{"id":363645,"date":"2024-01-28T20:45:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T21:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363645"},"modified":"2024-01-29T03:04:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T03:04:55","slug":"dream-come-true-as-kiwi-breaks-aussie-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363645","title":{"rendered":"'Dream come true' as Kiwi breaks Aussie hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand's Lawrence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) carved out the biggest victory of his cycling<\/a> young career, winning the Cadel's Great Ocean Bike race.<\/p>\n

It was a chaotic Sunday finale that Pithie navigated with ease, as the 21-year-old displayed poise and patience to weather late attacks from Australian and US national champions Luke Plapp and Quinn Simmons.<\/p>\n

But the Kiwi – a fast finisher – backed himself for a sprint and with good reason.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>The 'special' Aussie who guided Sinner to glory\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Sinner seals emotional maiden slam with 'epic' comeback<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ruthless Socceroos cruise into Asian Cup quarters<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In the final 200 metres, Pithie emerged from a group of 15 riders, his sprint timed to perfection and he had just having enough road to edge out Natnael Tesfatsion (LIDL-TREK) by half a wheel while Georg Zimmermann (Intermache-Wanty) rounded out the podium.<\/p>\n

\"Lawrence<\/p>\n

"Oh, incredible" Pithie said.<\/p>\n

"I was just going balls to the wall, to be honest, full gas.<\/p>\n

"And I was coming back at him, coming back at him, had to close the gap and then, you know, the Intermach\u00e9 [Georg Zimmermann] onto the outside, not too sure who it was. He was coming quick, but I just managed to hold on and lunge.<\/p>\n

"Had really good positions on the climbs and followed everyone.<\/p>\n

"I got stuck about one K to go, stuck behind Corbin (Strong) was calling my bluff a little bit. He wanted me to go in front of him to chase Stevie (Williams) I knew I had to be patient.<\/p>\n

"We spoke in the briefing this morning, patience is gonna be key, but I knew also it'd be really easy to get caught on the barriers here. Just managed to find my way through the gap and held on.<\/p>\n

"To finish the Australian summer like this, it's a dream come true."<\/p>\n

The victory is a significant step for the young Kiwi who's now in his second year at World Tour level riding for French squad Groupama-FDJ.<\/p>\n

\"Natnael<\/p>\n

While Sunday marks Pithie's first victory at World Tour level, the win is a firm indicator of how strong New Zealand cycling has become.<\/p>\n

Last week at Tour Down Under, Pithie and Strong both finished within the top five on multiple stages.<\/p>\n

It's clear now that Pithie, a 21-year-old from Christchurch, alongside fourth place finisher Strong (Israel – Premier Tech) and Finn Fisher-Black (UAE-Emirates) are leading a surge of New Zealanders finding success in the pro ranks.<\/p>\n

While its neighbours from across the ditch are finding success early in 2024, the Aussie cycling community will be hoping good things come to those who wait after a disappointing summer.<\/p>\n

Chris Hamilton (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL) was the first local home in eighth, while Jayco-AlUla's Kelland O'Brien was 12th and will be ruing a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

O'Brien, a world champion and Olympic medallist on the track, has worked diligently as part of Caleb Ewan's leadout at Tour Down Under and packs a sprint that placed him as a genuine contender in Sunday's finale.<\/p>\n

But the young Victorian got it all wrong and was forced to chase a late move inside the final kilometre, effectively ending his chances at victory and the podium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Zealand's Lawrence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) carved out the biggest victory of his cycling young career, winning the Cadel's Great Ocean Bike race. It was a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363650,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363645\/revisions\/363650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/363647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}