BikeNZ PureBlack Racing will make their international racing debut on Friday at the Tour of Langkawi.

The team of national road cycling champion James Williamson, Roman van Uden, Michael Torckler, Joe Cooper and Louis Crosby will be joined by Sam Bewley fresh from the London Track World Cup to contest the ten day tour in Malaysia.

This is the first outing for the national team since BikeNZ, Pure Black Racing and Avanti joined forces to create an international road racing development programme.

Climbers Torckler and Cooper are feeling confident heading into the 1415.5 kilometre Tour, with the sixth stage renowned for a cruel 30 kilometre climb up to the Genting Highlands.

With van Uden and Bewley strong sprinters, the BikeNZ Pure Black Racing team is well equipped to make their mark in this Tour, with options for both general classification success and stage wins.

Bewley, a member of the BikeNZ Men’s Team Pursuit squad, is using the Tour as preparation for the UCI Track World Championships in Melbourne in April.

“I’m excited to head to Langkawi for the Tour. It’s always been a tour that has caught my fancy,” said Bewley.

“I am racing the tour as part of my preparation for the Track World Championships. I discussed the possibility of doing this with national track coach Tim Carswell and he believed it would be good for my preparation. I’ll pick my days, some stages I’ll race hard and see if I can get a result.  Others I’ll take a bit easier in order to be in the best nick I can for the upcoming Track World Championships.  Either way I I’ll do what I can to help the other riders in the team who may have some goals with the overall.”

A former RadioShack professional rider, Bewley brings extensive team racing knowledge to the team.

“I’ll definitely bring some experience to the team having raced tours of this level and higher the past two season. Hopefully I can help the team as a whole get some results.

This race is the first major race in the Asian block for the BikeNZ Pure Black Racing team, with the team being in South East Asia for the next three months to take part in five major tours.

“Professional cycling is developing quickly in this part of the world” said Greg Cross, PureBlack Racing’s Business Director.

“With countries like China, Singapore and Malaysia being increasingly important to New Zealand’s economy it’s a great opportunity to show case New Zealand.

The Tour of Langkawi is UCI 2HC ranked with professional teams Garmin Barracuda and Astana racing as well as continental teams.  

In the heat and humidity of their new team base in KL, the team of four riders raced hard and to plan to gain three top ten placing’s.

Dan Barry was quickly off the front in one of the early breaks, and on the second lap, Roman van Uden and Shem Rogers rode across to the break to make it a group of seven that stayed away right to the end of the race building up a 1:15 minute gap on the rest of the riders.

“It was a tough race,” said Roman van Uden, “we were all feeling pretty drained by the end and we didn’t quite get to finish it off in the way we would have liked.”

The race ended with Dan Barry coming in third, Roman van Uden fifth and Shem Rogers seventh.

“The team is extremely happy with the results they achieved especially since they have had little time to get used to the conditions here” said John “Harry” Harris, PureBlack Racing’s Director Sportif. “They raced to plan and achieved a strong race result in their first Asian race.”

The race was 10 laps of the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix track and had 200 riders on the start line. The teams next official engagement is the opening of an Avanti Bicycles flagship store in Kuala Lumpur on 22^nd of February in conjunction with BikePlus and the Naza Group.

The first three races will be in Malaysia and Singapore starting with the Sepang Criterium on Sunday, February 19, which is followed by the 10 day Tour of Langkawi from 24 February till 4 March where the team will race as a NZ National Team (known as BikeNZ PureBlack) for the first time under its recently announced partnership with Bike NZ. As this tour concludes a team of four riders will also compete in the OCBC Criterium in Singapore on Sunday, March 4.

The ten-man PureBlack Racing squad for 2012 sees eight riders return from 2011 including James Williamson who will wear the 2012 NZ National Road Championship jersey for the team. There are two new cyclists joining the team – Dion Smith who steps up from the 2011 Development squad and the experienced Joe Cooper who competed in Europe last year.

The full team roster is as follows

Dan Barry

Joe Cooper

Louis Crosby

Taylor Gunman

James McCoy

Shem Rodger

Dion Smith

Michael Torckler

Roman van Uden

James Williamson

Additional riders selected by BikeNZ will join the squad when the team is racing as BikeNZ PureBlack.

“I’m pretty excited to be part of the PureBlack setup,” said Joe Cooper, “that pretty much sums it all up. It is great to be able to make it to the next step up and I’m looking forward to racing with a New Zealand team in different parts of the world.”

Also joining the management team is John “Harry” Harris as Director Sportif. “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Harry to PureBlack” said Greg Cross, Business Director. “His experience as a former pro-cyclist and as a Professional Director Sportif will be invaluable to the team. I’m sure he will be a big help for Carl and the whole team as we take on a very different race program for 2012.

PureBlack Racing and Sheppard Cycles Ltd (Avanti) have partnered with BikeNZ, New Zealand’s national cycling federation, to invest in New Zealand’s road cycling talent by creating a road development squad to race internationally.

The agreement follows PureBlack Racing’s announcement last month stating its plans to race internationally in 2012 were uncertain due to a shortfall in required funding.

PureBlack Racing will be a key delivery partner and sponsor of the BikeNZ Development Team. The team, known as BikeNZ/PBR will race as a national team in a range of international races.

The first race for the team is the Tour of LangKawi in Malaysia next month. The team is likely to compete in Europe and Australia after racing in Asia.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have found a way for the team to race internationally this year.  Many of the PureBlack Racing riders from 2011 have already committed to riding again this year.  This new partnership provides valuable momentum as we continue to work towards our ambitious goal of achieving Pro-Continental status,” said Greg Cross, Business Development Director of PureBlack Racing.

BikeNZ has relished this opportunity to invest in New Zealand’s road cycling talent.

“We’re excited to have Pure Black and Avanti on board as partners for our road development program which we have previously not had the funding to invest in any real depth. This partnership will help retain and grow another valuable pathway for aspiring New Zealand cyclists to international road racing success.  PureBlack Racing has done a great job of promoting cycling, both in New Zealand and internationally and has proven they have the talent, management and technical expertise required to support an international cycling team. We have too few teams like Pure Black and Subway Pro Cycling and cannot afford to lose this expertise,” said BikeNZ CEO Kieran Turner.

PureBlack Racing received an outpouring of support after last month’s announcement.

“Our inaugural sponsors Avanti, Atlantis Healthcare, Continental Cars and Audi were always committed to our 2012 programme and still are.  The uncertainty stemmed from the lack of additional sponsorship funding available.  There is a lot of support out there for the team and we’ll continue to seek new sponsors in New Zealand and offshore to fund the costs of operating the team in 2012 and future years,” said Cross.

“Greg and I would also like to acknowledge the fantastic support of Avanti as a key supplier and sponsor to BikeNZ and PureBlack Racing.  They are a major contributor to the development of road cycling in New Zealand,” said Turner.

Avanti’s founder and Managing Director John Struthers is delighted to be able to support this new partnership to help New Zealand’s young cycling talent.

“PureBlack Racing did an amazing job representing us on the world cycling stage last year and we’re looking forward to seeing Team BikeNZ/PBR race this year,” said Struthers.

“Even after 25 years of being involved in road cycling here the quality of cyclists our country develops with its limited resources still blows me away. One of things that has always underpinned our business is to do what we can to help young kiwis race and compete on the word stage. I think the evolution of this team with the Bike NZ and PBR teams behind it will provide not only another step forward for road cycling but also a great incentive to all those young riders out there to remain committed”.

Additional information:

• BikeNZ will work with PureBlack Racing to identify key international events for BikeNZ/PBR.
• PureBlack Racing will select and retain a team of cyclists who will compete for PureBlack Racing and Team BikeNZ/PBR and BikeNZ cyclists will be added to the squad for specific events. The team will also have access to BikeNZ facilities and infrastructure in Europe.
• The team will compete wearing a Bike NZ kit which includes PureBlack Racing/ Avanti and key sponsors names and PureBlack Racing and Team BikeNZ/PBR will continue to use Avanti bikes and equipment.

ENDS

For more information please contact:
Greg Cross
Business Director
PureBlack Racing
+ 64 21 417799

Kieran Turner
CEO
Bike NZ
+ 64 27 239 0241

John Struthers
Avanti Founder
Managing Director/ Sheppard Cycles
+64 21 925 365

With 7 riders from the PureBlack pro team and 4 riders from the development squad on the start line today we expected to be in the middle of all the action. An early crash split the peloton in half and in the windy conditions largely put paid to last years champion Roman Van Uden. When a break of 11 riders made the selection 5 PureBlack riders were right there – Michael Torckler, Mike Northey, Alex Ray, Taylor Gunman and and Dion Smith. Michael then attacked the lead group going solo off the front with 80km to go. Shortly after he was joined by Joe Cooper. The 2 of them stayed away and Michael attacked again on the Hautepe hill leaving Joe behind and setting off for a solo victory by a massive 2 and ½ minutes. Mike Northey overtook Joe on the final climb to come through to finish in 2^nd.

“I felt great out there today, I knew I had to attack on the hills today if I was going to have any chance of getting away from the sprinters and the flat run into the finish line” said Michael. “Michael has come back from a terrible knee injury this year which meant he missed our whole US campaign” said Greg Cross, Business Director of PureBlack. “ All the guys on the team have huge admiration and respect for the way he has worked through his rehabilitation program and come back with some amazing form and some huge solo results in K2 and now here in Taupo. We are certainly looking forward to having Michael with PureBlack for our 2012 campaign.”

“Ultimately we didn’t achieve what we came here to do which was to win the Tour” said Carl Williams as he reflected on a full on week of racing in trying and demanding conditions. “It’s a tough tour to win and with the growing strength of NZ’s international road cycling talent it’s not going to get any easier. There are always so many twists and turns and we put ourselves on the line every day to give it our best shot. I’m very proud of the guys, they set a high professional standard and hopefully we demonstrated the contribution we are endeavouring to make to cycling in New Zealand.”

At the end of the final stage the overall results PureBlack Racing had Tim Gudsell on the podium in 3^rd place on GC with Shem Rodger in 5^th and Scott Lyttle in 6^th. PureBlack also took out the overall Teams Classification by a massive 18 minutes over their nearest rivals.

That was our last tour for the year, it’s been a huge 2011 and the guys can look forward to a bit of a break before we start building up for 2012. To all of our sponsors, fans, friends and families thanks for all your support – we appreciate it very, very much.

“It was some of the worst conditions we’ve seen at Southland in a while” said Guddy after his win today. “Its my first full year of racing after a couple of seasons plagued with broken bones and injury and today was a great way to say thank you to everyone who has believed in me and supported me through it.”

“The strategy for today was to go all out to win the stage and at the team meeting last night I asked Guddy to really step up and show his class today” commented Carl Williams, Sport Director. “ Today came down to the right strategy, amazing teamwork as the guys dug deep for each other and the will and determination to finish it off. In the end it is consistently doing the little things well that make a difference.”

After some strong riding in the lead group today with Shem Rodger, Scott Lyttle, Dan Barry, Glen Chadwick and Guddy all keeping the pressure on it was 2 left hand turns on the loop around Gore that unlocked the key to the win. The 1^st coming at 135k moved the strong wind from head to cross which allowed Dan, Shem, Guddy and Glen to put the race in the gutter as they brought back Paddy Bevin who was off the front at the time.

The 2^nd left hand turn was at 138k which moved the wind from cross to tail and it was the lead out into this turn that put Guddy off the front and building a lead of over a minute over the last 20k to the finish. Guddy leapt up the GC standings into 2^nd place just over 1 minute behind race leader Josh Atkins and with Shem in 6^th and Scott on 7^th in GC the team has built what is probably an unassailable lead in the Team GC classification

Tomorrow is the last day with an individual Time Trial in the morning followed by the final 80k stage back to Invercargill.

See TV coverage daily of the tour daily at 930PM on CUE TV, Channel 110 on your Sky box.

“We just missed the break this morning” said Carl Williams, Sports Director. With Hayden pulling out it took some time for the peloton to re-establish a structure, which saw PureBlack and Powernet step up and drive the chase, which would ultimately close the break down. Louis Crosby, Dan Barry and Glen Chadwick worked tirelessly at the front all day but when it came to the final climb up the Crown Terrace we just weren’t able to foot it with the leaders today.”

In the end Scott Lyttle finished in 9^th place and Tim Gudsell in 11th today. Overall Scott is now in 6^th on GC 1min30sec back and Tim is in 9^th 2min21sec down. On team GC we slipped back into 2^nd place behind Share the Road.

Tomorrow is a 160k stage from Invercargill to Gore with gale force winds and snow in the forecast for Southland its going to be another big challenge.

See TV coverage daily of the tour daily at 930PM on CUE TV, Channel 110 on your Sky box.

“It was a bit of a frustrating day for me at times but we got a pretty decent result at the end of it” commented Shem in Te Anau this evening. After more than a few set backs with punctures in the morning stage the team re-grouped before a big stage in the afternoon.

“I was rapt with the way the guys executed the plan this afternoon, it was an awesome display of team riding” commented Carl Williams, Sports Director. “We started to transition to a more aggressive strategy putting riders in the breaks and stepping up the pressure. I feel like we have built a good platform for the rest of the week now.”

Dan Barry was away in the early break this afternoon and first Glen Chadwick then Tim Gudsell attacked on Black Mountain splitting the peloton and forcing the yellow jersey to come to the front and ride hard to shut it down.

At the end of the day the team has 3 riders less than a minute from the GC with Scott Lyttle in 4^th, Shem in 7^th and Tim in 12^th with Glen only another minute further back. An unexpected bonus for the day was taking the lead in the Team’s Classification from Hayden Roulston’s team.

Tomorrow is a massive 180k stage from Te Anau to the top of the Crown Range

See TV coverage daily of the tour daily at 930PM on CUE TV, Channel 110 on your Sky box.