Jackson scores in winter series
Sixth rider in as many weeks to win
George Jackson became the sixth different A grade rider in as many weeks to win one of the Spoken Cycles sponsored winter series races when he scored at Nga¯ hinapo¯ uri on Sunday.
The 20-year-old world junior cycling gold medallist from Wellington, now living in Leamington, out sprinted Campbell Stewart of Manawatu and Te Awamutu’s Hayden McCormick over three laps of the McGregor Rd circuit.
The trio were all credited with the same time of 1.04.54.
Blake Bailey and Boris Clark finished fourth and fifth respectively at three seconds, followed by Xander White and Christian Rush, Counties Manukau, at seven seconds.
Only 15 of the 24 A graders who started week six’s race saw out the journey in windy, testing conditions.
One by one they dropped off for various reasons, including a number of punctures and a gut wrenching snapped chain at the end of lap one to the bike of series leader Corbin Strong who was unable to finish, denying him any points.
Jackson and Strong made headlines worldwide in August 2018 when they won gold in the team pursuit at the junior world championships in Aigle, teamed up with Bailey O’Donnell and Finn Fisher-Black.
Three months later Jackson upstaged some “big hitters” winning one of Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club’s summer series races, clocking a record time of 32.24 minutes for the 26 kilometres out and back trip around Mt Kakepuku, starting and finishing in Bank St, Te Awamutu. The record still stands. Jackson said Sunday’s event was a good race. “I love ‘TA’ racing, the races are always really well run – Melinda (Loader, the popular, hard working club secretary) and club committee are so good.”
The Wellingtonian moved to the Waikato two years ago to be near the world-class Avantidrome track in Cambridge and Cycling New Zealand’s High Performance Development Programme.
“There is everything you need up here. We’ve been lucky to have had racing for the past six weeks at Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club. A lot of clubs throughout New Zealand don’t have racing up and running right now.”
Jackson’s coach is double Olympic medallist Hayden Roulston who won silver and bronze medals at the Beijing Olympics that led to a successful professional career on the road. He is now Cycling New Zealand’s men’s endurance development coach.
Roulston says the standard and depth of the Cycling New Zealand programme is significantly greater than his time and therefore the transition to the elite ranks is considerable.