Results: Velosport Bev May Women's Tour 2008
The 9th & 10th of February hosted a fantastic women's field of over 85 riders at the 19th annual VeloSport Bev May Women's Tour. Thank you to VeloSport (Cambridge), Endurance Sport (Hamilton) and Ultimo Clothing (Wellington) for your sponsorship of tour prizes and jerseys. We are grateful at Morrinsville Wheelers to have you on board as our major sponsors for the women's tour. Your enthusiasm for this event and increased rider participation means our event is gaining higher status each year.
In the A Grade a number of young riders pushed their hand forward with Emma Peterson in Stage One, Rachel Mercer in the time trial with a fantastic 30 minute effort for the 21km course and Emma Crum (taking the lead when she entered a break away with Toni Bradshaw, Rushlee Buchanan and Karen Fulton). The tour lead was still up for the taking when in the last stage (criterium) when Toni Bradshaw and Marina Duvnjak put in a huge effort with a break awayand forced Toni's hand into the VeloSportTour Leader in General Classification for the second time in a row.
Top positions were 1st Toni Bradshaw, 2nd Emma Crum, 3rd Karen Fulton, 4th Rushlee Buchanan, 5th Rachel Mercer, 6th Marina Duvnjak. To add to her results Toni Bradshaw took home the Ultimo Sprint Ace jersey and Emma Crum the Ultimo Hill Climber jersey.
The B Grade Tour was also changing hands with Emily Collins (Stage One), Rachel Larner (Stage 2) but was cemented in Stage three to Maddy Brunton who managed to gain a lead over her competitors when she snuck away on the hilly 95km circuit. In the criterium Maddy stayed with the main B Grade bunch and held onto a handy lead of 40 seconds over Rachel Larner and ultimately took the VeloSport B Grade Tour Leader jersey.
Placings: 1st Maddy Brunton, 2nd Rachel Larner, 3rd Alice Ross, 4th Emily Collins, 5th Stephanie Everson, 6th Sandra Ginever. Ultimo Queen of the Mountains went to Emily Collins and the Ultimo Sprint Ace went to Rosy McCall after a close battle with Sandra Ginever.
C Grade was a new event (sponsored by Endurance Sport). 10 Entries enabled women to have shortened stages but still the fierceness of competition. Jemima Brindle proved too strong for competitors over all stages with a handy lead of 7 mins 47 over Helene Morton Farrelly & Mary van Huysen 9 mins 20 back in GC. 4th Jo Goudie.
U17 was an interesting competition with Queensland visitor Brodie Stewart putting in a huge challenge at all turns and eventually took out the Endurance Sport Tour Leader. This too was no easy feat as the lead changed hands throughout the weekend. Firstly Danielle Harford won stage one. Brodie Stewart took the lead in the time trial (having done 21km in 35.29 on a standard bike). Brodie then held the jersey all the way to the finish with the help of Zoe Anderson and a break away in the criterium stage. Placings: 1st Brodie Stewart, 2nd Danielle Harford, 3rd Ashleigh Neave, 4th Kate MacDonald, 5th Zoe Anderson, 6th Philippa Sutton. Ultimo Hill Climber Went to Brittany Thompson (with three girls on the same points it went to a count back on who won the final hill climb) and the Ultimo Sprint Ace went to Zoe Anderson after she and Brodie dominated the sprints in the criterium.
U15 very few riders took part in the U15 section of the tour, but those who did gained much experience of having raced amongst their U17 peers. Stage three was a shortened event so the girls did 27km rather than the 45 their U17 peers did. Ellie Heenan proved a tough competitor who took out the Endurance Sport Tour Leader the Ultimo Hill Climber and Ultimo Sprint Ace jerseys. 1st Ellie Heenan, 2nd Robin Hacker, 3rd Georgina Read and 4th Hannah Beazley.
http://www.vorb.org.nz/images/attach/bevmayab.pdf
http://www.vorb.org.nz/images/attach/bevmayc.pdf
http://www.vorb.org.nz/images/attach/bevmayu17.pdf
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