CYCLING - High speed school cyclists win race

MANY years ago a very famous cyclist, a Belgian called Eddie Merckx, is reputed to have said after winning his first race "I won! I won! I don't have to go school anymore". Merckx later went on to win the Tour de France five times.
There was some outstanding cycling at the Avanti Plus Northland Secondary School cycling championships on Sunday held on the Tanekaha circuit near Hikurangi. However, New Zealand cycling legend Sarah Ulmer will probably say winning a race these days isn't enough to get out of school.
There were two parts to the championships: A 6.3 kilometre individual time trial, followed by a road race.
The under-15 riders completed a 13.7 km road circuit, while the U-17 and U-20 riders started together to do two laps of the circuit. Age group medal winners had the fastest combined time from both events.
Two riders, Kamo High School U20 rider Elliot Frizelle and Okaihau College U15 rider Mathew Zenovich, managed to complete the time trial with an average speed of more than 40km/h. The fastest woman on the course was Nadya Worthy, an U-20 rider from Bream Bay College, with an average speed of 36.2km/h. Fast, considering riders are not permitted aero bars in school events..
First away on the road race were the U-17 and U-20 riders who started together.
Despite being an U-15 rider, Zenovich was also asked to start with this group.
The Tanekaha circuit is renowned for rural surprises. This time a stock truck split the riders into two main groups within the first few minutes of the race.
Frizelle and Zenovich, together with U-20 rider Roger Grierson (Whangarei BHS) and U-17 rider Sam Frizelle (Kamo HS) formed the first group. Their riding was fast enough to prevent Nadya Worthy from bridging the gap up to their group.
After some cat and mouse games, Elliot got away from the other riders to win, one minute and one second ahead of the next rider Zenovich, closely followed by Sam Frizelle.
There was a sprint in the second group to the finish, which was taken out by Todd Howard (U-20 WBHS) with Nadya Worthy and Braden Wynyard (U-20 Tikipunga HS) one second behind.
There was also some very determined racing in the U-15 riders group, who did one lap of the Tanekaha circuit.
Ben Johnstone, an U13 rider from Pompallier College, attacked on the first hill climb and managed to stay out in front until not far from the end of the race. U-15 Woman Olivia Wadman (Kerikeri HS) stayed focused to overtake him to win by 5 seconds. Ben was second, followed by Rachel Martin (U15) from Kerikeri High School.
Marsden Wheelers awarded cups to Elliot Frizelle as the fastest Northland secondary school male cyclist and Nadya Worthy the fastest female.
NSSSA medals were awarded to the first and second placegetters in each age group.