NZ’s Top Team for Festival of Cycling

ATTN EDITORS... Please see media release for next week's Armstrong Peugeot Festival of Cycling. It features most of NZ's top riders, including NZ's top team, Subway Cycling. For further info and free-to-use pics contact me directly.
 
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Michael Jacques
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NZ’s Top Team for Festival of Cycling
 

A former World Champion and three New Zealand reps will lead New Zealand’s number one cycling team in this year’s Armstrong Peugeot Festival of Cycling.

In just its third year Christchurch’s Armstrong Peugeot Festival of Cycling continues on its quest to become New Zealand’s premier cycling event. The latest development for the event, scheduled for December 1 and 2, is the entry of New Zealand’s most successful road team, Subway Cycling, which is led by former world junior champion Jeremy Yates and a handful of national reps.

Organisers are expecting around 1500 riders, both elite and recreational, for the two-day event, which features a 75k road ride around the Lyttelton Harbour bays and an inner city criterium around the Oxford Terrace café strip.

Entries already include some of New Zealand’s top riders, including Athens Olympians Heath Blackgrove and Robin Reid, and Commonwealth Games cyclists Clinton Avery, Logan Hutchings, Jason Allen, Darren Shea and Anthony Chapman. But it’s the latest entry from Subway Cycling that could dominate the 2007 event.

Subway Cycling is a unique concept on the New Zealand domestic scene. The brainchild of Commonwealth Games reps Fraser McMaster and Hayden Godfrey and cycling stalwart Greg Hume, their team concept gives top cyclists the kind of support and opportunities that McMaster and Godfrey enjoy when they race professionally in Europe and the USA.

McMaster and Godfrey, both from Christchurch, will be starters on their home turf. Subway teammates such as Oceania Games medallists Joe Cooper, and James and Patrick Williamson will also turn out for the team. But it is the Hawke’s Bay’s Jeremy Yates who could lead the way.

Yates, the former world junior road cycling champion, has been in fine form of late, winning the New Zealand club title, the Coromandel’s prestigious K2 20k Classic and taking the King of the Mountains at the Tour of Southland.

Yates and Subway are all entered for both the Avanti Long Bays Classic on the Saturday and the Armstrong Peugeot City Criterium on the Sunday. Yates is well-suited to the second half of the Long Bays, which climbs the 500m high Gebbies and Evans Pass, so Subway are likely to protect him during the fast flat sections from McCormack’s Bay around the base of the Port Hills to Gebbies Pass.

On Sunday, however, Team Subway are likely to ride for Criterium specialist Hayden Godfrey. The 13-time New Zealand champion and 2006 Commonwealth Games medallist is ranked among the top five criterium specialists on the American pro circuit. With experienced campaigners like McMaster and Yates supporting him Subway has several options up their sleeve to get Godfrey to the line in front.

This year’s Armstrong Peugeot Festival of Cycling takes place on December 1 and 2. Saturday’s Armstrong Peugeot Harbour Ride is based at McCormack's Bay in Redcliffs. New features this year include the Avanti elite division and the SBS Kid’s Mini-Bays, which organisers expect to attract more than 100 kids aged between eight and 14. The 75k route takes in Cashmere, Halswell and Motukarara before climbing over Gebbies Pass and around the undulating Lyttelton bays, over Evans Pass to finish back at McCormack’s Bay.

Sunday’s Armstrong Peugeot City Criterium will bring a taste of European cycling to Christchurch with an exciting day of multi-lap racing around the inner city’s café strip. Last year saw close to 10,000 spectators watching New Zealand’s best and organisers hope many will bring their bikes in 2007 and take part in new events such as the Rookie Criterium and Kids Criterium. An annual highlight is the Celebrity Tandem charity race for Cure Kids NZ.

Entries for the Armstrong Peugeot Festival of cycling are still open. For more details: www.festivalofcycling.co.nz

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