5 Jul 2023

New Zealand track riders score international win in Italy

8:51 am on 5 July 2023
Bryony Botha (left) and Michaela Drummond at Fiorenzuola International Velodrome.

Bryony Botha (left) and Michaela Drummond at Fiorenzuola International Velodrome. Photo: Cycling New Zealand

New Zealand cyclists Bryony Botha and Michaela Drummond have had a win in the lead-up to next month's Track Cycling World Championships.

The Commonwealth Games medallists won the team event at the famed Six Days of Roses track event at the Fiorenzuola International Velodrome, situated between Milan and Parma in Italy.

The women's endurance component of the event was staged over three days, with Botha and Drummond scoring a win in the flying lap and the two-rider madison on day one.

They were ninth in the flying lap on the second day but again won the madison, before finishing second in the flying lap and crushing all opposition in the madison on day three to claim the overall honours.

Fellow Cycling New Zealand riders Samantha Donnelly and Emily Shearman also enjoyed some excellent results, second to their teammates in both the flying lap and madison on day one; fourth and fifth respectively on day two with third in the flying lap and fourth in the madison on the third day.

Coach Paul Manning said it has been an excellent opportunity to begin their preparations ahead of the world championships. They now move into three days of individual bunch racing.

Once the track team has been confirmed, the final preparation camp will get underway in two weeks at the Grenchen Velodrome in Switzerland - their base before last year's Commonwealth Games - ahead of the world championships starting in Glasgow on 3 August.

-RNZ