Cycling: Bevin breaks record in Taupo

Patrick Bevin

Taupo cyclist Patrick Bevin has smashed the record for riding 160km around Lake Taupo during the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge today.

Bevin won the Holden Men's Classic Race (for elite riders) today in a time of 3hr 40min 5sec, 2.55 minutes faster than the old record set in 2008 by Peter Latham.

The Holden Men's Classic Race was one of 20 events held during the popular Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge today.

Aucklander Mike Northey (3:41:53) finished second behind Bevin and Fraser Gough from Havelock North finsihed third, and first in the under 23-age group.

Results in the women's road race saw Ruby Livingstone (Auckland) take out the 100km title.

Emily Collins (Auckland) came in second place and in third place was Hannah Van Kampen (Hastings).

It was a close race taking just 2.58 hours with point two of a second between the place getters.

Commonwealth Games silver medalist Sam Gaze (Cambridge) knocked two minutes off last year's time and keeps his first place title in the Contact Huka XL 85km mountain bike race in 3hr 46min 18sec.

Rotorua's Sam Shaw (3:48:47) came second and Carl Jones (3:50:43), also from Rotorua, was third.

New Zealand mountain bike champion Karen Hanlen (Whakatane) held on to her title winning the first female home in the Contact Huka XL race making it a hat trick for the NZ Olympic athlete. Katie O'Neill (4:38:38), from Rotorua, came second with Amber Johnston (4:50:04), also from Rotorua, third.

Thousands of people took part in the 38th annual Contact Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge today.