Odlin and Cooper win Around Brunner
14 April 2011
Odlin and Cooper win Around
Brunner
Sequoia Cooper from the H & J’s
Outdoor World team and Paul Odlin from SUBWAY® Pro Cycling
won the Around Brunner cycle race in Greymouth
today.
Cooper defended the title she won last year
out sprinting Christchurch cyclist Julie Grant from the
Benchmark Homes team to win in three hours and 27
minutes.
Odlin continued his run of fine form to
beat his SUBWAY® Pro Cycling teammates Dylan Kennett and
Sam Horgan to the line after breaking away from the leaders
five kilometres from the finish to win in three hours and
six minutes.
Kennett and Horgan crossed the line
24 seconds after Odlin with veteran cyclist Gordon McCauley,
who for the past year has been focused on triathlon and
ironman racing, clinging on to Horgan’s wheel to finish a
very credible fourth.
The pace was on right from
the start of the 130 kilometre race with numerous early
attacks and very aggressive racing on a course that did not
offer any challenging hill climbs.
The early
aggression took its toll and resulted in a bunch of 17
leading riders as the race approached Jacksons and the turn
off towards Lake Brunner and Moana.
With 25
kilometres remaining an elite group of seven riders that
contained Odlin, Kennett and Horgan from SUBWAY® Pro
Cycling, Dan Barry and Will Bowman from Benchmark Homes, Tom
Hubbard from the Homestyle team and McCauley had formed at
the front of the race.
This group continued to
race aggressively with the key moment coming 15 kilometres
from the finish where Bennett and Odlin bridged across to
McCauley and Horgan who had escaped up the road after
another series of vicious attacks.
Once the four
riders regrouped it was obvious it was going to be a
SUBWAY® Pro Cycling win, it was just a matter of which
rider from the team would cross the finish line
first.
McCauley knew he was the odd rider out.
“Even though I have not raced much in recent times I still
can read a race and I just made sure I was in any move that
had a Subway or Benchmark rider in it,” he
said.
“Once it was only four of us away and I was
with three Subway guys I settled for fourth as I was just
happy to be there; I felt like I was in a Subway sandwich
over the last 10 kilometres.”
Odlin thought the
racing was very positive and said the pressure went on from
the start. “The attacks did start early and just didn’t
stop,” he said. “Breaks would go, then get reeled back
in and we’d reform, then another break would go again.”
“We were very keen to force things along and
keep the intensity high. It was just what we needed before
Korea next week and to finish one, two and three was
great.”
Odlin said he was really happy with the
win and it showed he was still in good form for next
week’s Tour de Korea where he hopes to defend the
sprinters classification jersey he won last year.
Josie Giddens was the third female home, two and a
hold minutes behind Cooper and Grant.
ENDS