Cycling: Brown clears off on cycling stage

Cameron Brown held off a strong challenge from Sweden's Clas Bjorling to take out the inaugural Auckland Half-Ironman yesterday.

Brown enjoyed a successful final shakedown ahead of the defence of his Ironman New Zealand title at Taupo in March.

He opened up a buffer of nearly six minutes on Bjorling after the 90km cycling leg and held off a late charge from the Swede to win in 4h 3m 10s at Kawakawa Bay, 16km north-east of Clevedon.

Bjorling, fourth in last year's Ironman New Zealand race, took more than three minutes out of the leading margin on the last of three laps in the 21km run, to finish 23s in arrears.

The pair spreadeagled the field, with Auckland's Chris McDonald finishing third, 21 minutes behind the winner.

It was mission accomplished for Brown, who said the race was an excellent test as he prepared for Ironman New Zealand.

"It was a strong field with a number of top professionals who will be tough at Taupo, including Clas, and it gave me the tough workout I was looking for," he said.

"I wanted to treat it as a tough training day and the good thing was that I had opened up a good lead and was able to take it easy on the run.

"It was great as I was able to relax in third gear for the run.

"The course is quite tough, but the conditions were superb.

"I felt really strong throughout the day."

Brown will give himself a day off today before starting three weeks of maximum mileage, pushing his training up to 40 hours a week.

In the women's field, United States-based Kiwi Bianca Simpson, a former New Zealand and Samoa cycling representative, led from the start to win in 4h 52m 06s.

Simpson pushed well clear on the bike, opening up a four-minute lead by the 30km mark, and was never threatened, although Canada's Marilyn McDonald closed to within two minutes at the finish.

Aucklander Jo Ryder, who will compete in her first Ironman world championship in Hawaii in October, finished third, a further minute back.