Saturday 1 October
King’s had 2 teams turning out, Junior A consisting of Miles Preena (Year 10, Peart), Will McAteer (Year 10, Major), Ashton Gormly (Year 10, Marsden), Joe Stephenson (Year 10, Greenbank), with Seb Mills (Year 9, Peart) riding as an emergency in case of mechanicals. Senior A Boys also raced - Sam Scott (Year 13, Peart), Tom Stephenson (Year 13, Greenbank), Nathan Hill (Year 12, Peart), and Oliver Scott (Year 11, Peart).
Junior A finished in 8th position from 22 teams, which is an exceptional result, and fantastic return for the training put in particularly over the last 4 weeks since the Northern Tour. Their time was only 45 seconds off a top 5 place. The boys were all chuffed (and puffed) with their result.
Senior A finished in 4th position from 15 teams, an agonising 2 seconds off a podium place. This also represented an improvement on results during the season at Pukekohe, putting the Takapuna, St Kent’s and Westlake teams to the sword, with only 2 (!) Grammar teams and Christchurch Boys finishing above them.
Conditions down here have been predictably tough - 30km/h gusty winds and a sprinkling of rain so racing has been tough and our boys have risen to the challenge. The forecast remains about the same for the rest of the event, with the age-grade road races tomorrow, followed by the points race at Manfeild on Monday.
Sunday 2 October
Day 2 at Nationals was Road race day. The weather held off - strong winds (when are there not down here) - although some rain was forecast it did not eventuate.
Road races are graded by age - U14, U15 etc.
Results were:
U14 Boys Seb Mills 13th
U16 Boys Miles Preena 15th
Ashton Gormly 30th
Joe Stephenson 35th
Will McAteer dnf
U17 Girls Louise Makin 20th
U17 Boys Oliver Scott 10th
U20 Boys Sam Scott 6th
Tom Stephenson 15th
Nathan Hill 36th
The stand out result was from the skipper Sam Scott who was in the hunt in the bunch sprint in the U20 Boys. All raced with tenacity in the windy conditions with Will McAteer only retiring due to a mechanical issue.
Monday 3 October
Last day of Cycling Nationals was the points race at the Manfeild raceway in Feilding. Like the road race this is run by age grade, with the winner determined by points allocated at intermediate sprints and the final sprint in the race.
Results were:
U14 Boys: Seb Mills in 14th
U16 Boys: Will McAteer in 9th, Miles Preena in 16th, Joe Stephenson in 31st, Ashton Gormly in 44th
U17 Boys: Oliver Scott in 10th
U20 Boys: Tom Stephenson in 4th, Sam Scott in 9th, Nathan Hill in 24th
Unfortunately, Louise Makin was ill and unable to start.
This completes a successful Nationals with the highlights being the Senior A BOys in the TTT, Sam Scott in the road race, and Tom Stephenson in the points race.
Andrew Walton
Teacher in Charge of Cycling
