Lovegrove takes sprinters jersey at New Zealand classic

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Lovegrove takes sprinters jersey at New Zealand classic road cycling tour
28 January 2012

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Nick Lovegrove backed up yesterday’s impressive effort to take the lead today in the sprinters classification at the New Zealand Cycle Classic in the Manawatu.

Lovegrove attacked the field just over two kilometres before the first sprint of the day to win valuable sprint points and take the lead in the sprinters competition.

Lovegrove’s usual strengths are time trailing and breakaway efforts over rolling and flat terrain. The Auckland based rider used these strengths well yesterday to escape from the field and stay away for most of the stage with BikeNZ’s Sam Bewley. It resulted in a well earned second place for the stage after Lovegrove failed to match the finishing power of Olympic bronze medallist Bewley in the sprint for line honours.

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling Team Manager Graeme Miller said the team was keen to take the sprinters jersey home but it would “be hard to keep it (the sprinters jersey) with a rider who can’t sprint.”

Miller however says he has a “cunning plan” to try to keep the sprinters jersey on Lovegrove’s back tomorrow.

“We have a few things we can do tomorrow to hopefully keep the jersey. We’ll see what happens and how the race goes but we have options to try to keep the jersey until the end of the race.”

Lovegrove said it was a rewarding day that saw a team plan work out perfectly to put him in a position to take the jersey.

“I’m really happy to have the jersey. Its great reward for all the work the SUBWAY® Pro Cycling boys put in today.”

Australian Jay McCarthy (Jayco–AIS) was second over the line today which moved him up into the race leader’s yellow jersey. Fellow Australian Thomas Palmer (Drapac) won the bunch sprint and New Zealander Patrick Bevin (Hudson Gavin Martin) was third.

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Paul Odlin remains well placed overall, lying in sixth position on general classification just over one minute and 30 seconds behind tour leader McCarthy.

Tomorrow’s final fifth stage is a 111 kilometre circuit stage that starts in Palmerston North and loops through rural areas north of the city including Ashhurst before finishing back in Palmerston North about 12.15pm.

Ends

Notes
Leading provisional results, stage 4, 111km: Thomas Palmer (Drapac) 2.29,08, 1; Jay McCarthy (Jayco-AIS) same time, 2; Patrick Bevin (Hudson Gavin Martin) same time, 3.
General Classification after stage 4: McCarthy 9.57.53, 1; Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) at 3 seconds, 2; Campbell Flakemore (Genesys Wealth Advisors) at 1:17, 3.
Full details: www.cycletournz.com
• It has been registered as a UCI Continental team since early 2009 with a successful track record of racing in New Zealand, Asia and the United States

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