Northland riders impress in the Te Awamutu Junior Cycling Tour

Whangarei cyclists Ben Johnstone and Alice Riddell impressed the national selectors when they claimed top 10 placings at the Te Awamutu Junior Cycling Tour.
Pompallier College student Johnstone, 14, was second in the under-17 boys grade, while Whangarei Girls' High's Alice Riddell was sixth overall in the under-17 girls.
They are members of the Marsden Wheelers Club and their coach, Ruth Jarman, said the Te Awamutu event was the country's premier junior road cycling tour.
"This is one of the key events for the national selectors to look at the athletes - and it is very hard and very fast - to finish is an achievement," she said. Their performances mean Riddell and Johnstone will be considered for the NZ development squads to be named after the nationals in two weeks.
The tour began with a 9km prologue time trial in which Johnstone excelled, averaging 40.86km/h. In her first major race as an under-17, Riddell averaged 34.95km/h.
Over two days, 200 boys and girls raced in age groups on rolling and hilly terrain from Korakonui School south of Te Awamutu.
Johnstone raced in three road events - 28km, 55km and 86km. He finished with the peleton each day to hold his second placing on general classification. He finished 22 seconds down on the under-17 boys tour winner Scott Ambrose. Competition was close with the first 10 riders within 41 seconds of the winner.
Riddell powered to a second place in her second road stage of 23km. This gave her a valuable time bonus of three seconds. In her next stage of 55km, she finished with the bunch to hold her placing.
In the final 60km stage, Riddell was unlucky to crash within 500m of the finish but remounted and held sixth on general classification.
The under-17 girls tour winner was Devon Hiley from Auckland. On the final hill climb, she finished 3.20mins ahead of the next rider.
Three other Northland riders also participated. In the under-19s Matthew Markby time trialled into 25th place, 1.23mins down on the eventual winner James Oram, and was hoping to continue his good form from the previous weekends CRI Junior Tour in Rotorua. But a wasp sting in the final lap of the 104km second stage forced him to stop for five minutes.
William Arnold also started in the under-19 grade but punctured in the prologue and withdrew from the next stage.
Under-17 rider Josh Rodgers who began competitive cycling with the club less than a year ago, completed his first major event.
Arnold, Johnstone, Riddell and Rodgers will be racing in the Northland Secondary School Road Championships held from Kara Hall on May 12.