CYCLING - McCauley faces a Hell of a schedule this weekend

Gordon McCauley already has a reputation as a monster on the bike.
A Commonwealth Games bronze medal, two Tour of Southland wins and a four-times winner of the national road cycling title makes him a marked man.
But if the 34-year-old cyclist turns up as expected for the Dean Realty Hell of the North 129km road cycling event in Tutukaka tomorrow, his stature might be judged more maniacal.
McCauley was to race the Taranaki Round the Mountain road race today, a 150km event now listed as part of the National Points Series. But that hasn't stopped McCauley from registering his interest in tomorrow's event at Tutukaka.
Depending on how he pulls up tonight, he is keen to line up against Northland contenders tomorrow morning.
"I am quite keen because I have won the Hell of the North before, but I am not fully committed to doing it with the race in New Plymouth on Saturday," he said.
"Three years ago I would have said, `Yeah, I'm in' but that was when I was a fulltime cyclist and I didn't have to turn up to work again on Monday. I could smash myself two days in a row and not be too worried about it, but not so much these days when I have to turn up to work," he said.
Now a sales agent for Powerbar and Musashi, two sports nutrition companies, McCauley called a halt to his fulltime cycle career last year after a huge season in Europe where he finished the season as the top-ranked rider in the UK. Riding for the Plowman Craven professional team, McCauley tackled both the Tour of Ireland and Tour of Britain stages tours, winning king of the mountain in the Irish classic.
But his decision to pull stumps on fulltime cycling has hardly seen his state of the art road bike gathering cobwebs. He has just been chosen by Cycling NZ to ride the Sun Tour stage race in Australia next month and is lining up for his 15th Tour of Southland in November as well.
So his possible appearance in the reformatted Hell of the North road race would be a coup for event organisers in Whangarei.
The race was last run two years ago when it started and finished in Onerahi doing repeat laps through Pataua South and Pataua North roads and climbing over Mt Tiger as well.
This year the event starts and finishes at Tutukaka and sends the cyclist past Sandy Bay, through Hikurangi, over Mt Tiger and over the footbridge at Pataua before heading back to Tutukaka.
Short-course cyclists bypass the Mt Tiger and Pataua legs and head straight back to Tutukaka.
About 150 cyclists are expected to compete in the race, which starts 9am.