New Zealand riders Aaron Gate and Laurence Pithie both earned podium places in the UCI WorldTour Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race in Geelong, near Melbourne.
Following on from the debut WorldTour victory for Ally Wollaston in the women’s race on Saturday, Gate and Pithie finished second and third respectively in a sprint finish of the men’s race today.
Swiss rider Mauro Schmid held off the favourites to win in blistering conditions that peaked over 40C deg, with Gate (XDS Astana) and Pithie (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) leading home a select sprint bunch.
It was the first WorldTour podium for Gate with his XDS Astana team, while Pithie came close to repeating his debut WorldTour victory of last year in the Geelong race.
It capped a great day for the kiwis with Corbin Strong (Premier Tech) and Pithie’s teammate, Finn Fisher-Black finishing sixth and 10th respectively, to complete a quartet of kiwi riders to finish in the top-10 in a WorldTour race.
The New Zealand contingent will all head across the Tasman where Gate will attempt to defend his national road title in a field of extraordinary strength, nine kiwi men competing at WorldTour or UCI Pro level.
Wollaston also heads to Timaru looking to add the national road title to her palmares, and will also take on a powerful bunch of women’s WorldTour or UCI Pro Continental riders.
The national road championships, set for Timaru, begin with the time trial for all grades on Thursday, ahead of the road races for women elite, under-23 and juniors on Friday and men’s road race on Saturday.
The men's UCI World Tour then heads to the Middle East before the European spring season gets underway.