Bevin makes it two in a row in The Rev

Taupo’s Patrick Bevin has gone back-toback, winning Saturday’s REV Cycle Race in record time.

The 2014 champion defended his title in fine style, out sprinting James Oram and Michael Torckler at the line.

The three riders broke away from the peloton up the Mangakawa climb to have a 45-second cushion over the summit.

From there they held their lead, and Bevin had the legs at the finish to hand Team Avanti Racing the bragging rights.

Victory also gave Bevin valuable international ranking points, with the race now granted international 1.2 status.

‘‘It’s nice to have back-to-back wins in different situations,’’ Bevin said.

‘‘It’s an awesome event and I had a great time. It’s a great course with hard loops and climbs but it’s still fast afterwards.

‘‘This time around there was a lot of team strategy and tactics at play, you just don’t want to play into another team’s advantage.’’

Eight riders broke away on French Pass within 20 minutes of the start to lead by 1min20sec before they were reeled in by the peloton.

At the 88km mark, the peloton was together again with Avanti looking good before heading into the final climb of the day.

That is when Bevin, Oram and Torckler pounced.

Runner-up and current U-23 time trial national champion Oram said he was happy with his performance.

‘‘I hit it early, went hard and just waited to see what happened,’’ Oram said. ‘‘I’m a sprinter and I knew I could outsprint at the end.’’

Budget Forklifts’ Michael Torckler said the strategy for the team was to get out front early which is ‘‘fairly typical of NZ racing’’.

‘‘At the end I knew I’d lose to Paddy in a sprint, so I made sure he did the work up front. I’m really happy and feel that I’m racing really well at the moment.’’

The women’s elite 100km race resulted in three cyclists new to the event on the podium – Joanne Kiesanowski, Hannah Gumbley and Hannah van Kampen.

The women rode with a fast bunch of 20 male cyclists who assisted them throughout the race and warned them of upcoming climbs.

Winner Kiesanowski said she had an enjoyable ride.

‘‘There were great conditions today and such beautiful countryside here but there was no time to look because I was working the pedals,’’ she said.

‘‘The last climb over Scotsman Valley hurt the legs and over the final 5km there were a few attacks but I’m really pleased with how my ride went today.’’

The popular REV100 was won by Gordon McCauley in 2.32.03, swiftly followed by U20 national rider Sam Dobbs and Nature Valley’s Brad Tilby.

Double winner: