It will be a case of back to the future for riders in February’s 2023 Elite Road National Championships in Tokoroa.
Former Olympic cyclist, Stephen Cox, the race manager for the event, believes the circuit course near the South Waikato town, will offer an allround test with a significant climb on each lap, some testing downhills and time-trialling opportunities for the stronger riders.
The region is well known for Waikato riders, with the area used for the national championships over 40 years ago. It centres on Mossop Road, which is on the eastern side of the town, and runs through typical private forest roads in the region.
The road race centres on a 24km loop with each lap including a climb of Mossop Rd Hill, with 331m of climbing each lap. The elite and under-23 men will complete seven laps, and with the out-and-back start and finish, will comprise 178km with 2317m of climbing.
The elite women will complete four full laps with their race of 106kms including 1324m of climbing.
The loop will be used for the time trial also, to offer an allround examination over a shorter-than-usual timed test of 33.5km.
The time trials will be on Friday 10 February from 11am with under-19 riders, both male and female, racing over 22.9km with 233m of climbing and all under-23 and elite riders riding a 33.5km lap with 381m of climbs.
The Under-19 males lead-off the road racing on Saturday 11 February over 106kms from 8.30am, ahead of the Under-23 and Elite females over 106kms from 1pm, followed by the Under-19 females over 82kms.
Sunday’s action focusses on the under-23 and Elite males racing over 178kms from 10am.
Entries are open with details available at http://eliteroadnationals.nz
Caption: The powerful Bolton Equities Black Spoke Pro Cycling team will be expected to form a significant threat on the challenging course in Tokoroa.
Details: Elite Road National Championships http://eliteroadnationals.nz/
Info on RR Course.
Travel 4.8km from the race start to the circuit proper. In another 2.6km they start the major climb of the circuit. Their climb is 1.5km approx. with a 500m section (the fun bit) which has an average of 12.4%. Riders will be climb for close to 10km on this section of the course and climb around 330m per lap. It is then follow by some very fast downhill sections until they hit another 1km climb with an average of around 7%, again this is followed by fast downhill sect back to the start of the circuit.
While 1 lap will be Ok it will be time and distance that takes the real toll on riders. Any rider(s) who can go clear on the major climb and hold onto a gap to the top of the circuit will have every chance of staying clear to the finish, providing they still have good legs.
Info on TT.
Elite Men & Women do one complete loop of RR circuit plus the 4.8km out and back to circuit.
U19’s Do most of the climbing until they turn so have the main part of the climbing to do.