The four day Santos North West Tour will see, for the first time, a Kenyan team competing alongside Australia’s National Road Series teams.
Kenya is perhaps better known for producing world class marathon runners than for cycling, but the eight man Kenya Riders team will undoubtedly lap up the experience of racing in the Santos North West Tour.
For these Kenyan Riders, the four day, five stage event will give them a taste of competitive racing, as well as an indication of their competitiveness against Australia’s best domestic riders.
Today’s racing comprised of two stages through Narrabri, NSW.
The morning’s racing was an 8.5km individual time trial followed by a 30 lap, 33km criterium in the afternoon.
Once again Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisors dominated the day’s racing, with four riders in the top 10. The morning’s stage was won by NRS leader Jack Haig, who completed the course in a time of 10:46.74, ten seconds faster than second placed Jayden Copp of Pro Team Downunder.
Huon Salmon-Genesys rounded out the top five positions with Ben Dyball +10 seconds, Aaron Donnelly +11 seconds and recent Sky signing Nathan Earle +11 seconds in fifth.
Budget Forklifts also made a good showing in the top ten, with three riders. Sam Horgan +14 seconds in sixth place and Jack Anderson +17 seconds in seventh. Karl Evans also of Budget was 21 seconds off the pace in ninth place. Brodie Talbot of RKG rounded out the top ten.
The windy conditions tested riders in the morning session. Speaking on the NRS website, Haig said:
“It was definitely not an easy ride. The wind picked up towards the end so it made it a little bit tricky out there with my disk wheels.
“I’m a little bit surprised to come away with the win and to win by 10 seconds was even better.”
The second stage of the Santos North West Tour was a criterium race Wednesday afternoon.
Stage One Results
1 Jack Haig (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers) 10min 36sec
2 Jayden Copp (Pro Team Downunder) 0:00:10
3 Ben Dyball (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers)
4 Aaron Donnelly (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers) 0:00:11
5 Nathan Earle (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Advisers)
6 Samuel Horgan (Budget Forklifts) 0:00:14
7 Jack Anderson (Budget Forklifts) 0:00:17
8 Zac Shaw (Jayco/Apollo VIS) 0:00:21
9 Karl Evans (Budget Forklifts)
10 Brodie Talbot (Racing Kangaroos) 0:00:27
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