Classy Holmes claims NZ title
The Kiwi men’s sprint sparked a nine-medal haul by the New Zealand team in LA, the most they have achieved in a single World Cup. They were awarded World Cup round winners for what is believed to be the first time.
New Zealand’s team won further four medals yesterday.
Silver medals went to Racquel Sheath and Michaela Drummond in the women’s madison. Campbell Stewart (Palmerston North) and Tom Sexton [(Invercargill) combined to capture bronze in the men’s madison, while Jaime Nielsen took out bronze in the women’s individual pursuit.
It proved a gruelling day for sprinter Webster, who combined two rounds of the team sprint with the keirin competition. In between a keirin rounds, he was man-two in the strong morning ride of 43.620 in the first round of the team sprint, which earned them the gold medal ride with Germany.
By the time the final was run, Webster had completed three races in the keirin and felt decidedly second hand.
Up stepped Mitchell, who was again fastest in the opening lap of the final in 17.3 as the Germans fought back to within 0.1s at the 500m mark.
Southland’s Dawkins showed his poise and power to produce a superb final lap for the New Zealanders to win in 43.710, with the Germans nearly 0.3s behind.
‘‘It’s been a really big day for me with 12 hours at the track yesterday and about the same today. I am really pleased to come away with the win,’’ Webster said.
‘‘The other two boys really stepped up as I was in a really big state of fatigue.
‘‘It is a hugely motivating thing to see the people around you stepping up and making massive gains. I’ve got great guys around me. We all buy into the vision and when one person steps up it urges everyone else to find the best within them.’’
Drummond, a junior world champion, fitted in well to the women’s team pursuit quartet that won the silver medal. She then teamed with Sheath in the 20km madison, a two-person points race with one rider in play at all times, with one rider hand-slinging the other into the contest.
The men’s combination of Stewart and Sexton, both junior world champions, worked well, picking up points in 10 of the 12 sprints in the madison.
Ireland were the only team to put two laps on the field to cement the victory with Denmark’s bold sprint for second in the final sprint enough to edge the New Zealand pair for the silver medal by one point. While he didn’t have his best round of the NZ Superbike Championships, it was enough to get Southland’s Jeremy Holmes across the line to win his first NZ class title with a round to spare.
Holmes started the third round in Taupo with a commanding lead in the Superstock 1000 series and despite some mixed results, managed to accrue enough points to give him an unassailable lead heading into the fourth round at Hampton Downs this weekend.
He finished the third round event second, behind Taranaki’s Hayden Fitzgerald, who only competed in the North Island meetings, but crashed when he tried to pass the New Plymouth rider in the third race.
‘‘It was kind of our goal for the season, I didn’t know how it would play out, but we are really thrilled, I have won races and championship races, but I have never had a full title so we are pretty happy about that,’’ he said.
‘‘I had a wee whoopsie in the last race. I was chasing Hayden Fitzgerald around, I had him covered and I had about four spots on the track I could put a move on him.’’
‘‘I was saving it for the last lap and I pushed it a little bit too hard trying to keep on his tail on one corner, where he was a bit quicker than me and I just sort of came off.’’
Holmes was grateful for the support of his hardworking pit crew of Liz and Gary.
‘‘Overall I was kind of sliding down the track giggling to myself really, thinking what an idiot you threw that away, but I was really enjoying it because the bike was going so well and we had fixed a few suspension problems,’’ he said.
The Honda rider finished second in the opening race and picked up further points from the split second race he was leading when an accident stopped the race and he finished second once the race restarted.
He now sits on 190.5 points, well ahead of his rivals heading into the final round, but that doesn’t mean a lack of motivation for the Southland rider who will be chasing his first NZ Tourist Trophy in the final race on Sunday.