On the radar and ready to race

By Revolution Racing

This weekend is again a busy weekend for the Mico/All About Plumbing Cycling team presented by Revolution Racing. Saturday has the team lining up on the West Coast in Greymouth for the 130km National Point Series (NPS) Around Brunner Cycle Ride. Team director Steve Elden says “the ride or race for the elites is a good hit out for the team the day prior to the second round or the Benchmark series. We are a new team and the riders are still getting to know one another so the more racing we can do as a team the tighter we can become”. Christchurch based Mico/All About Plumbing team manager Richard Aitken has put forward a good team for the weekend on the coast. Saturday in Greymouth will see last year’s Euro/Belgium based rider Josh Brown lining up to lead the team. Benchmark Cat 2 leader Lee Evans is also in fine form and looking to perform well. A new rider to appear on the team list for Saturday is the NZ U23 Champion Tom Findlay. “Tom is a guest rider to the team for us for the weekend. I have known Tom since his early day of riding back in Palmy. He is off the Holland in a few weeks so contacted me to join us for a couple or races prior to leaving NZ. I know he is more than capable of supporting or leading the team so we were more than happy to help him out” said Steve Elden. To the start list is newly crowned Canterbury U19 road Champ Tom Littlejohn and newcomer Steve Armstrong. In the masters grade we have Geoff Searle, Nick Innocente-Jones and Shane Aitken. “That is a fairly good line up for any team to put forward and a small budget team like us is showing we can impact on the racing and punch it out with the big teams” Steve Elden.

Sunday will see the team line up for the second round of the Benchmark series in Hokitika. “I’m glad this is the last double race weekend for while as the planning logistics are a nightmare for staff and tight on the travel demands for some riders. I really hope someone at Bike NZ can sort out the calendar for 2011 and make sure there is some logical system to most of the race dates and not the mess we currently got. We have little way to pre plan racing and budgets prior to the season start”. When tipped for Sundays plan Steve Elden says “Tom Findlay, Josh and Lee are the main riders again for Sunday. We don’t have a game plan yet and we won’t till we have raced on the Saturday”. Lee is leading the Cat 2 so no doubt they have him there to defend that position. Tom Littlejohn, Steve Armstrong and Vet rider Dave Fleming look to be providing support to the leaders.
Sunday will also see the Mico/All About Plumbing woman’s team racing for the Benchmark series lead. Kylie Rochford and Julia Grant have that task the Sunday and are motivated to win. Julia Grant was second in round 1 and is fresh off her Tour of Canterbury win two weeks ago. She will be a marked rider but Steve Elden is confident she can repeat her last round result or go one better. “It really comes down to how many of the other teams are having their men protect the woman during the race. They all start together so the women with the most men in support win. I would love to see woman’s racing in NZ having their own race so they can have a real go at it!” Steve Elden said. “It’s coming and when it does it will improve the numbers and level of woman’s racing”.

The Mico/All About Plumbing team also have riders throughout the North Island at a number of centre championships this weekend. Steve Elden smiles and says “I’m on the edge of my seat waiting to get out there this weekend and show off this fantastic team we have built. With or without results we have our team and our sponsors and we are showing we are on the radar and ready to race”.

Revolution Race Management Ltd
For more info contact team Director Steve Elden on 0274778673