Speights Coast to Coast
Impressive Winners & Surprise Finishers Light Up Day 1 at Speight’s Coast to Coast
Michael Jacques (For C2C) / 10.02.2012
Nelson’s Trevor Joyce was a surprise starter when the Speight’s Coast to Coast Two Day race got underway today on the West Coast beach of Kumara. But there were no surprises when he tore up the course to establish an unassailable lead in the Two Day Teams Race.
Joyce had been an entrant for the One Day world title race, which starts tomorrow. He has finished as high as second place in the One Day event and was expected to push race favourite Richard Ussher this year. But a late invite to an adventure race in Patagonia next week saw Joyce change to the two day teams race this weekend, where he put up one the fastest ever runs to give himself and Australian teammate Matt Blundell a massive 16 minute lead for day two.
Almost 600 endurance athletes from 15 countries lined up on Kumara Beach this morning in near perfect racing conditions. Drizzly rain and light breezes on the West Coast turned to bright sunshine as the field made its way through today’s 3k run, 55k road cycle and 36k mountain run.
The opening run and cycle failed to establish any clear leaders, with three bunches eventually combining to see more than 50 cyclists finish the first stage together at the front of the race.
Trevor Voyce wasted no time taking the lead as they headed into the Deception River valley, although admitting, “I started pretty fast and after 3k I felt pretty stuffed. But once I got into the mountain things settled down.”
“Settled down,” is a relative term, of course, because his competition didn’t see Voyce again until the finish line at Klondyke Corner, near Arthur’s Pass.
Over Goat Pass he had 10 minutes in hand over Christchurch’s Steve McKinstry, another team entrant paired with Nelson kayaker Daniel Busch. At the finish he had extended this to 16 minutes and only a near disaster tomorrow will see them beaten.
“My philosophy today was just really smoke it from the start and see what happened,” said Voyce after becoming one of only half a dozen people to have broken three hours on the Speight’s Coast to Coast run section.
While Voyce’s teammate, Matt Blundell, did a good job to hand over to Voyce at the front of the race after the cycle, tomorrow the Australian has the pressure of maintaining that lead on the 67k kayak before handing to Voyce for the final 70k road cycle into the finish line on Christchurch’s Sumner Beach.
Voyce and Blundell stopped the clock in 4hrs 44min 10secs, and at 16 minutes back McKinstry and Busch are the only pairing close enough to threaten their lead.
SleepMonsters
