2016 Hawkes Bay School Cycling Championships - Havelock North High School Team Report

Chaotic is the best single word to describe the 2016 Hawkes Bay School Cycling Championships held over the weekend of Saturday 02nd and Sunday 03rd July. The school was represented by Jono Williams, Nicholas Kelly, Lewis Sheeran, Will Tidswell, Mitchell Couchman and Sam McArdle with coaching from Jason Kelly.

With only two partial team practices prior to this year’s event, the Saturday afternoon Team Time Trial (TTT) event was always going to be a challenge. As the team was mixed age, they rode in the under 20 age group which allowed six riders to start but only five riders to race past the 200m mark with the team time taken on the fourth rider to cross the finish line. In this event, all team members work together as they race against the clock to record the fastest time. Conditions were fine, mild and sunny with a light wind for the 18km course which runs out and back along Ohiti Road. From the start line, the team was led off by Sam McArdle but unfortunately some riders touched wheels inside the opening 200m which resulted in a crash which stopped the team. Will Tidswell was unable to continue to race but the team was allowed a restart. With the mixed abilities of the team, the race pace was set to enable all riders to stay together as the team tackled the course. The riders managed to stay together until the finish line and record a solid time of 31m 00s (34.8km/h) which was only marginally slower than last year despite their early crash and restart. Unfortunately this time was only good enough for fourth place in the under 20 age group with their time being 34s too slow for the bronze medal.

The road race championships were held on Sunday afternoon in sunny and mild conditions with little wind. A well organised start saw the under 17s & under 20s start together to complete 50km over four laps of the Crystall Road - Mutiny Road block which is basically flat with Nicholas Kelly (under 20) and Lewis Sheeran (under 17) representing the school in this event. They were followed shortly afterwards by the combined under 15 and under 16 race for three laps (37.5km) with Will Tidswell (under 15), recovered from his previous day’s crash, and Jono Williams (under 16) representing the school. This race split from the start line with the front bunch ending up sprinting for the medals. Jono timed his run well to secure first place and the gold medal in the under 16s while Will secured silver close on the heels of the winner in the under 15s.

The under 17s & under 20s stayed largely together until the last lap when the medal contenders split off the front. An under 17 non-Hawkes Bay rider was first across the line but was ineligible for the title and gold medal. Unfortunately crossing the centre line by a number of riders in the home straight caused confusion with the organisers who originally awarded Nicholas Kelly the under 20 gold medal only to then decide post prize giving he was in fact due the silver. Lewis Sheeran was in the medal hunt in the under 17 grade on the road but was subsequently disqualified along with a number of other riders for crossing the centre line.

Over the weekend the team ended up with one gold medal and two silver medals which was a little disappointing given the potential showed by the team.