Team Skoda Racing 2017 Report (September to December)

With Christmas upon us we thought it was a great time to reflect on 2017 and share how the team has gone both on and off the bike. By all accounts, this has been our best season yet and we are excited about what 2018 will bring.

We have had some exceptional results and are always blown away with how quickly our young riders have started delivering at a national and international level for the team. We will also see three riders leave the team in the next few months for international teams and we have had one rider step up to the Elite National Track Team. For us, this is our ultimate goal – seeing New Zealand riders competing at the top level of the sport worldwide.

Major 2017 Results:

Two World U19 Road Race representatives – Ben Hamilton, Oscar Elworthy

Two World U19 Track representatives – Harry Waine, Corbin Strong (Bronze Medal in Teams Pursuit)

Elite Track World Cup representative (Canada, Chile) – Harry Waine

Young Riders Jersey and sixth Overall – Tour of Southland – Alex West

3rd Stage 1 – Tour of Quanzhou Bay China – Ben Hamilton

5x Oceania Track Cycling Titles (Corbin Strong – IP, Omnium, Madison; George Jackson – Point Race, Madison; Finn Black – Scratch Race)

Domestic Update:

On the local scene, our major focuses for the spring were the Tour of Southland, Dynamo Team Series, Calder Stewart Elite Series, New Zealand Criterium Nationals, Oceania Track Champs, Yunca Tour of Southland (juniors) and the Novice Tour of Manawatu (juniors)

We returned to the Tour of Southland for our third trip around the region in November. Southland remains of the pinnacle race in the first half of the New Zealand calendar and the toughest race around. We went there with a clear plan to take out the U23 Jersey and place a rider in the top 10. We achieved this result with Alex West and gained four top 5 finishes across the 8 stages

Calder Stewart Series, Dynamo Team Series, – In both these series we have continued our good form from previous years’. The Calder Stewart finished with Team Skoda Racing gaining second on the Teams Classification behind Mike Greer Racing. We won the reduced round in Nelson in September, gained a forth in fifth round and a third in the sixth round. At the Dynamo Series, we won round one to Josh Kench and we currently sit first equal on Teams after winning the Teams Classification in Rounds One and Three. We have two further rounds to run in this series.

Junior Tours – Our guys have really impressed here – we finished the Novice Tour of Manawatu on the weekend and the three riders took out all four stages and went first and second on the general classification. Looking back to the Yunca Tour, the guys rode super aggressive with both Corbin and Finn finishing second on GC in their respective grade and Daniel and Corbin both wearing leaders jerseys in the sprints and king of the mountains.

One day races –

Lake Taupo consistently rates as New Zealand’s single biggest one day race and we were happy to come away with a fourth overall in the criterium (Joel Yates) and a seventh in the Road Race to Connor Brown.

New Zealand Elite Criterium Nationals – We lit up the race here with riders represented in all the key moves. On the day the big overseas guys delivered and we walked away with fifth to Harry Waine and six riders in the 21 finishers

Abel Tasman Cycle Classic – This is new big one day race in Nelson with 500 competitors. Team Skoda Racing took out the win to Joel Yates

International Update:

Road Cycling World Champs – Ben and Oscar were the two representatives for New Zealand at the U19 World Champs. The boys performed strongly in both the Time Trial and Road Race but were ultimately well off the podium. Both guys gained a heck of a lot of experience for the trip and we are already seeing those results in our Team races in New Zealand.

Track Cycling World Champs – Corbin and Harry both competed for the U19 Track team at the World Champs in Italy. The two riders were part of the four man Team Pursuit line up that went on to claim a bronze medal after qualifying second.

Oceania Track Championships – We had five riders competing at the championships with Harry riding for the NZ elite team, Max in Elite and Corbin, Finn and George in the U19 ranks. A long strong short but our U19 guys did an impressive job to take out five of the six U19 Jerseys. The only jersey missed was the Teams pursuit which Australia won. Harry was a member of the Elite Teams Pursuit Team and they claimed a silver medal to the Australian Team. We hope this translates into a trip to the World Championships next August in Switzerland for our three U19 riders but these will need to prove themselves again at the National Championships in February.

Across the last three months we have taken on three international tours. We have raced across Asia, Australia and New Caledonia

UCI 2.2 Tour of Quanzhou Bay (UCI Asian Tour) – This would be the biggest race the team has done to date and we sent a full strength line up to this race knowing the depth of the field. We threw everything at this tour knowing the opportunities it could open up for us in the future. We justified our selection on the opening day with Team Skoda Racing taking third and fifth on stage one. This result would be the team’s biggest result to date. Across the tour, we continued to make key moves but were ultimately beaten by stronger teams. We finished the tour with three riders in the top 31 (Ben Hamilton 20th on GC) and ninth of 18 teams on the teams classification.

Tour of Tasmania – this race was to be a major focus for us but with two changes of dates and a clash with Southland, we sent a young team here. We finished the Tour with Connor top finisher at 14th on GC.

New Caledonia was a last-minute addition to the calendar and we teamed up with two further riders from Palmerston North. The team claimed two podium finishes at the tour.

Riders wearing the NZ jersey in 2017 (September onwards) – Ben Hamilton, Oscar Elworthy, Finn Fisher Black, Harry Waine, Corbin Strong.

Rider Update:

This season we have taken forward ten U23 riders and six U19 riders. We have split these teams out and this has really delivered focus at their respective levels. The teams then come together for the Teams series races and the bigger one day races.

For our U23 Team, our major aim for 2017/2018 is to deliver the breadth and depth of racing locally and worldwide. We want our riders to learn and win on the domestic scene then gain experience overseas. We have a great mix of the North & South Island top races lined up and we will supplement with an overseas calendar out of season. We branched out into the National Road Series in Australia this year and we are extending our race calendar to include races in Asia. These races are well above our domestic level and gains the exposure of the big international teams and media. This has been an area we have really lacked in getting our riders names out there. We have already seen the results from this with Ben’s podium result in China.

Heading into 2018, we will compete in the UCI 2.2 New Zealand Cycle Classic (Masterton), the UCI 1.2 Gravel & Tar (Palmerston North), Oceania Championships (Tasmania), then look to send a squad to China for a short period. We hope Cycling NZ then overlay a New Zealand team to take on Nations Cups races in Europe.

Four our U19 Team, we are geared to set these guys up for the best possible chance to make the New Zealand Worlds squads in both road and track. We have three guys most likely in the frame for the Track World Champs after their efforts at the Oceania Champs (Corbin, George and Finn) and we will look to deliver a race program to assist our three further U19 riders to push for Worlds selection (Daniel, Jayden and Josh). Our plan for these guys is to hit the junior tours hard (Manawatu just completed), CHB tour (Napier), we will then target the Oceania champs in Tasmania with a full strength squad and take in the Victorian Racing Series ‘Tour of Mansfield’ the week before the champs. We will then target the Age Group Nationals in Cambridge then see where we go from there based on performances. The World Championships are in Austria this year and will really suit these three riders (hilly course).

Riders converting to international teams & Elite National Teams – Alex West (Italy), Joel Yates (USA), Connor Brown (Australia), Harry Waine (NZ Track Team)

Incoming riders – Bailey O’Donnell. Bailey joins the team after finishing second at the U19 age group champs. He won the Yunca junior tour this year and was a member of our Team to the Tour of Tasmania this year and we welcome him into Team Skoda Racing

Support Update:

These results and riders experience could not happen without our key supporters, partners, sponsors and suppliers.

As always Greg, Ross and Carly at Skoda have been instrumental in our success with their support not just with cars but behind the scenes, helping our reach and development and for cheering us on!

We run the best gear we can find and appreciate all the support from Trek Bikes, DT Swiss Wheels, Torpedo7, CCN Sports clothing, ilabb casual clothing, Pure Sports Nutrition, Vittoria Tyres, Shimano, Biomaxa, Bontrager, Apex Insurance, Park Tool, KitBrix bags, Revbox trainers, Uniden Radios, SBA Accounting, Velotoze, Barfly, Assavers, Skin Alive sunscreen

Further to this we have had very generous and ongoing support and time from Ballina Motel (Tim Stephens), Whipit Lawyers (Wayne Hudson), Idea HQ (Shane Bradley), Onfire Design (Sam Allen), and David Smith Surveying (David Smith)

On behalf of the riders and the team, we cannot thank you enough for your support and ongoing contributions.  We understand the benefits of riding and using the very best gear in the world and for your support we are very grateful.  The support we get goes way behind the provision of gear but your energy and personal interest to the team makes a massive difference.

Regards,

Brad Tilby and Scott Fairbairn