18 Medals for St Peter's Cyclists

North Island Schools Cycling Championships

13 July 2017

A highly successful North Island Schools Cycling Championships for the St Peter’s Cycling Academy!

North Island Track Champions: St Peter’s U16TP Hamish Coltman, Jack Carswell, Hamish Banks, Pearse Gatley.

Team Time Trial

With fingers and toes crossed for mild and dry mid-winter conditions we were rewarded with a stunning dawn at Lake Karapiro for the start of the Team Time Trial on Saturday.

St Peter’s had four teams representing different grades from the Year 7 and 8 through to the under 20’s. Our mixed Preppie team had to compete in the boys grade as stated in the rules, so we planned and prepared for some tough competition.

With four to start, the race is timed on the third rider across the line at the finish. Our highlights were:

Hamish Banks (Year 8), Nathan Feyter (Year 8), Nikita Howl (Year 8) and Jess Carswell (Year 7) impressed everyone to come second overall in a field of 24 teams.
Our under 16 boys team placed 5th
Our under 20 girls placed 8th.

With another whole term of training together before Schools Nationals, we are looking forward to improving both speed and technique for all our teams in preparation.

Nikita Howl, Nathan Feyter, Jess Carswell, Hamish Banks.

Individual Road Races

With only a short break between the Team Time Trial and the Road Races, the riders had to switch focus to their individual event.

695 riders lined up over the course of the day - the largest number ever of individual starters.

The weather was still behaving and over the challenging course we saw some more outstanding results from St Peter’s:

Hamish Banks, who has only been riding since the start of the year, showed his determination in a strong 3rd place sprint in the under 13 boys grade
In the under 15 boys Jack Carswell lead out a long sprint to come second on the line
Ally Wollaston had a tight bunch finish for 3rd in the under 17 girls.

Sunday brought with it a wet start for the Criterium, a short course event with multiple laps ideal for spectator viewing.

Well executed tactics and outstanding sprinting meant St Peter’s had a fantastic day, with four gold medals, going to:

Jess Carswell in the under 13 girls
Hamish Banks in the under 13 boys
Jack Carswell in the under 15 boys
Ally Wollaston in the under 17 girls.
Nikita Howl also rode well in the under 14 girls B grade criterium to take out the bronze medal.

North Island Track Champions: St Peter’s U20 TP Girls Lindz Haggart, Jess Clarke, Ally Wollaston, Saskia van der Peet.

Team Pursuit and Team Sprint

The day was not over for our team pursuit and team sprint riders, with qualifying rides on the track in the evening.

The North Island Schools Track Championships were held all day Monday at the Avantidrome - a points style competition over four events.

The day was very long but our riders stepped up to the challenge and continued to impress both the spectators and themselves. Highlights of the day:

Jess Carswell took out second place in the under 13 girls, 1 point off gold medal
Jack Carswell won all four events in the under 15 age group to claim gold
Hamish Banks also had a close final race to secure second place in the under 13 boys
Callum Caughey came back to competition after breaking his wrist showed a little time off never hurt - he came 3rd overall in the under 20 boys.

The final events of the day were the team pursuit and team sprints, where both St Peter’s pursuit teams caught their opponents allowing the races to finish early.

Team Pursuit

First place went to the under 16 boys team of Hamish Banks, Pearse Gatley, Hamish Coltman and Jack Carswell.
The under 20 girls team of Saskia van der Peet, Jess Clarke, Lindz Haggart and Ally Wollaston passed Epsom Girls Grammar to take out third place.

Team Sprint

Hamish Coltman, Pearse Gatley and Jack Carswell came a close second to Auckland Grammar
Jess Clarke and Ally Wollaston finished third along with Fletcher Pearson-Riley, Callum Caughey and Jacob Coltman.

A huge thank you to all the parents for their support over the three day competition.