Team Solway Park aiming for the top

Team Solway Park are aiming for the top in next week's 21st Trust House Cycle Classic, four stages of which will be held in the Wairarapa.
Manager Matt Harvey isn't fazed that Solway Park, which includes Masterton riders Scott Lyttle and Edwin Crossling along with Australians Richie Porte, Tim Walker and recent acquisition Daniel Surmston, hasn't received the media attention of other teams like defending champions Trek-Zookeepers Caf?, FRF Couriers or Savings and Loans.
That's despite them finishing second in the teams' event last year when they also had two riders placed in the top 10 on general classification and four in the top 20.
"Quite frankly it doesn't worry us how other people see our chances, they didn't rate us last year and look what happened," Harvey said. "We're aiming for the top slot this time and there's no reason why we can't do it."
Harvey said the third placing achieved by Lyttle in the elite men's section at the New Zealand road championships some 10 days ago had come as a huge confidence boost for Team Solway, as had the fourth placing secured by Richie Porte at the corresponding event in Australia.
"Those sort of results show just competitive we can be, not only as a team but as individuals too," he said. "When you know your guys are riding right at the top of their form it has to be good for the confidence levels, doesn't it," he said.
Harvey said Team Solway would be formulating team tactics before the tour, which runs from next Wednesday through to Sunday, begins but these could well be changed on a virtual day to day basis, depending on which the riders were performing
the best.
"You can't afford to go into an event like this with just the one plan, you have to be flexible," he said. "Some riders will cope with the stresses of the tour better than others, that's the nature of it."
A 40km criterium in Hutt City opens the Classic next Wednesday and the following day will see the riders cover 125km from Martinborough to Masterton via Te Wharau. On Friday will come the punishing stage three which will start in Masterton and finish at the top of Admiral Hill. The distance covered in total there will be 185km.
Stage four on Saturday morning includes four laps of a 30km circuit in the Gladstone area and on Saturday afternoon will be stage five, a 40km criterium in Masterton.
A 12km time trial at Scorching Bay in Wellington makes up stage six on Sunday morning and the Classic will finish with a 40km criterium in Wellington City that afternoon.
Harvey anticipates stage three, which has been increased by 60km from last year, being a telling point in the race for Team Solway Park. The hilly nature of the terrain will severely test the stamina of the riders and Harvey expects his team to measure up well in that respect.
"I think it's fair to say the hills should be our strength, our guys tend to be strong on the climbs and we'll certainly be looking to take full advantage of that," he said. "That's where we have to take the sting out of the sprinters, doing well there will be very important for us."
Harvey sees Team Solway Park's main danger for the team's title again being Zookeepers, who will again be led by 2700 individual winner Hayden Roulston. He has been in prime form lately, winning this year's Tour of Southland and a gold medal at last month's Oceania track championships
Roulston will have the benefit of having four times national road champion Gordon McCauley in his team as well as a gold medallist at the 2005 World Junior track championships in Sam Bewley and Paul Odlin, the Nelson rider who was the workhorse for Roulston's Tour of Southland success.
One of Australia's most accomplished cyclists in Brett Aitken will lead the Savings and Loans team. His resume is amazing, including as it does Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals, two Commonwealth Games gold medals and 17 national titles.
Two other former Aussie champions in Shaun Higgerson and Ben Johnson will be the mainstays of the FRF Couries line-up while a past winner of the Trust House Classic in Robin Reid will be likewise for Delmaine Fine Foods. Reid and two of his Delmaine teammates, Joseph Chapman and Ashley Whitehead, will join up with Masterton's Scott Lyttle to represent New Zealand at the 2008 Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia next month.