A record size field of nearly 120 cyclists that included thirteen teams lined-up for The Cyclery Timaru 120 held over 4 laps of an undulating circuit totalling 135 kilometres. As soon as the neutralized section was complete, attacks were made with disregard for the distance ahead. This was the pattern for the first lap before a 14-man group escaped shortly after the first passing of the start-finish line.

McCauley, team-mate Sam Horgan, and Tom Findlay (Subway Cycling Team) were the last to be included in this group after giving chase to join Odlin; Reon Park and Stephen Elden (Kelford – Reiker Cycling Team); James Gibson (Lowe & Associates); Joe Cooper (Subway Cycling Team); Alex McGregor (Cycling Otago); Daniel Barry (Benchmark Homes Cycling Team); Chris Nicholson (Star & Garter Wheelers – Tasman); Ashleigh Whitehead and Michael Vink (Delmaine Fine Foods); and Craig Lawn (Scott – Penny Farthing Cycles).

The fourteen riders rode well together building a lead of one minute 12 seconds at the 52km mark. Shortly after, Barry and Cooper forced the pace on a small rise and skipped clear. Unfortunately for the pair their chasers were still working hard and reeled them in before the half-way mark of the race as the fourteen leaders now led the reduced main field by 2 minutes 43 seconds. Immediate accelerations by both McCauley and Odlin dislodged Barry and Cooper from the group, and coupled with a crash by Whitehead, the lead group was reduced to eleven.

Lap three saw Gordon and Findlay go clear, and despite sharing the workload evenly, they gained never more than a ten second lead on Odlin and company who lost McGregor, Gibson, and the unlucky Vink who punctured.

The two leaders were recaptured at the close of the lap as the now eight-man lead group began the final 33km circuit with a 5 minute 50 second lead on the peloton. The odds appeared to be in favour of the teams of Benchmark and Kelford – Reiker who had the numbers advantage of two riders each in the break. And so it proved despite several more attacks by Odlin, when McCauley and Horgan were able to attack in unison which resulted in McCauley riding clear with less than 10 kilometres to ride.

The lone leader’s advantage remained at 5 – 10 seconds until he reached the residential streets of Timaru where the gap extended to 20 seconds. New Zealand cycling’s most prolific winner did not need any more invitation than the gap offered and gallantly held off his pursuers to win his first outing in the orange colours of his new sponsor.

At 13 seconds behind McCauley was former double-Olympian Nicholson who snuck past Horgan on the line as Odlin, Lawn, Findlay, Elden, and Park followed closely behind.

Barry did a fine ride to finish alone 5 minutes 3 seconds down to secure the team prize for the Benchmark Homes Cycling Team. Nimesha Smith (BikeRIGHT Cycling Team) continued with her good form from last weekend’s Tour of Canterbury to sprint home Cycling Otago’s Sara MacDonald to finish as first woman.

The day’s results produced leader changes in each of the four individual classifications as McCauley took over the series lead from the absent Marc Ryan (Kelford – Reiker Cycling Team), whilst Horgan (Under 23), Nicholson (Masters), and Smith (Women) all donned leader jerseys to wear into round three at Cust on April 5th.

The win maintains McCauley's fantastic start to 2008, and was his 4th win in eight days. The self proclaimed "Peoples' Champion" seems to be enjoying working during the week and tearing up the tarmac on the weekends.

Hawke's Bay's Bridget Robertshaw upstaged her better known rivals to win the Women's Classic.

Carmel is training hard with the Oceania champs in Wellington in less than a month, followed by more ITU points races and the New Plymouth and Tongyeong World Cups in April.

Congratulations Emma on a fine ride.

This result bodes well for Ellice's continued rise in the sport of Triathlon, with the ultimate goal of Olympic champion on the horizon.

Transition involved a long run uphill but was pretty uneventful. The ride starts straight onto the hill out of the blue lake, despite taking this hill conservatively I started passing people immediately thanks to being much further down the field than I should have been. My speedo recorded just over 80kph down into Rotorua which is a bit faster than I’ve been on the tri bike in a while, unfortunately the roughness of the road and the speed meant that I lost quite a bit of fluid out of the aerodrink system. On the flats I quickly settled into a solid rhythm, my pacing strategy was pretty conservative in order to have a good run so I wasn’t hammering the hills and several times had to re catch and overtake riders that I passed on the flats only to be passed by on the hills. I was surprised to catch my brother inside 40km (this is the only competition that matters – the race within the race). The turn came all too soon and after a brief pause for eating an drinking I was back into my rhythm. With a slight tailwind heading along the flats the speed stayed high and the rattling from my now loose aerodrink was rather irritating. The ride finishes with climbing back up the hill to the lake and is feared by a lot of the competitors, I took this hill cautiously and lost a bit of time to the riders around me but it was worth it to avoid starting the run with trashed legs.

My average power was the same for each half of the bike leg and I split 1.16 on the way out and 1.18 on the way back. I find the 90km of a half to be over too quickly but on this occasion I didn’t fear the run as I had left so much in reserve.

I started the run in around 8th place and felt good from the outset. Unfortunately I fell when running down a hill after about 15mins (I was watching out for a dog on the path rather than watching where my feet were going), I jumped up immediately and started running again rather than stopping to think about the damage that I’d done, I figured that anything major would present itself in due course. I ran strongly for the remainder of the forest section and out on to the road. I was a bit disappointed to realize that the “lookout” that I’d heard so much about pre race was just a bump in the road with 10 steps going up on to it, I’d been anticipating an endless stair that would bring major suffering so the reality was something of a let down. The remainder of the first lap was on the road and offered two opportunities to get time checks on the opposition, the split to my brother was comfortable and he didn’t look to be moving any better than I was so I felt pretty good. Back past transition to start the second lap I was still feeling strong but the sand running was a bit sapping and once I hit the undulating forest trail I started to feel hints of weakness. At around 70mins I had quite a bad patch that I think was related to having lost my sports drink and so not quite met my nutritional requirements, it could also have been related to the damage I’d done earlier or even just not having done enough running in training. I worked through the bad patch but lost a couple of places as the chasers finally caught me, back on the road for the return home and I regained enough rhythm to have a decent run into the finish. One of the marshalls on an MTB rode beside me to ask if I was ok – I think the blood all down both shins had him a bit concerned, at that point all I was interested in was finishing so I assured him that I was fine and would deal with it soon.

I ran 1.35.16 to finish in 4.47.02 and 12th overall and first Clydesdale (a category for those over 90kg). Overall a solid race and a good test of the things I’ve been working on. Plenty of room for improvement still – lucky the season has several months to go so I can work on the weaknesses. It was a great event and I thoroughly recommend it for anyone wanting to challenge themselves in a half Ironman – a nice freshwater swim, a testing hilly ride and a scenic but tough run that is mostly on forest trails with a little bit of road and gravel running. I will be racing the Tauranga half Ironman in three weeks – a flat course suited to setting fast times where I’ll be hoping to be 20mins quicker, unfortunately the course lends itself to pelotons forming which is something I find very frustrating as I am a bigger guy than can power through the wind.

I appreciate the help of Genius bikes, Grammo, Powerbar Nutrition, Profile for the cool one piece race suit, Blue Seventy for the awesome Helix wetsuit and www.sportingedge.co.nz for the sportsbalm products that are helping my battered body to recover.

The first aggressions of the race were initiated by local Taranaki favourites, Kerri-Anne Torckler and Toria Anderson. Torckler was particularly prominent, actively contesting the cash primes. However, all efforts were negated by the Wellington based Science In Sports (SIS) squad and Jazz Apple. Team SIS captain Rachel Mercer and support rider Emma Crumm bravely tried to control the flurry.
By the final five laps it looked as if the dwindling bunch would contest a sprint but the Jazz Apple squad had other plans. Amassing at the front, and initiating the lead out was double Junior World Championship track medalist, Lauren Ellis who led the peleton single file that quickly disseminated the pack. Team mentor, Susy Pryde drove over the top of her Canterbury teammate with Malindi Maclean glued to Pryde's wheel. When the duo turned into the home straight, Maclean easily took the victory, while Pryde rolled over the line in second and Torckler was third.

The Jazz Apple Cycling Team now hold every Elite and U19 Road title in New Zealand, including the:

• Elite National Road
• Elite National Time Trial
• Club Road
• Club Time Trial
• Criterium
• U19 Club Road Title
• U19 Club Time Trial
• U19 Criterium

Drake emphasized that the Jazz Apple’s will be finding their legs through the initial summer races. "Jazz are rebuilding with a synthesis of New Zealand's emerging talent and established campaigners with Olympic experience...we are pleased to retain the core of the 2007 contingent while recruiting promising talent".

The team hopes that the squads' future ambitions for growing the team into a UCI formation will eventuate, with the predominance of athletes coming from but not exclusively New Zealand. "The Jazz team have an essential Kiwi ethos with our title sponsors, athletes and Kiwi created Genius bicycles; however there’s an inevitability that off-shore talent will become both obligatory and welcomed to the Jazz squad to press forward internationally".

Jazz Apple is now in it’s third season of racing and for the first time will compete in New Zealand. The inclusion of NZ racing coalesces the teams' priority American NRC and Canadian racing objectives and markets, which will eventually encompass the burgeoning European Jazz Apple market. The Jazz Apple team management acknowledged that covering these markets could test the limits of the teams' youthful charges as they ride into the blaze of an endless summer of global competition but this is surely a good thing as this will help to increase the overall level of the team.

2008 Jazz Apple Athletes – >www.Jazzapple.com

• Lauren Ellis - age 18, Mid Canterbury NZ
  
• Malindi Maclean - age 19, Auckland NZ
  
• Emma Petersen - age 17, Waikato NZ
  
• Susy Pryde - age 34, Auckland NZ / Monterey (Proactive team mentor)
  
• Alison Shanks - age 25, Otago NZ
  
• Linda Villumsen - age 23 (NZ Domestic Only), Auckland NZ (Tour de France Winner)
  
• One other athlete TBC
  

• Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge Bay of plenty NZ
  
• Armstrong Festival Of Cycling Christchurch NZ
  
• NZ Criterium Nationals Taranaki NZ
  
• Mt Maunganui Criterium Bay of Plenty NZ
  
• Seaview Classic Criterium Auckland NZ
  
• NZ Road Nationals Hawkes Bay NZ
  
• Track and Road Carnival Invercargill Southland NZ
  
• Rodney Rabbit Ride Cycle Challenge Auckland NZ
  
• North Shore Criterium Auckland NZ
  
• Morrinsville Tour Waikato NZ
  
• Le Race Christchurch Canterbury NZ
  
• Redlands Classic San Bernardino CA USA
  
• Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix San Diego CA USA
  
• Gallipoli Cup Auckland NZ
  
• Auckland Cycle Challenge NZ
  
• Mt. Hood Cycling Classic OR USA
  
• Mt Hamilton Road Race San Jose CA USA
  
• Memorial Day San Jose Criterium CA USA
  
• Pro Cycling Tour Triple Crown Allentown PA USA
  
• Pro Cycling Tour Triple Crown Reading PA USA
  
• Pro Cycling Tour Triple Crown - Commerce Bank Liberty Classic Philadelphia PA USA
  
• Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria, SPAIN
  
• Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira SPAIN
  
• Manhattan Beach Grand Prix Los Angeles CA USA
  
• Carrera de San Rafael Sonoma CA USA
  
• BC Superweek Vancouver CANADA
  
• Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium Charlotte NC USA
  
• Hanes Park Classic – Winston-Salem, NC USA

The team which includes Alison Shanks (pictured), the New Zealand Elite Road and Time Trial champion, will be racing the Genius Squadra complete with SRAM Force.

Co-sponsor Grammo will be providing the team with their latest in high tech wheel weaponry and other carbon goodies.

A full list of the teams racing schedule will be posted shortly so stay tuned.

The road race on Sunday was a pretty long affair at 182 km. With about 90 odd starters, there was plenty of places to chill out and look after one's self. I didn't feel to hot to start off, so after waking the legs up for the first 10 - 20 km in the wind with a few tactically pointless jumps, I did exactly that - I began to look after myself. The first serious move of the day formed just before Kingseat, at around the ten kilometer mark, with a group of six riders including Aaron Strong (Genius), Karl Murray, Paul Odlin, Mark Langlands, Matt Sillars and Roman van Uden gaining around three minutes on what was a sporadic chase effort.

During the fourth lap, some fairly serious moves came from the likes of Tom Hanover, Alex Meenshorst, Joe Cooper and Sam Bewley. That quartet actually moved clear of the bunch by a couple of hundred meters at one point, but in the tail wind things resumed a sense of normality, when this move was brought back. This was actually quite good for me, because by now, my legs were well and truly awake, and, with the time gap to the initial six man break coming down to 45 seconds, things were starting to look good...

Three quarters of the way through the fifth lap (two and a bit laps to go...) the race winning move was formed by Jeremy Yates who was followed by another couple of riders. I was about six riders back, but jumped across on a small rise. Around the bottom corner and up past the feed zone I road hard, and managed to force the gap open to about 25 seconds by the finish line with Yates pulling some long turns too. The others in the move didn't follow up the feed-zone climb, leaving Jeremy and I to ride together. We worked well together as the race progressed, pushing out to a two minute gap by the last lap, a time which was held until the finish.

It was a pleasure to ride with Jeremy, the guy is very smooth and I felt that I learnt quite a bit from the day's race. In the last two kilometers, he was able to gap me, pushing out to an impressive win.

Kind regards, Eliot

The event runs from Thursday 18th October - Sunday 21 October.

Northey was captured with 5 kilometres to go but by using his strength gained in Europe, he was able to outsprint his breakaway companions for a well earned victory.

Two years ago Alison made the switch from representative Netball to Cycling. After only a few months on the bike Alison finished 4th in the 3000m Individual Pursuit at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Since then Alison has recorded two top ten finishes at the World Track Cycling Championships and a podium finish at the 2007 Manchester Track World Cup. Alison’s next major focus is the 2007/8 Track Cycling World Cup series and the 2008 World Track Cycling Championships in Manchester where she will be aiming to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games.

Alison and the rest of the New Zealand Elite women's cycling team, racing in Europe, Canada and America, are an integral part of the Genius design team. They test all the bikes and components before release to ensure that the equipment withstands the rigours of elite racing.

Alison Shanks' Achievements

2007

8th World Track Championships 2007 - 3000m Individual Pursuit
3rd Track World Cup – Manchester
4th Track World Cup – Sydney
1st National Road Championships
1st Time Trial Championships

2006

9th 3000m Individual Pursuit - World Track Championships
7th Time Trial - Commonwealth Games
4th 3000m Individual Pursuit - Commonwealth Games
1st National Time Trial Championships
3rd National Road Championships
2nd 3000m Individual Pursuit - Oceania Track Championships
3rd Time Trial – Oceania Road Championships
2nd Individual 3000m Pursuit - Track National Championships

2005

3rd National Time Trial Championships
7th National Road Championships

We have been busy racing the last month or so, starting with the Tour de L'aude, which involves 10 days of crazy racing. Mostly the organisers try and see how hard they can make the stages before everyone cracks! Anyway I made it through that one doing pretty well. I had only one day where my legs kind of decided they had had enough. The organisers are actually nice enough to have a wee bash afterwards which was nice to have a few laughs and a few drinks of blanquette as well - As you can imagine after all that hard racing it didn't take much to feel the effects that's for sure!

We left for Montreal 2 days after that, arriving to some unpredictable weather conditions. The world cup went ok, the sun deciding that it was going to shine that day, thank goodness for that. The race itself was much harder and more aggressive than the year, so I was pleased with how things went considering everything.

Now the tour was completely different. We had a circuit race on the first day that was raced like a criterium only it was a 110km longs with around 24 corners in an 13km circuit, fun! The next day was horrendous in that we had a massive down pour of rain so much that it was flooding on the roads, this was preceded by some pretty spectacular thunder and lightning, and more rain. I was sure they were going to shorten the races, but no such luck, so was pleased to cross the finish line that day. The other strange thing of the tour was that all our races started at 5pm, which meant that by the time we got home etc, it was after midnight by the time we crawled into bed.

And where am I now? Well we are in Prince Edward Island for another bout of racing, a 5 day tour this time round. The trip down to PEI was really long -14hrs all up on a bus. Thank goodness someone thought to bring some dvds to entertain us for some of the time. The good thing is that we got to stop and have Mexican for dinner - yum yum! Haven't seen too much of PEI yet, but over the next few days we will be visiting different parts of the island. One of the stages is a 28km time trial over the confederation bridge. It is the bridge that links the island to Canada, but which has only been around for 10 years apparently. Anyway its nice to be by the water again and to have some sunshine.

The guys (Jacques, Grom and Spud) are all pretty gutted that they are down in PEI at the moment, as Montreal has the Formula one starting tomorrow. During the week leading up to our races in Montreal we rode out to the formula one track and rode our bikes around it.

We head back to France on the 16th June for a little break from racing - yay for us! I'm looking forward to having some down time to recuperate and build up to the next big event. Anyway best be off, bye for now. Toni Bradshaw

The return of this much-loved event had been eagerly awaited since its demise after the 2001 race and it did not disappoint with many riders having favourable comments to make about the atmosphere and organisation of the day and the scenery along the way. This year it was held on a fine autumn day, marred only by some chilly morning fog through the early flat sections of the course. The ride course was very beautiful with trees beginning to show their autumn colours in places and some spectacular scenery on show especially through the Karangahake gorge and through the hilly section towards the end looking out over the Pacific.

Well after 45 hours of travelling I finally made it to France feeling pretty shattered but in one piece. It's mint weather over here with nice blue skies everyday but still pretty chilly out on the bike.

We had our first race yesterday which was the French cup race, Prix de la ville de Pujols. It had a large field with 105 starters and consisted of 5 laps featuring a decent 2km steep climb which climbed up to the finish line every time. I wasn't very confident with my form as I had two weeks off prior to leaving NZ due to injury and sickness, however I had a good race considering - climbing at the front setting my own tempo. On the first lap up the climb 14 of us got away and ended up staying away the whole race. Serena our team mate was also in the break with me and rode a great race especially as it's her first year over here in Europe.

On the last two laps attacks were going left, right and centre but nothing would stick. The final time up the climb there were three attacks that went and I went with the first two but just couldn't match the last one and ended up 7th, 2nd international rider. I was happy with how I went, just struggled with the jumps but that will come with all the racing we have coming up.

We have a big season ahead of us and lots of racing so the form will come up nicely as I get more races under my belt. We have a great group of girls over here with some real talent so hopefully we will get some good results.

Ill keep you all posted how the rest of the racing goes.

Bye for now.
Michelle Hyland.

The race was also an International Triathlon Union Continental Cup race, seeing some international competitors on the start line although none were eligible for the New Zealand Championships.

The women's event was taken out by Samantha Warriner with Bevan Docherty taking the gold in the men's event.

Sorry the updates have been a bit slow lately. Everyone here at Genius Bikes has been flat tack preparing for the new season. We've got lots of new projects on the go with some really exciting products to bring to you this season.

Thank you to you all for your valued support and feedback. It's always nice to know when you've done a good job as well as when things need to be tweaked. So please keep those emails coming.

Team Genius riders are set for a busy season, with many of the team travelling to race in Europe. Good luck to them especially with selection for the Olympics.

Stay tuned this year as we will be introducing new sections to the website. Happy and safe cycling to everyone!

The event which runs from the 7th March to the 11th March has two of the top three professional teams in the world competing. Six riders in the top 21 in the world will be coming and eight of the top ten cycling nations in the world will be represented in the event.