4 May 2012

Olympic-bound rider wins bragging rights in national club comp

12:23 pm on 4 May 2012

Waikato's Jaime Nielsen won the bragging rights over her Olympic team-mates on the first day of the RaboDirect national club cycling road race championships in Hawke's Bay.

The London Olympic women's endurance squad are taking part in the championships as part of a training camp in the Bay this week before they head to the USA in two weeks to begin their concerted build-up for London.

There was plenty of interest in the Olympic-bound pursuit group of Neilsen, Rushlee Buchanan, Lauren Ellis and individual pursuit world champion Alison Shanks.

Neilsen was pleased with her strong performance to clock 36:50 for the 25-kilometre distance with Buchanan third, Shanks fourth and Ellis seventh.

The Oceania time trial champion and New Zealand elite runner-up Sam Horgan had a comfortable win in the elite men's contest belting through the lumpy 40-kilometre course in under 54 minutes, to be nearly two minutes clear of second-placed Andrew Hagan.