Dunedin based university student Duyvesteyn (SBS Ricoh NZ) went into the weekend as the man to watch in the elite men’s racing. He dominated in round four of the series in Nelson late last month and recorded the fastest time in Cycling Otago’s Kelvin
Hastie Memorial Handicap race last Saturday.
He raced well, picking up valuable points and finishing fourth behind winner Ben Oliver (Central Benchmakers Willbike) in Saturday's fast and furious Calder Stewart Ladbrooks Kermesse and then survived a crash on Sunday's iconic Cycle Surgery St
Martins Hell of the South to take the series’ elite and Under 23 jerseys home.
“The key moment for me was securing fourth in the kermesse and getting combative points over the weekend,” said Duyvesteyn.
“I’m really stoked to take out the series. I didn’t think I would ever manage it when I did my first series race four years ago.”
Duyvesteyn thinks his form is looking good for the SBS Tour of Southland that starts early next month, so long as he recovers from a crash in Sunday's race that saw Sam Guest (Black Max Nutrition) bag the biggest result of his career storming home to beat Paul Wright (Central Benchmakers Willbike) a sprint to win in three hours and 29 minutes.
“The crash wasn’t too bad,” he said.
“It looked worse than it was and happened about halfway round the third lap. Luckily I had a teammate who gave me his bike to finish on.”
Lying third going into Sunday's Hell of the South 108 kilometre women’s race Christie (Velo Project) needed to finish in the top five to have a chance of overall series victory.
Women’s series leader Kate McIlroy was absent due to work commitments and her Lightworkx Development teammate Amy Hollamby who was lying second was ill, resulted in her not racing today and losing her chance to ride for the series title.
Hollamby, who had been in Bali last week for a work-related conference, felt “like death” in Saturday's race won by Hannah Bayard (Lightworkx Development) with a heart rate that was very high even when she wasn’t exerting herself, so opted not to race on Sunday to get her health checked out.
With a serious chance of overall series success, Velo Project women’s team manager Andrew Williams was very pleased with the way Christie and the team rode.
“It’s a great result for the team and Henritta,” he said.
“As a team, we’ve worked really hard together through the series to help put Henritta in the position she was in, so it was great to see her and the team deliver.”
The women’s Hell of the South was won by Christie’s Velo Project teammate Eylse Fraser with an impressive solo ride, going alone early on and finishing almost five minutes ahead of second placed Jojo Bauer (Cycle Surgery Bartrams) in the time of three hours and three minutes.
Christie won the bunch sprint to claim third and claim the overall series to add to her under 19 series jersey, coming home five minutes after Bauer.
McIlroy held onto her the Small Business Accounting Most Combative series jersey while Velo project was the women’s series-winning team.
The first two laps of racing today in the men’s elite race were intense as teams and riders battled for position entering each gravel section and it took 80 kilometres for a break to finally getaway.
As riders fought to complete four laps of the gruelling 36 km circuit the key moment came on the last lap when the peloton was strung out in the gutter as the wind started to become more of a factor.
“The main bunch split apart with groups all over the road like a real classics special, the unpredictability is what makes this race so great,” said Guest - the day’s elite men’s winner.
A group of 10 riders worked well together to chase down the break so the front group was all back together heading into the first gravel section on the last lap. Attacks kept coming and Guest found himself off the front in the decisive move with Wright and
Ari Scott (Team Skoda Fruzio) with five kilometres to the last gravel section.
“Coming into the last gravel section we heard the gap back to the group of other favourites was about one minute and began to realise we were racing for the win,” he said. “We put in a big effort on the gravel which saw Ari just off the back and then it ended up in a two up sprint at the line.”
Guest said he feels he’s been finding some good form recently but this is his first big win serving as a good confidence booster heading into the Tour of Southland. “This race serves as a great tune up for all the guys racing down south and today proved no exception.”
The series under 19 jersey was won by Scott while the Most Combative series winner was Duyvesteyn. The overall series winner elite men’s team was Transport Engineering Velo South.
The masters 108 kilometre Hell of the South was won overall by Nathan Hood in a time of 2hrs 34mins, beating his breakaway companions Grieve and Michael Crawford (Armitage Williams Racing).
