Cycling: National champ leads strong team for international

Cyclist Michael Vink. Photo / Supplied

Michael Vink will be a marked man when he lines up for next week's New Zealand Cycle Classic tour of Manawatu after his haul of titles at the recent road national championships in Christchurch.

Vink won the under-23 time trial and road race national titles but, more significantly, also won the elite road race when he made a solo breakaway on the final lap-and-a-half. The 20-year-old created history by becoming the first under-23 rider to win the national title.

He goes into the tour of Manawatu, formerly the Tour of Wellington, on the back of a heavy training load which is different to previous years.

"I didn't have much of a break since nationals," Vink said. "Last year I eased off too much and lost a lot of form. This year I tried to forget about nationals as soon as I could and jumped back into the training.

"It's hard to judge how the legs are until you are in a race situation but I know they won't be bad.

"My goal is to have a good solid ride. In previous years I have won at the national champs, had an average show at Tour of Wellington and then gone on to have a poor season. That is definitely a cycle I would like to break."

Vink has shown enough potential to suggest that won't be difficult and professional teams in Europe and the US are bound to have him on their radar. He now has two national under-23 road titles and two under-23 time trial titles on his CV along with his win in the elite road race.

Next week's race five-day race is the first year the internationally-ranked event will be hosted in Manawatu.

It has attracted a strong field, with as many as 47 international riders expected at the start line. Seven five-man teams are from Australia and there are also riders from the Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland and the US.

Team Type 1 Sanofi, a full pro continental team, looms as one of the strongest along with Team Jayco AIS, Drapac and Genesys (all from Australia).

Subway (Paul Odlin, Peter Latham, Nick Lovegrove, Sam Horgan and Westley Gough) has put together a strong New Zealand team and BikeNZ have also entered a team from their endurance track programme as part of their buildup to April's world championships and the London Olympics.

Team pursuit riders Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, Myron Simpson and Aaron Gate will be joined by omnium world silver medallist Shane Archbold for the five-day tour.

"The group are also accomplished riders on the road as well as the track with the likes of Sam Bewley riding for Radioshack on the world tour last year," said BikeNZ men's track coach Tim Carswell. "For us the timing is ideal. It's a good time for a tour of this level as our guys look to ramp up their preparations looking ahead to the nationals and the London World Cup.

"Road riding plays a vital part of the foundation training for track endurance riders so this is an ideal time for some very hard riding."

Vink's Mico-Protrain team will hope to be at the front of the action and the youngster will be joined by Jeremy Yates, Matt Sillars, Brad Carter and Matt Wheatcroft.

Yates, who finished second behind Vink in the elite men's road race at the national championship, has high ambitions for one of his last international competitions before he retires at the end of the New Zealand season.

"I'm feeling good for this year's tour," he said. "I've had a good run of races leading into this year's event but a lot of travelling. I would love to go out with a win in what will be my last international competition."