Experienced New Zealand riders Georgia Perry and Tom Sexton have won the elite time trial honours at the Oceania Road Cycling Championships near Brisbane.
Perry, 29, from Hamilton clocked 32:12 for the 21km circuit south-east of Brisbane in the Brisbane Koala Bushlands.
She finished a minute clear of her fellow New Zealand rider, Bronwyn MacGregor, an experienced continental professional rider with a strong pedigree in time trialling.
Perry has a background in rowing, winning a bronze medal in the eight at the world championships six years ago and was runner-up to Commonwealth Games medallist Georgia Williams at the national championships this year.
MacGregor, from Auckland, has ridden professional in Europe for several years, this year for Torelli. She has been on the podium three times at the New Zealand championships including runner-up, also to Williams, in 2022.
Sexton was equally emphatic in his performance, winning in 27:21 with Australian Jordan Villani runner-up 334 seconds adrift.
The Southlander, who enjoyed a successful Oceania Track Championship campaign for the New Zealand team, turned his attention to the road where he was second in this event last year behind teammate Aaron Gate,
The Bolton Equities Black Spoke professional is also a former junior world champion on the track and won gold in the team pursuit in the Commonwealth Games last year, and claimed silver in the individual pursuit.
He was the only New Zealander in the elite field.
His track teammate Keegan Hornblow from Nelson was the best of the kiwis in the under-23 time trial in fifth place in 28.34 which was 55 sec behind the winner.
Meanwhile Arabella Tuck, from Cambridge and part of the Women’s Black Magic professional team, was the leading New Zealander in the under-23 women In seventh place in 36.44.
In the under-19 racing, also over the 21km course, national junior time trail champion Noah Hollamby from Timaru finished on the podium. Hollamby clocked 29:43 for the course to be 55 seconds behind Australian winner Wil Holmes.
Otago rider James Gardner, who enjoyed a successful campaign on the track this week, was eighth in 30:28, the only other New Zealand rider in the top-10.
Best of the under-19 women was Auckland’s Maia Barclay, the runner-up at the national; junior road race, who finished sixth in 35:09, with fellow kiwis Kirsty Watts (Canterbury) and national time trail champion Muireann Green (Wanaka) ninth in 35:59 among the top-10 finishes.
The title was won by Australian junior champion Felicity Wilson-Haffenden in 32:15, to be 1:15 clear of runner-up.
Attention now turns to the road championships around a challenging circuit in Mount Crosby west of Brisbane on Saturday with the elite and U23 men (140km) from 7am; junior men (84km) from 7.15am; elite and U23 women (84km) from 11.30am; junior women (56km) from 11.45am and Paracyclists from 2pm.