Callan May, now fu!her in front in
the NZXC Series title chase
STORY: Andy McGechan
MAY EXTENDS
LEAD IN
NZXC SERIES
runner-u finish was enough for
uckland allan ay to e tend his
lead in the amaha
eries. he
-year-old electrician from itirangi
took his amaha
to win the first two
of si rounds in this aul hibley-ins ired
com etition, but he was then forced to settle
for runner-u finishes, both times behind
friend and rival am reenslade at the two
rounds that followed, at oodhill orest
and atata, in e tember and ctober
res ectively.
ay was again runner-u at round five,
this time behind Helensville s om u ton,
but even that second- lace erformance
could be classed as remarkable, with ay
having to charge through the entire field
after a oor start, the race set in a dam
and treacherous iverhead orest, west of
uckland.
he aturday race was a tri le-header,
billed as the stand-alone ead oad cross-
country race, but also recognised as the
second of three rounds in
s rand
ational ross-country eries and the fifth
round of five in the amaha
eries as
well.
he result was su cient for ay to ush
his overall
eries lead out to
oints
over the new man who is second on the
oints table, hanganui s eth eardon.
eardon finished fifth at iverhead, while
reenslade, the man who had been ay s
main
eries rival, was a non-starter,
ruled out by in ury.
had a terrible start and had to fight ast
a lot of riders,
ay e lained.
was u to about si th or seventh lace
after the -minute first la , ust inside
the to
or so out of the more than
starters , and got into a hot battle with ylan
earbury from ambridge .
ommy earned a good win over me. He
was a long way ahead and had a clear track
ahead of him.
ue to overseas commitments, u ton
did not contest all the earlier rounds of the
eries, so this means he won t be a
threat to ay s
eries ambitions.
hird overall was earbury, with okoroa s
ake ightman and then eardon eventually
rounding out the to five.
eanwhile, in the -minute unior race
held earlier in the day, au o s il eoman
took his amaha
to win by ust si
seconds over irau s le utler, with
hanga aroa s aniel efoy claiming the
third ste on the odium.
ay will now re are for the
eries
final round at aimiha and he is also
looking overseas for com etition in the ew
ear.
am lanning to do a few races in ustralia
and ust trying to work out a few details at
the moment. ll see how the ne t round of
the
eries goes and then work it all
out from there and see where it takes me.
othing is set in stone.