Tour of New Zealand 2008    (UCI 2.2)

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Stage 1

Criterium, Hutt Valley

Suzanne de Goede (Équipe Nürnberger) just managed to secure the leaders jersey on day one of the tour ahead of her former team mate Oenone Wood (Team High Road). Joanne Kiesanowski (Cervélo-Lifeforce) finished in the sprint for third.  

Stage one was raced round a 2km circuit of Fraser Park, which runs just along the Hutt River. The pace was relatively steady for the first few laps while the riders found their way round the course. The pace quickened as the first of 4 sprint classification points needed to be fought out. The USA national team moved to the front and secured the first of the points for Katherine Carroll.

Team High Road’s Wood counter attacked after the sprint and managed to string the bunch out across 200m of the course. Riders were strung out with the back markers scrabbling to stay in touch with the pace.

With 20 minutes of racing left the decisive move of the race was made as a break of 12 riders formed. This group split a little as a number of riders fell back into the chasing peloton which had managed to close in a little due to the efforts of Amanda Spratt (AIS), Sara Carrigan (Lotto-Belisol) and Natalie Bates (Menikini Selle Italia).

With 3 to go a group of 10 riders had formed which contained a number of top riders including Wood, and team mate Chantal Beltman, Bates, Carrigan, Cervelo-Lifeforce team mates Kiesanowski and Kristin Armstrong Savola and Spratt. De Goede, Lauren Franges (USA) and Alex Wrubleski (Webcor Builders)

The peloton were 20 seconds behind by the time they reached the start finish line and were being controlled well by Cervélo-Lifeforce and Team High Road.

As the race concluded the sprint for the line spread wide across the line. Suzanne de Goede  won by half a tires width ahead of Wood who had gone wide round the corner and had to work hard to get to the line.

In the bunch sprint, Tina Pic (Vrienden van het Platteland) crossed the line ahead of Brooke Miller (USA).

Katherine Carroll (USA) was awarded the Sprint jersey and Amanda Spratt (AIS) awarded the U23 jersey.

Suzanne de Goede (Équipe Nürnberger) was surprised to hear that she had won the stage. “I started sprinting late, so I did not think I had won” said de Goede.

Oenone Wood (Team High Road) just missed out on first place apparently hitting some road furniture on the final corner. “It was good to have two of us in the break and it sets us up well for the GC [General Classification] but I make a mistake on the last corner I hit one of the rivets in the road and had to swing really wide and lost the wheel.

Joanne Kiesanowski (Cervélo-Lifeforce) was hoping for a win in the first stage of her home country tour but today it wasn’t the case. She did secure third though and reflected on this. “I was hoping for a win of course but a place on the podium is good. It is an okay result for the team and we will be hoping for a stage win later in the week.” Kiesanowski was asked about the work her team mate Armstrong did in the break, “Kristin worked really hard to day she was extremely strong today and did about 5 laps on the front all by herself to ensure we had a chance at the end” added Kiesanowski.

Amanda Spratt (AIS) bridge a gap to ensure she was in the break and holding the U23 leaders jersey going into stage 2. “This is a good way to start the tour and I am in the young rider jersey so that is a huge bonus for the team. We just went out knowing we don’t have a team sprinter so getting in the break was great, I didn’t quite have the legs in the end against the top class sprinters but I am really happy with the result. This is the fittest I have been at this stage of the season and it feels good” added Spratt. 

Katherine Carroll (USA) was not the designated sprinter in the team but managed to secure the sprint jersey. “The team was awesome today. It wasn’t our intention for me to be going for the sprint today but it got messed up on the lead out on the first one, my team mate Lauren Franges is our sprinter and she was on my wheel but didn’t quite get round. It worked out though as she ended up in the break” said Carroll. Reflecting on the start to the season and their first attendance at the tour Carroll added, “I have never done such hard intervals in January and February to prepare for this season but it is important for us to be here to prepare for April when we head to Europe.”