Calder Stewart Cycling Series Rd4 | Ashburton Classic

With 4 of 6 rounds being raced, the Calder Stewart Cycling Series promises a thrilling battle for the overall victory: Michael Vink (Breads of Europe) bounced back from an unlucky third round and finished as 2nd behind his teammate Thomas Hubbard today. A great effort and with less strong sprinter Keagan Girdlestone coming in as 10th here, Vink is back in the series lead by just one point!

While a few other contenders like Jason Christie (TotalPOS) or Jacob Grieve (L&M) tried to attack the pack in the final 20-30kms, the Mike Greer Homes team controlled the race from the front of the peloton. Heavy crosswinds made it a tough day on this all-flat circuit and it seemed that both Sam Horgan and Daniel Barry hadn't the best legs to challenge for the win: none of our guys made the Top-10 eventually. Horgan now needs to deliver in the next (hilly) classic in Nelson. A race that he'd won last year.

Today's sprinter friendly parcours also lifted two domestic cyclists upon the title-contenders: Sam Lindsay (TotalPOS) and Jacob Grieve scored big and ain't too far off the overall leader Vink!

Jacob Grieve (L&M) trying to escape with 18km left..

The Mike Greer Homes guys pulled him back though!

Vink and Hubbard launching their sprints from the front..

Horgan and Barry suffered from heavy crosswinds..

Hubbard wins, Vink re-claims a narrow lead in the series!

Calder Stewart Cycling Series Rd5 | Tasman Classic

The fight for the Calder Stewart Series crown 2016 could hardly be more thrilling: Sam Horgan bounced back from a rather disappointing result in Ashburton and took out the Tasman Classic in Nelson today! A valuable victory for the individual rankings, as also Keagan Girdlestone (3rd) and Sam Lindsay (2nd) scored big time here.

The Mike Greer Homes Racing team apparently went all-in for Horgan, who already won this race in his title-mission last year. After pulling an early break back quite early, strongman Horgan launched his attack on the penultimate climb with about 10km left. He opened up a small gap and was joined by James Williamson (L&M) a few moments later. A huge fight until the final short climb saw him dropping Williamson, who got swallowed by the nearing bunch quickly.

Horgan however managed to hold off the other contenders by a small margin and it became a truly terrific finish. Totally empty after his efforts in the final lap of the race, the Kiwi significally lost metres on Lindsay and Girdlestone. He then lunged in for a key victory though: Girdlestone leads the series by just one point on Horgan and four points on Lindsay! With the "Hell of South" (a cobbled classic) to conclude the series, we can expect an exciting battle for the crown. Lindsay should be considered the better cobbler of those three.

Horgan goes do-or-die with 10km remaining!

Dropping Williamson, who would be swallowed soon after..

Horgan fighting hard to hold off Lindsay and Girdlestone..

..for a narrow win! Huge effort and thrilling race!

Second single victory for a Budget pro after Barry took the first round!

Calder Stewart Cycling Series Rd6 | Hell of South

The Calder Stewart Cycling Series 2016 concluded with the 'Hell of South' by Faringdon: a flat, but challenging cobbled classic, with notable crosswinds adding some spice to an already thrilling battle for the overall win of the South Island Elite Series. Fraser Hewitt (Breads of Europe) took out this final race, beating an again strong Sam Lindsay (TotalPOS) and teammate Luke McPherson with a stunning ride over the final 8kms.

Ranking third in the individual classification prior to this event, Sam Lindsay proved that he's the best cobbler of the title contenders. He attacked with still 30km to go, accompanied by Luke McPherson. Team Mike Greer Homes did it's best to support Sam Horgan on the cobbles though. While Jason Allen pulled the pack over the pavé, Horgan launched his first attack inside the final 10kms. At this point, Lindsay/McPherson already led by over a minute.

While Horgan more and more suffered from his efforts, his attacking companion Fraser Hewitt managed to join the leading duo. Also Thomas Hubbard and Jacob Grieve went past the defending series champion eventually.. while Horgan did enough to go past Keagan Girdlestone (9th on the day), this runner-up from Sam Lindsay could be a key result for overall win of the series! Stay tuned for the final rankings.

Lindsay and McPherson at the front on the last cobbled sector..

Allen and Horgan pacing to narrow the gap..

Horgan and Hewitt attacking the bunch with 8km left!

Horgan can't follow Hewitt, who would soon join the leading group..

..to fly past McPherson and Lindsay close to the finish!

Impressive ride from Hewitt, who takes it in style!

..while Lindsay finished 2nd, Horgan tumbled in as 6th..

Series-leader Girdlestone sprinted for 9th place then..

Calder Stewart Cycling Series Recap

Team Budget's Sam Horgan (riding for Mike Greer Homes this year) couldn't defend his title and has to settle for the runner-up behind a stunning Sam Lindsay (TotalPOS) this season! Lindsay finished off a great series by completing a podium-hattrick in the final round 'Hell of the South'. Despite missing out on a victory, the up and coming Kiwi showed some great consistency over all six races here.

Unlucky Keagan Girdlestone (riding for the NZ Road Youth Academy here) couldn't keep his leading position in this concluding cobbled classic: not only Horgan (who was just one point off), but of course also Lindsay (four points behind) scored the needed points in Faringdon. The trio delivered us spectators an exciting battle and it's a well deserved final podium.

Former series-leader Michael Vink (Breads of Europe) struggled in the final two rounds. His scoreless efforts made him drop down to a 6th place in the rankings. Adam Bull (also riding for Mike Greer Homes) with a notable run of two consecutive runner-ups in the first three rounds. The mountain goat didn't race the second half of the series then.

From Team Budget's point of view we're still pleased by the action here in New Zealand: Daniel Barry and Sam Horgan delivered two single victories in Oxford and Nelson (both as defending race-winners). A bit unlucky to see Horgan missing the overall victory by five points, but his off-day in Ashburton (13th on the day) clearly hurt his chances against a consistent Lindsay. We're already looking forward to Horgan's appearance in the North Island Team Series later this year!

	#FINAL RANKINGS
Rk	Name	Team	Points
1	Sam Lindsay	TotalPOS Cycling	97
2	Sam Horgan	Mike Greer Homes	92
3	Keagan Girdlestone	NZ Road Youth	88
4	Jacob Grieve	L&M Group - Ricoh	66
5	Robin Reid	Tasman Wheelers	64
6	Michael Vink	Breads of Europe	60
	Thomas Hubbard	Breads of Europe	60
8	Adam Bull	Mike Greer Homes	44
9	James Williamson	L&M Group - Ricoh	41
	Chris Nicholson	Tasman Wheelers	41
11	Luke McPherson	Breads of Europe	39
12	Daniel Barry	Mike Greer Homes	36
13	Jason Allen	Mike Greer Homes	34
14	Tim Rush	Breads of Europe	33
15	Daniel Ellison	Modus Construction	28
16	Mel Titter	H&J's Outdoor World	27
17	Fraser Hewitt	Breads of Europe	25
18	Brodie Catterick	TotalPOS Cycling	23
19	Joseph Chapman	L&M Group - Ricoh	22
20	Jason Christie	TotalPOS Cycling	19

Tamijo wrote:
Nice 2nd for Sam Horgan.

NB:
Calder Stewart Cycling Series Rd6 | Hell of South
I think you did this post 2 times - if im right you may as well kill one of them:

Tour de Perth Preview

The Woodside Tour de Perth is in it's third year, and marks the beginning of the men's Subaru National Road Series. After two years with Rottnest Island hosting the first two stages, the race is back with a new look: a short prologue through Fremantle and a new race concluding criterium in the city of Perth make for some exciting changes.

The key stage (a hilly loop around Kalamunda) is still there, so we should expect the puncheurs and climbers to fight for the GC again:

2015 | Joseph Cooper (Avanti)
2014 | Jack Haig (Huon Salmon - Genesys)

Ben Dyball	Jack Bobridge	Sam Crome
Patrick Shaw	Ben Hill	Jack Anderson
Sean Lake	Guy Kalma	Wes Sulzberger

The NRS peloton comes with a new look, too. And so it's always hard to predict, who's going to be amongst the very best of the field. A few names stand out nevertheless: Avanti (lining up with Dyball, Shaw and Lovelock-Fay as their leaders), Charter Mason (Crome, Hill, Paul Van der Ploeg) and Budget (Bobridge, Anderson) should be considered the strongest teams. Also African Wildlife Safaris (Lake, Schweizer, Grazatio) can count on a promising lineup.

Team Budget surely wants to benefit from the fact that NRS contenders like Patrick Bevin or defending race winner Joe Cooper won't race this first event of the Series. With Bobridge and Anderson the team definitely has two series contenders for the GC here. Scott Sunderland should be our man for the flat criterium in Perth then.

Tour de Perth Stages 1-2

Ben Hill (Charter Mason) leads the GC of the Tour de Perth after two of four stages! The puncheur gained valuable seconds in the first (flat rated) tricky Perry Lakes Road Race, winning a two-men-sprint against Oliver Kent-Spark (search2). Team Budget's Jack Anderson was the first favorite to attack, but got dropped by this duo inside the final kilometre. Budget still goes strong with a 3-4 in the GC, as also Jack Bobridge was amongst the strongest so far.

The top-favorite missed out on the victory in the opening prologue through Fremantle though: Callum Scotson (SASI) went for a notable win ahead of Mitch Lovelock-Fay (Avanti), while Bobridge missed the podium as 4th on the day. Scotson did quite well in the following stage, but lost yellow thanks to Hill and Kent-Spark gapping a first chasing group by half a minute!

Team Budget went for aggressive tactics with Anderson being the first GC-contender to attack the bunch with about 20km remaining. Ben Hill joined him one lap later, but the duo struggled to distance the hard chasing pack. In the final lap a few more riders like Kent-Spark and Scotson caught up quickly. A next group with Bobridge, Crome, Kalma, Dyball, Evans and Sulzberger broke clear from the peloton, too.. while Hill/Kent-Spark dropped Anderson/Scotson to fight for the stage, Bobridge narrowly missed out on gapping the chasing group. Still valuable seconds gained on most of the field, so we already might have seen a crucial split here.

Bad luck for Avanti Racing, as one of the favorites - Matthew Clark - had to abandon after an early crash in the second stage. The crash also had Ben Hill involved, who obviously wasn't hurt though.

Callum Scotson winning the prologue in Fremantle!

Anderson and Hill attacking with 13km remaining..

Kent-Spark, Wright and Scotson joining the duo one lap later..

Anderson couldn't follow with less than a kilometre left!

Bobridge breaking clear from the first chasing group..

..while Hill takes the stage ahead of Kent-Spark!

33 seconds later, Anderson lungs in for a narrow 3rd place!

Ben Hill leading the GC with the queen stage coming tomorrow!

Tour de Perth Stages 3-4

Charter Mason Giant Racing kicked off the NRS season with a bang, as Ben Hill takes the overall victory of the Tour de Perth, including a stage-win and also Sam Crome (6th) and Paul Van der Ploeg (9th) inside the scores in the final GC! Team Budget won't be too sad at all though, as Jack Bobridge and Jack Anderson finished 2nd and 3rd in the GC, while sprinter Scott Sunderland took out the concluding criterium in Perth!

The challenging Kalamunda Road Race on third day was the key stage for sure: the bunch, mostly led by Charter Mason, rode it hard and eventually a group of eight riders would manage to open up a crucial gap. Jack Bobridge and Ben Dyball (Avanti) were the first big guns to attack on Kalamunda Hill (2.5km left) and dropped GC's 2nd Oliver Kent-Spark (search2) that way. Also former race-leader Callum Scotson (SASI) couldn't follow.

While Dyball went on to take the stage ahead of three riders from Charter Mason (including race leader Ben Hill), Budget's duo Bobridge/Anderson suffered on the final hundred metres. They had some luck to finish within the same time as the winner, moving up to 2nd and 3rd in the GC. Things became even better for Budget then: Scott Sunderland outsprinted Michael Schweizer (African Wildlife) to take out the final stage! This made for a pretty succesfull NRS opener in Perth.

Dyball and Bobridge trying to go clear on the final hillclimb..

A group of eight is lead by Dyball and Crome..

..and Dyball takes the queen stage ahead of three Charter guys!

Bobridge and Anderson were given the same time as Dyball..

Team Budget controlling the criterium through Langley Park, Perth..

Sunderland catching up to Grazatio and Schweizer..

..for Budget's first victory in the NRS this year!

Ben Hill takes the overall victory in a great race for his team!

Adelaide Tour Preview

The Jayco Adelaide Tour goes into it's fourth edition and will feature the second NRS event this year. The race organziation has confirmed new courses and made improvements to the event. Campbelltown City Council has confirmed its support again in 2015 taking on Stages 1 & 4. The City of Onkaparinga will stage two circuit road races in the McLaren Vale region. Stage 1 will start in Tanunda north of Adelaide weaving its way back to the Corkscrew and finishing on the outskirts of Campbelltown.

There's no more ITT or TTT on the schedule, but those four partly hilly, partly flat stages promise some exciting racing (again). The past three years saw some very close decisions for the overall victories - like Jack Anderson's win by one second ahead of Mark O'Brien last season:

2015 | Jack Anderson (Drapac Cycling)
2014 | Alex Wohler (Budget Forklifts)
2013 | Aaron Donnelly (Huon Salmon - Genesys)

Patrick Bevin	Jack Bobridge	Sam Crome
Ben Dyball	Ben Hill	Brendan Canty
Matthew Clark	Adam Bull	Michael Schweizer

Charter Mason has done pretty well in the NRS opener and so both series leader Ben Hill and Sam Crome of course should have a shot at the overall victory here. With Avanti now lining up with Patrick Bevin for the first time in the NRS, it's definitely their goal to bounce back from being off the podium in Perth (even though Ben Dyball did well with a stage-win of course).

Punchy sprinters like Michael Schweizer or Raphael Freienstein (Charter Mason) can be real threats, too. And of course there's Team Budget with Jack Bobridge (2nd in Perth) and Brenda Canty (reigning Oceanian Road Champ)! Defending race-winner and 3rd in Perth Jack Anderson won't take part though. Still a pretty promising lineup with also Brodie Talbot having the skills to compete for the GC.