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New Zealand National Championships - CN
Te Amawutu, New Zealand, January 9-11, 2009
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Stage 3 - January 11: Elite Men Road Race
McCauley grabs record fifth win in road race
Auckland rider Gordon McCauley claimed a record fifth victory in the RaboPlus national road championships in Te Awamutu today. His Subway Avanti trade team dominated the 180km race to shut out the challenge from two-time champion Julian Dean and fellow European-based professionals Tim Gudsell and Greg Henderson.
They worked as a team to take control on the first lap, remaining clear despite the late attentions of the peloton, and took out the first four placings. It was a triumph for the veteran who surpassed the previous record of four national road titles won by Jack Swart to go with his two New Zealand time trail titles.
McCauley won the sprint ahead of teammates Joseph Cooper (Wellington) and Jason Allen (Christchurch) in 4:19:25, with the peloton 47 seconds behind.
"It was a win for the team. I feel a bit for my teammates because they gave everything today but someone had to win," McCauley said. "It looks like I'll be the donkey doing the work for them for the rest of the season."
The champion was also at home when overcast conditions gave way to winds and rain for much of the six laps on undulating terrain.
"The rainier, the windier, the crappier, the better it is for me. I just really suffered in the time trial in the heat on Friday. I don't like the heat. There's no secret that I like the Tour of Southland because the weather is bad. So the worse the weather, the better for me."
McCauley has no plans on hanging up his shoes just yet, and aims to make the New Zealand team for the 2012 Commonwealth Games in India.
"I've ridden three (Commonwealth Games) before and I am clearly not slowing down. And staying here in New Zealand and no longer being based in Europe or America works for me because I can focus on my training."
McCauley said his team knew they had to make a telling break if they were to succeed today.
"Julian Dean is a world class rider. He regularly gets top-10s at the Tour de France. If I came to the finish with him I was going to lose so I needed to be as far out in front as I could. That was the reason for the tactics today."
They worked perfectly with McCauley and Cooper bridging up to an early break that included team-mates Jason Allen and Eric Drower. By lap three only Alexander Ray and Paul Odlin remained with the Subway Avanti quartet that stretched the lead to nearly six minutes before it was slowly whittled away.
While the peloton reduced the advantage to under a minute they never seriously threatened the Subway Avanti combination.
"While a breakaway was always going to be a threat on a course like this which is not that tough, we still had our chances to close the gap," Dean said. "There just did not seem to be the desire to do it when we had the chance and certainly I was not going to ride myself into the ground to do it for them."
Alexandra's James Williamson completed the celebration for Subway Avanti by winning the under-23 honours from New Plymouth's Michael Torckler and Auckland's Roman Van Uden.
Results
Elite men 1 Gordon McCauley (Subway Avanti) 4.19.25 (41.632 km/h) 2 Joseph Cooper (Subway-Avanti ST) 3 Jason Allen (Subway-Avanti ST) 4 Eric Drower (Subway-Avanti ST) 5 Brett Tivers (WCNI) 0.47 6 Mathew Gorter (Waikato/BoP) 0.49 7 Justin Kerr (Waikato/BoP ST) 8 Matt Yates (Auckland ST) 9 Greg Henderson (Otago) 0.50 10 Jeremy Yates (ECNI ST) 11 Scott Wilder (Canterbury ST) 12 Aaron Strong (Auckland) 0.53 13 Julian Dean (Waikato/BoP) 0.54 14 Scott Lyttle (Wellington ST) 15 Glen Chadwick (ECNI ST) 16 Tim Gudsell (Waikato/BoP ST) 17 Robin Reid (Star & Garter-Tasman ST) 18 Paul Odlin (Star & Garter-Tasman) 0.58 19 Josh England (Subway-Avanti) 1.01 20 Jeremy Vennell (ECNI) 1.08 21 Jack Bauer (Wellington) 2.34 22 Sam King-Turner (Wellington ST) 23 Daniel Warren (ECNI) 4.12 24 Jonathon Atkinson (Auckland ST) 25 Matt Gilbert (Auckland) 4.13 26 Dean Fulton (Star & Garter-Tasman) 12.56 27 Winston Briggs (ECNI ST) 28 Adam Gosney (WCNI ST) 29 Peter Rennie (Waikato/BoP ST) 30 Rod Weinberg (Waikato/BoP ST) 31 Ben Olesen (Waikato/BoP) 12.58 32 Josh Page (ECNI) 14.18 33 David Ayre (Star & Garter-Tasman) 24.18 34 Dylan Stewart (ECNI) 27.18 DNF Daniel Lithgow (WCNI) DNF Sam Horn (Auckland) DNF Sam De Jong (Nico Auckland) DNF Will Alexander (Auckland) DNF Steve Elden (Wellington) DNF Andrew Bott (ECNI) U23 1 James Williamson (Subway-Avanti) 4.20.13 2 Michael Torckler (WCNI) 0.01 3 Roman Van Uden (Auckland ST) 4 Oliver Harding-Sheath (Auckland ST) 5 George Bennett (Star & Garter-Tasman ST) 6 Chris Macic (Auckland ST) 7 Mark Langlands (Waikato/BoP ST) 8 Shem Rodger (Waikato/BoP ST) 9 Mike Northey (Auckland) 0.02 10 Leon Hextall (Canterbury ST) 11 Matthew Sillars (Auckland ST) 12 Eliot Crowther (Waikato/BoP) 0.05 13 Bradley Aldrich (Auckland ST) 14 Ryan Wills (Waikato/BoP) 0.07 15 Wade Mangham (Waikato/BoP ST) 16 Josh Brown (WCNI) 0.14 17 Alex Meenhorst (Auckland) 0.34 18 Thomas Hanover (Auckland) 3.24 19 Alexander Ray (Auckland ST) 20 Aaron Gate (Auckland ST) 21 Alex Mcgregor (Otago) 3.30 22 Brad Carter (Waikato/BoP) 5.57 23 Sam Horgan (Subway-Avanti) 10.16 24 Gregory Marfell (WCNI) 12.09 25 Logan Hunn (Auckland) 23.30 26 Latham Croft (Auckland) 36.40 DNF Logan Mort (Auckland) DNF Daniel Seagar (Auckland) DNF Mathew Marshall (Southland) DNF Sam Weston (Waikato/BoP) DNF David Mayall (Waikato/BoP) DNF Simon Honour (Waikato/BoP
