Taupo – Napier Cycle Classic Race

Saturday 23 September 2006

Rich in history, this legendary race has been held intermittently since at least 1971. The roll of winners includes many illustrious names from New Zealand cycling history including V J Hanaray, Jack Swart, Stephen Cox and Dave Mann. This race was last held in 2002 after which traffic management concerns saw the race missing from the calendar for the last few years.

The resurrection of this year’s event was largely due to Ivan Aplin, who was the event manager and is also Chairman of the Ramblers Cycling Club of Hawkes Bay, who worked in conjunction with the Taupo Cycling Club. Excellent support was provided by the sponsors, Cranked Cycles and the Bluewater Hotel, and also by the police, who supplied four motorcycle marshals and other personnel. A large team of Ramblers’ members provided the marshalling and traffic management support which meant the day was a great success.

This event has been billed as the most gruelling one day open cycle race in New Zealand. For anyone who has driven the Taupo – Napier road, the reasons for this are evident with the road always rising or falling with major climbs to the Summit and out of the Mohaka Valley (Titiokura.) With this year’s course finishing on the flat in Pandora in Napier rather than including the challenging Seafield Road climbs in the closing kilometres, some of the legendary sting was removed from the tail of the race.  

This year’s race saw 53 riders start the 136km event in two grades with the B grade, containing the Vets and Women, starting 20 minutes ahead of the A grade with the expectation that they would be caught and passed during the race. With light to medium westerly winds in Taupo and a sea breeze in Hawkes Bay, the riders only gained limited assistance in the brilliantly fine and mild conditions.

After riding from the Lake Taupo waterfront for a controlled start to the beginning of State Highway 5, the B grade bunch was quickly whittled down in size with Ramblers Darryl Strachan and Jason Kelly doing much of the early work on the front of the race. With fellow Ramblers Kerry Harford and Patrick Kelly also in the lead bunch, which numbered just seven riders after several kilometres, a home victory seemed a good probability. Given the hilly nature of the course and the wide range of riders who entered the event, the remaining bunches soon splintered into small groups and solo riders.

By the top of the Summit climb, only five B grade riders remained together at the front with the four Ramblers joining Jason White of Waikato over the top of the climb. Despite White’s impressive hill climbing ability, this bunch was still together at the end of the climbing. The leading three A graders caught this bunch in the closing 15 kilometres while passing through Eskdale.

The A grade field rode a solid tempo from the start, averaging approximately 38km/h for the first few largely uphill kilometres out of Taupo before picking up the pace across the Rangitaiki Plains. This solid pace saw the first rider lose touch with the peleton inside 10 kilometres and the tail end B graders passed after 44 kilometres. Into the major hill climbs, the front bunch also soon split into small groups with a lead bunch of three riders consisting of Hawkes Bay professional Jeremy Vennell, Aaron Strong (Auckland) and Michael Torckler (Taranaki) establishing the winning break climbing out of the Mohaka Valley. This leading trio was recorded at hair raising speeds of 90-100km/h down the Titiokura hill.

With the leading A grade trio working together and towing the bunch of five B graders through the closing kilometres, this gave the B graders a chance to rest their legs. Vennell launched an attack inside the last 3 kilometres but his fellow A graders soon chased him down in a somewhat chaotic chase through a corner and roadworks. This surge saw Patrick Kelly drift off the back of the bunch after suffering cramp. With just over a kilometre to go and despite the police escort of the cyclists, a vehicle still almost managed to knock Vennell off his bike.

Once into the final kilometre, the sprinters positioned themselves for what turned out to be a long sprint to the line. With well known sprint exponent, B grade’s Harford, drawing on all of his experience in top racing to take the sprint and with it, the Taupo - Napier trophy, a fast finishing Strong had to settle for second overall, as he did in 2002. Torckler finished in third place while Strachan was the second B grader home with White third and Jason Kelly, also in a repeat of his 2002 result, finishing fourth. Vennell, only have just returned from another professional season in Europe, finished third in A grade.

Sonia Foote was the first woman home, 24m 56s adrift of the overall B grade winner and just 54s ahead of the second placed woman Mirjan Besamusca. Shem Rodger was the first Under 19 rider to finish and completed the race in fourth place in the A grade, just 3m 45s behind the A grade winner.

Despite the large amount of hill climbing, the top three A grade finishers recorded a time of 3hrs 21m 56s to average over 40km/h – an impressive feat on a demanding course. The last A grader finished just over an hour slower while in an unusual result, every single B grade starter completed the event with the final rider completing the course in just under five hours.

With the event organiser delighted with the response to the event, which was only put together at relatively short notice, it looks like finding its way back on to the national calendar as a major annual event.

The top ten finishers in each grade were:

A Grade Open: Aaron Strong 3.21.56 1; Michael Torckler @ st 2; Jeremy Vennell @ st 3; Shem Rodger (U19) @ 0.03.45 4; Mathew Gorter @ 0.03.45 5th, Mark Langlands @ 0.03.45 6; Josh Page @ 0.04.12 7; Sam Horn @ 0.04.34 8; Josh Brannigan @ 0.07.45 9; Craig Lawn @ 0.08.37 10.

B Grade (including Vets & Women): Kerry Harford 3.41.56 1st and 1st overall, Darryl Strachan @ st 2; Jason White @ st 3; Jason Kelly @ st 4; Patrick Kelly @ 0.00.34 5; Wayne McConachy (Snr) @ 0.08.08 6; Ross Douglas @ 0.10.31 7; Andrew Bryant @ 0.17.23 8; Nathan Bunn (U19) 0.17.23 9; Robert Taylor @ 0.21.03 10.