Mountain Biking

Cycling 2023

Over the October school holiday break both Zoe Spillane and Olivia Ewing competed in a number of cycling events at both Regional and National levels, both coming away with great results:

Olivia’s results and races

Yunca Tour – Olivia finished 1st in the Green Sprinters Jersey competition , which was a best total on all the sprints. Due to a mechanical issue on her bike on stage 4, she lost time in the overall race and finished 6th overall.
- Stage 1 – 3rd Place
- Stage 2 – 1st Place
- Stage 3 – 5th Place
- Stage 4 – 6th Place
- Stage 5 – 2nd Place
- Stage 6 – 1st Place
National Secondary schools Track Racing
- 2nd Place – Silver Medal – over the 4 race competition Olivia finished in 2nd place
South Island Secondary schools Track Racing
- 2nd Place – Silver Medal – over the 4 race competition Olivia finished in 2nd place

Highlight Summary – 1 x National Silver medal , 1 x South Island Silver Medal , Green Sprinters Jersey 1st overall .

Zoes results and races

Yunca Tour – Zoe race great and hard all week to finish 2nd overall in the competition
- Stage 1 – 3rd
- Stage 2 – 4th
- Stage 3 – 2nd
- Stage 4 – 5th
- Stage 5 – 4th
- Stage6 – 2nd
National Secondary Schools Road Cycling
- Road Race – 7th
- Points Race – 7th
- Hightlight Summary 2nd Overall Yunca Tour , 7th Placings in both National

National Skoda Schools Cycling Cuddon Tour

Olivia Greenaway-Ewing represented Craighead Diocesan School at the National Skoda Schools Cycling Cuddon Tour in Blenheim over the weekend. Olivia rode an exceptional tour winning the overall tour for the U16 Girls and taking home a National title in the Time Trial.

Olivia’s results:

1st Place and National Title in the NZ Schools Time Trial
1st Place and Yellow Jersey Winner in the Skoda Tour
1st Place in the 32km Road Race Rtage
2nd Place in the National schools Criterium
2nd Place in the Hill Climb Stage

Congratulations Olivia, we are super proud of your achievements! We are looking forward to seeing what is next for you in Cycling!

Cycling New Zealand Track Nationals 2024

Recently Olivia Ewing travelled to Cambridge for the week ( 29th Feb – 8th March) to represent Cycling South Canterbury and compete in the Cycling New Zealand Track Nationals, these were held at the Grassroots Trust Velodrome.

Olivia had a very successful week picking up the below listed places and medals.

Her week was abruptly bought to a halt by way of a very bad high speed crash in the scratch race, 7 riders in total came down very hard on the final lap while sprinting for the line , Olivia was carried off the track in a stretcher and was taken to hospital by ambulance for scans and x-rays , she was given 24hours stand down from racing and returned to racing two days later bruised and missing skin, to then take part in the points race, and then her final race on the Wednesday where she picked up her silver medal.

Looking back on the week it was a great experience for Olivia with both lows and highs but the highlight for me as Team manager and coach was witnessing Olivia’s determination and strength to fight back, get back into the racing and push hard for her results after the crash.

Individual Pursuit – Silver Medal – 2nd Place

Elimination Race – 4th Place

Scratch Race – DNF – Due to a major crash in the bunch

Points Race – 4th Place

We have been advised that Olivia has been selected by Cycling NZ to represent New Zealand at the UCI Asian Track series in Malaysia in early May, which is a superb achievement for a young rider. Congratulations Olivia, we will be watching your progress at this meet and wish you all the very best!