th of the invitation sprints against Presbury, whom he just beat to the line after defending the inside run.
The title was won by Ben Stewart, who opened up a gap on Williams in the final and was able to maintain it comfortably for the final lap.

The day wasn't a loss for Campbell Stewart, who won the10km points race and the final big race - the open 10km scratch - to wrap up the programme.
After last year's wheel race winner Carne Groube went out to an early lead to rack up his tally in the points race, Campbell Stewart worked with Lester, who was gutting out his injuries from the crash, to get through the field - with Stewart finishing first and winning with an overall 13 point total, followed by Groube (9) and NZ team member Lewis Eccles (8).

Presbury got something out of the event by winning the invitation keirin final, where riders follow a motorcycle for the first few laps, with Castle in second and Ben Stewart third.
In the open 10km scratch, organiser Ron Cheatley said Campbell Stewart showed his class as the world junior champion in this discipline.
"[He] destroyed the field with aggressive riding and finished half a lap ahead - wearing the rainbow jersey of world champion."

Wellington's George Jackson, 16, who has a big future, completed a good day to come second, while the brave Lester, despite the bandages from his injuries seeping blood onto his uniform, finished in third.

The open elimination sprints, where Castle was also the winner, had been marred by Lester's violent fall and crash, taking Presbury down with him before skidding of track into the metal pole fence, just past the finishing line.

Presbury got some treatment for grazes to his hand and elbow, while Lester needed a lot of work for the series of nasty abrasions down his back, which was already marked from a previous fall at another event.
Both men carried on with the full race programme.
In the Masters men events, which were run in conjunction with the open women's, Nick Warren picked up victories in the scratch race and the eliminator.

LEADING RIDERS: Jordan Castle, front, would win the 68th River City Wheel Race on Saturday, while Campbell Stewart would claim the 10km points race and the open scratch. PHOTOS/BEVAN CONLEY
BRAVE COMEBACK: After his very heavy fall early in the afternoon, New Plymouth's Jacob Lester would get back on the bike and race the rest of the programme, including coming third in the 10km open scratch.