Plumtree’s timing perfect

Alton’s Fiona Plumtree easily won the Hawera Cycling Club’s handicap race on Thursday evening after a perfectly timed surge to beat pre-race favourites Janice McCallum and Jason Gunn. Plumtree took 46min 26sec and it was her fifth victory in the 22km event. With the field failing to come together it was left to Plumtree to maintain her solo effort to the end. ‘‘Being on your own is never easy, especially when you’re just hanging off the front, but I seemed to have the edge today,’’ Plumtree said. Hawera’s McCallum and Gunn had to make do with second and third place, respectively, with team-mate Seth Coleman taking fastest time of 34min 29sec from Peter Schrafft (34min 30sec) and Grant Deam (34min 35sec).