Peloton Cafe || 2015 Tour of the Great South Coast – Ryan Christensen (image copyright Con Chronis)
The Oliver’s Real Food Racing Team has put in an impressive performance at the fifth round of the Subaru National Road Series (NRS) Tour of Great South Coast. The team finished in 8th place on the team rankings after the 8 stage, 5 day, 565km race which marked the beginning of the second half of the NRS season after a 3 month break.
Kiwi team member Ryan Christensen proved he had put the break to good use. The 18 year old who returns to Australia for the second time this year brought with him the form of his life to secure a top 10 on stage 2, as well as a “Most Aggressive Rider” jersey for his efforts in a daring 100km breakaway during the 138km stage 3.
Christensen was not the only Oliver’s rider to try their luck in breakaways during the tour. The team set out to be aggressive and present in the sprint dominant race which saw Olympic games track representative Scott Sunderland of Team Budget Forklifts claim 4 of the 8 stages up for grabs.
Both Lachlan Glasspool and Ben Marshall were present in the days break during stage 2 and stage 5 respectively. With Marshall in contention for the King of the Mountains jersey during the closing stages of the tour.
“We are very happy with how well the boys rode together as a team this race.” Team manager Alastair Reither said.
“The young boys really put in and excelled during the tour, and were aided by the two experienced riders on our team Sam Layzell and Brad Davies from Adelaide.”
The team now will travel to Wangaratta ahead of next weeks 3 day Tour of King Valley. It is then straight to Melbourne for four of the Oliver’s riders who will then travel to Tahiti for the Tour de Polynese international stage race.
We are looking forward now to next couple of weeks. Especially the Tour of King Valley, where we will have our other very experienced campaigner Rien Schuurhuis. This will give us more options out on the road” Reither said.
The Tour of King Valley will commence on the 21st August in Wangaratta with a 9km Individual Time Trial, followed by 242km of road racing across the weekend.
Team for NRS Tour of King Valley:
Ryan Christensen
Rien Schuurhuis
Samuel Layzell
Ben Marshall
Lachlan Glasspool
Trevor Spencer
Team for International Tour de Polynesie:
Ryan Christensen
Rien Schuurhuis
Nick Reddish
Samuel Layzell
