Cooper Crowned 2017 NZ Cycle Classic Champion

Media release
Thursday, January 26, 2017

Cooper Crowned 2017 NZ Cycle Classic Champion

IsoWhey Sports Swiss Wellness rider Joseph Cooper was crowned 2017 New Zealand Cycle Classic champion in the Wairarapa today.

Cooper, who earlier this month won the New Zealand Road Cycle Championship, was presented the overall tour leader’s yellow jersey after topping the general classification points table in 15 hours 24 mins and 45 seconds; 36 seconds ahead of Logan Griffin from Oliver’s Real Food Racing and New Zealand National team rider James Oram. Cooper’s overall victory today also helped IsoWhey Sports secure the team's classification title.

“We came into this tour, after winning it last year with Ben O’Conner,” said Cooper after today’s fifth and final stage held in hot and dry conditions in Masterton.
“We always come here and bring the best team we can. We had Tim Roe in the yellow on day one and day two threw up a curve ball for us and we reworked the plans and came up with a new plan fighting to get the yellow back and we did that. Today was more about having a little more control over the bunch. The hard work had already been done so we just had to ride the distance today.”
Upon being presented the yellow jersey at Mitre 10 Mega Masterton, Cooper thanked his team mates and also paid special tribute to his parents Maria and Graham Cooper who had travelled over from Wellington to watch their son claim his first tour victory.

Also thanking his parents for their support was JLT Condor's Alex Frame who won stage five in 2hours 43minutes and 49seconds – just ahead of New Zealand National rider Luke Mudgway while IsoWhey’s Neil Van Der Ploeg finished third. Frame’s team mate Jonathon Mould came home in fourth while Mohammad Izzat Abd Halil was fifth and Italian U23 rider Francesco Mancini from team Figros Snep was sixth.

The win was also an early 28th wedding anniversary present for his mum and dad, Christchurch based Carmen and Gary Frame, who were sideline to watch their son.

“We only decided at the last minute to come up and I am so pleased we did,” said Carmen. “It was his anniversary present to us.”

At the finish line, Frame said his teammates had worked hard for him all week and that team work was instrumental in seeing JLT secure their third stage win in as many days.

“They backed me from the start again. Rob and Steve had a really long tour and went straight to the front with the (IsoWhey) guys then I had Ed (Clancy) and Mouldy just ripping it at the end. Ed went so fast when we went through that corner at the end and Mouldy stepped it up. All I had to do was not stuff it up. The boys really controlled it, said Frame.

Today’s fifth and final 120km stage saw the field of 82 riders complete 12 laps of a flat 10km circuit on the outskirts of Masterton. The race saw four riders in Brad Evans (New Zealand), Ryan Christensen (Figros Snep), Sam Burston (Mobius) and Ollie Jones (Fagan Motors) make a breakaway at 26km. Evans then sat up to wait for team mate James Oram and dragged him back to the breakaway group where the five riders spent the majority of the race. Evans won all three sprint races and jumped from ninth place to first place to claim the green sprint jersey from Oliver’s racing Ryan Thomas.
At 94km the peloton was posed to bridge the gap to the leaders but they responded with the kiwis driving the group forward.

At 97km the peloton was back together but New Zealand continued to attack at the front alongside JLT and IsoWhey. With 1.5 laps to go James Fouche and Hayden McCormick attacked but were pulled back in. Along the final stretch to the finish line it was the sprinting power of Frame that won out in the end.

Oram managed to retain the King of the Mountain jersey but was disappointed to lose the yellow jersey. He said today was hard racing, but he was thrilled his team came away with two classification jerseys.

“We knew Luke had a couple of points so we were hoping he could get the breakaway, but our goal from the get go was to race as aggressively as possible and flip this race on its head,” said Oram. “But once Brad got away out two laps in, I managed to get half way across him and then he realised it was me coming across and fortunately sat back and dragged me back. I told Brad to go for the sprints. Oliver’s put in a really good chase to try and bring it back, but fortunately we could keep it away.”

Brad Evans was also pleased to take the green ace sprint jersey and like many riders that finished today is targeting a good result in next week’s Herald Sun Tour in Melbourne, Australia.

Today’s race concluded the 30th Anniversary of the New Zealand Cycle Classic, the only Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) sanctioned race to be held in New Zealand in 2017. Race director Jorge Sandoval was thrilled with how the five stage race unfolded and thanked all the sponsors, volunteers, members of the New Zealand Police, the Masterton District Council, South Wairarapa District Council, Carterton District Council and Destination Wairarapa who worked collaboratively to make the event successful.

For more information please visit www.cycletournz.com.

ENDS

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