The first of the Dynamo Winter Fun ride series kicked off in Matamata on Sunday. The Torpedo7 sponsored event attracted around 350 riders across both the 80km and 50km circuit. The Matamata weather turned it on and although it was a fresh start to the day it turned out to be a nice sunny winter day. Race Director Stephen Cox couldn’t have asked for a better day, “It was -1 degrees when I left home at 4am this morning but we seem to have luck on our side during August with another exceptional day here in Matamata”.
While the majority of the field aim to complete the course, there has been a continual increase of elite riders turning up. In the men’s field, top riders Sam Lindsay (Nature Valley Cycling Team), Logan Griffin (CYCO), Daniel Molyneux and Karl Murray (Exceed Coaching) were the ones to watch.
Being a reasonably flat circuit with long straight roads, it was going to be a challenge for breaks to stay away. The first break to go was Sam Lindsay (Nature valley Cycling Team) and Toby Atkins (GMC Development). They spent the first 20km off the front before Sam went solo by himself. With such large fields and with no major hills, all small breaks got pulled back and the front end of the field stayed intact. The only break that threatened during the race was a 4 man move including Daniel Molyneux, Brad Tilby, Karl Murray and Logan Griffin. Again this was swiftly pulled back due to the threat of riders in the mix.
With 20km to a 12 man break finally managed to get off the front and worked hard to stay away from the charging peloton. With all riders motivated to stay away, this ended up being the winning move with Sam Dobbs (Masi Bikes) taking out the race in a sprint finish from Brad Tilby (Nature valley Cycling Team) with Ryan Christensen (Hamilton) in 3rd. The peloton came close to catching with Matt Markby (Nature Valley Cycling Team) leading home the bunch 6 seconds down. This is a break through win for Sam Dobbs “This was a bit like schools racing with breaks going and getting pulled back, I was lucky enough to get in the break with 20km to go and was stoked to come away win the win”. Sam is heading off to race in the NRS series from here before returning for the North Island Series.
Ride 2 of the series heads to Hamilton with a hillier circuit ahead. This is sure to make for more aggressive riding and where the climbers in the pack get their chance to shine and a little more challenging for the Weekend Warrior. Commonwealth Games rider Patrick Bevin (Nature Valley Cycling Team) looks set to make his return to racing and should be the guy to watch.
Entries are still open for the last 2 events of the series visit Winter Fun Rides for more info.