infonews.co.nz
Login Sign up
CYCLING

Trotman and Napier win Benchmark Homes Festival of Cycling criteriums

enthuse

Sunday 8 December 2013, 6:39PM

By enthuse

525 views

Grayson Napier celebrates his win.
Grayson Napier celebrates his win. Credit: rickoshayphotos
Reta Trotman takes a corner in today's criterium
Reta Trotman takes a corner in today's criterium Credit: rickoshayphotos

Reta Trotman and Grayson Napier were impressive winners in the elite women’s and men’s criteriums today at the Benchmark Homes Festival of Cycling in Christchurch in completely contrasting styles.

Trotman, who rides for German pro team MaxxSOLAR, attacked on the second lap and rode away from the field lapping most of the riders in a gritty display of strength.

Only second placed Sharlotte Lucas, who rides for the Christchurch based Benchmark Homes team, and Auckland pro Kate Chilcott, who rides for the US based Vanderkitten team, stayed away from Trotman after 35 minutes of racing. 

“I planned to smash it right from the gun,” Trotman said. “It was really special to ride at home in New Zealand with family support and it was great to get the win.”

Trotman was especially keen to reverse the previous days Benchmark Homes Festival of Cycling road racing result where she was beaten by Alexandra’s Sophie Williamson (H & J Smiths/Vanderkitten) in a sprint finish. Williamson was a late withdrawal from the criterium after falling ill overnight.

“It was a real shame Sophie didn’t race,” Trotman said. “I was really looking forward to racing against her as she’s such a classy rider.” 

Napier (L & M Group Racing) got away early with promising young Christchurch rider Ben Johnstone (Benchmark Homes) and once reeled in by the chasing bunch that was driven by Dan Barry (Node4), Sam Horgan (Benchmark Homes), James Oram (Bontrager Pro Cycling) and Alex Frame, took some time to recover as the intensity and pace of the racing saw a numbers of riders get dropped and pull out.

The young Nelson based rider was never far from the front of the race and hit the leader’s hard coming out of the final corner and into the finishing straight, to lead the sprint home holding off a fast finishing Frame and Barry.

“It was hard right from the get go,” Napier said. “We didn’t have the legs to stay away and once we were caught I took some time out in the bunch to recover and was happy to find the strength at the end to get the win.”

Justin Sims (Armitage Williams) made it two wins from two starts winning the club criterium to back up his win in yesterday’s Waipara Challenge Men’s Sport road race, beating Mike Smart (Homestyle Test Team) and Yancey Arrington in an exciting sprint finish after the three riders and Will Findlay had broken away early  to dominate the racing.

Cody MacMaster won the Newcomers criterium beating Brad Mackwell and David Molloy.
The Free Wheelin Frenzy 150, a charity wheelchair event run by the New Zealand Spinal Trust to raise awareness about their work and spinal injuries, was won by Ben Marshall beating last year’s winner Jo Nicholls-Parker.

________________________________________
Results:
Elite Men
1st Grayson Napier
2nd Daniel Barry  
3rd Alex Frame  

Women
1st Reta Trotman  
2nd Sharlotte Lucas  
3rd Kate Chilcott

Club Men
1st Justin Sims  
2nd Mike Smart
3rd Yancey Arrington

New comers
1st Cody MacMaster
2nd Brad Mackwell
3rd David Molloy