Tasman Wheelers 3 Golds, 2 Silvers, 5 Bronze Medals

Sunday 2/5: Gold medal for Grant Stirling in the Masters 4, 85k, Road Race, Bronze Medal to Chris Nicholson in the Senior Mens 170k Road Race.

Saturday 1/5: Silver medal for Karen Fulton in the Senior Womens, 116k, Road Race, plus a Bronze medal for Vicky Shelling in the Masters 1, 85k, Road Race.

Karen Fulton climbs with the bunch

Nationals Photos provided by Sarah at RoadCycling.co.nz

(All images are copyright to RoadCycling.co.nz)

Karen crossing the finish line

Karen Fulton takes the Silver

Vicky Shelling with the Bronze

Grant Stirling on the way to Gold

Grant scoops the Gold Medal in the M4 RR

Felix Laufkotter in the late autumn vines of Hasting

David Ayre

Chris Nicholson back in the action after his Gold Medal performance in the TT

Chris Nicholson lines up for the finish

Chris makes the final lunge

Bronze this time for Nicholson and "revenge" for Gordon McCauley

Rudy (L) on the presentation dias for his Silver Medal. (Photo Dianne Harris).

Results, Road Races, Sunday 2/5: Senior Men, 170k (6 laps x 28.3k), Gordon McCauley (Counties Manukau) 4.21.19 1st, Joseph Cooper (PNP) s.t. 2nd, Bronze Chris Nicholson (Tasman Wheelers) +3.03 3rd, Caleb Hill (Tasman Wheelers) 11th + 6.31, David Ayre (Tasman Wheelers) 16th +7.46, Felix Laufkotter (Tasman Wheelers) 28th +20.14. Masters 4, 85k, Gold, Grant Stirling (Tasman Wheelers) 2.19.35, Ritchie Howes 24th +2.32, Masters 6, 57k, Garry Overend (Tasman Wheelers) 4th +1.04. Saturday 1/5: Senior Women, 113k, Silver, Karen Fulton, (Tasman Wheelers). Masters 1 Women 85k, Bronze, Vicky Shelling (Tasman Wheelers). Friday 30/4: Masters 5 Men 85k, Silver, Rudy Tetteroo (Tasman Wheelers). U19 Men 113k, Thomas Ashley (Tasman Wheelers} 30th +9.58. U17 Boys 75k, Sean Hambrook (Tasman Wheelers) 6th +1.39, Thomas Nicholson (Tasman Wheelers) 16th +2.23, Kristoff Ford (Tasman Wheelers) 20th +8.32. U15 Boys 29k, Cameron Ford (Nelson) 4th +1.13. Masters 7 Men 57k, Karl van Hoppe (Tasman Wheelers) 6th +5.46.

Full results here

Results, Time Trials, 29/4: Senior Men 40k. Gold, Chris Nicholson (Tasman Wheelers) 51.27, Gordon McCauley (Counties Manukau) 51.33 2nd, Bronze, David Ayre (Tasman Wheelers) 53.00. Senior Women 25k, Sonia Waddel (Te Awamutu) 35.27 1st, Sarah Morrison (Morrinsville Wheelers) 36.49 2nd, Bronze, Karen Fulton (Tasman Wheelers) 37.06. Cushla McKay (Tasman Wheelers) 40.06 13th. Masters 6 Men 15k, Gold, Garry Overend (Tasman Wheelers) 21.11. Gary Ferguson (Pegasus) 21.19 2nd, Colin Claxton (Counties Manukau) 22.16 3rd .Masters 4 Men 25k, Bronze, Grant Stirling (Tasman Wheelers) 34.36, Ritchie Howes (Tasman Wheelers) 36.08 9th. Masters 1 Men 25k, Dean Fulton (Tasman Wheelers) 34.18 4th. Masters 1 Women 25k, Vicky Shelling 42.36 7th. U17 Boys 15K, Thomas Nicholson (Tasman Wheelers) 21.50 4th, Kristoff Ford (Tasman Wheelers) 21.59 5th U15 Boys 15k, Cameron Ford (Nelson) 25.00 8th. Masters 5 Men 25k, Rudy Tetteroo (Tasman Wheelers) 35.30 4th. Masters 7 Men 15k, Karl van Hoppe (Tasman Wheelers) 24 52 4th. U19 Men 25k, Thomas Hodgson (Tasman Wheelers) 34.52 18th.

Full results here

Thursday 29/4 : Two Gold medals, three Bronze medals at the Time Trials, Chris Nicholson wins the Senior Mens 40k Championship and David Ayre takes Bronze, Karen Fulton wins Bronze in the Womens 25k Championship, Garry Overend wins the Gold for Masters 6 15k Championship, Grant Stirling wins Bronze in the Masters 4 25k Championship.

Celebrating just after the event, Chris Nicholson (L) wins Gold, and team mate David Ayre takes the Bronze (Photo Dianne Harris)

Garry Overend M6 salutes to the crowd after winning gold.

Chris Nicholson had a real battle with the New Zealand Elite time trial champion Gordon McCauley, in a repeat of his last victory way back in 1997 when he also beat off the challenge from McCauley, one of the country’s most celebrated riders. At that time Chris was surprisingly left out of the Commonwealth Games Time Trial event, an event his 'lead up time' would have seen a medal come NZ's way.

Today he edged out McCauley by eight seconds, winning in 51.27.

It was the 43-year-old’s third national club time trial title which he first won in 1991, when he first moved to cycling after a stellar career in ice skating. Nicholson was a double Olympian representing the country at both the winter and summer Olympics in 1992 and 1994. He was in the 100k team time trial in cycling and rode at the Barcelona Olympics.

“I’ve always remained involved in cycling ever since and have had my share of success in time trialling especially,” Nicholson said. “Now my son is competing which keeps me out on my bike. I'm also really stoked that my team mate David Ayre came third today "

“I’ve had some good battles with Gordy over the years which is been fun. We joked that I am in age a Masters 2 class and Gordy is a Masters 1, and today we were first and second in the Senior division".

The elite women’s title was won by two-time Olympic rower Sonia Waddell, riding for the Te Awamutu club.

The Cambridge athlete powered home in idyllic conditions to win the elite women’s honours in 35:27, to be more than a minute clear of second placed Sarah Morrison (Morrinsville) with Karen Fulton (Tasman Wheelers) third.

Tasman Wheelers Team at the Club Nationals: Karen Fulton SenW TT RR, Cushla McKay SenW TT RR, David Ayre Sen TT RR, Caleb Hill Sen RR, Felix Laufkotter Sen RR, Chris Nicholson Sen TT RR, Thomas Ashley U19 RR, Thomas Hodgson U19 TT RR, Joel MacMillan U19 RR, Kristoff Ford U17 TT RR, Sean Hambrook U17 RR, Thomas Nicholson U17 TT RR, Vicky Shelling M1 TT RR, Dean Fulton M1 TT RR, Grant Jones M3 RR, Ritchie Howes M4 TT RR, Grant Stirling M4 TT RR, Rudy Tetteroo M5 TT RR, Christine van Hoppe M5 RR, Garry Overend M6 TT RR, Karl van Hoppe M7 TT RR. Managers Christine van Hoppe, Rudy Tetteroo, Rob Ford.

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PO Box 3361
Richmond 7050, Tasman
New Zealand
Phone/Fax 03 544 5053
email malcolm@tasmanwheelers.co.nz