Cycling: Phipps notches first win in France

Rotorua's Sam Phipps has won his first cycling race in France. He is pictured racing in Rotorua last year. Photo / Ben Fraser

Rising Rotorua cyclist Sam Phipps has won his first race in France since joining the La Pomme Marseille Espoir team this year.

Phipps, 19, won the La Rhonde des Vignobles race earlier this month which featured a 4.5km time trial and 100km road race. He won the time trial by 12 seconds ahead of his nearest opponent then held on to the yellow jersey during the road race.

About 100 cyclists entered the race which will give Phipps plenty of confidence, as he looks to grow in experience and pick up more top results this year.

Phipps is on his first contract racing for an overseas cycling team.

The La Pomme Marseille Espoir team is a development team to the professional La Pomme Marseille team, based in Marseille.

Phipps said he was enjoying his time in France since moving there in February.

"I'm really enjoying it now that I've adjusted to pretty much everything, the team gets along great, and the racing is on another level to anything in New Zealand tactically and speed wise but its great as I'm learning lots. And the weather is great, too."

Before leaving Rotorua, Phipps was trained by Julian Dean, New Zealand's most successful road cyclist.