James Oram won the elite men's combined road race title at the New Zealand Championships on Sunday.

Third place in the 178.2 km elite/under-23 combined race went to 21-year-old Logan Currie, also a member of Bolton Equities Black Spoke.

"The key to our victory today was the team," said Curry. The guys were perfect. The boys ran a perfect race. The boys were very strong."

"In the final sprint, there was no better scenario. Currie's leap over on the last lap was superhuman and he was overtaken by the under 23's. He finished 1-2-3 and took the Bolton Equities under 23's and elite jerseys.

The race took place on an undulating circuit, with the field completing seven laps of the course and recording a vertical rise of 2,347 meters before crossing the finish line in Tokoroa. [James Fouche, George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates) and Shane Archibald (Bora-Hansgrohe). The former two are World Tour pros and at first glance appear to be the favorites to win, but they were both running alone in a field dominated by Fouche's Bolton Equities Black Spoke team.

This season the team became New Zealand's first professional team, with 12 riders competing in the road race.

The race started at 10:00 a.m. in the spacious landscape of the South Waikota area in the heart of the North Island. With Cyclone Gabriel looming offshore to the north, there may have been some thoughts of 2022, when the race was shortened due to the remnants of Cyclone Dovi. But temperatures were dropping, and despite the threat of rain, warnings of heavy rain and high winds were fortunately still a day away.

Inevitably, the hilly terrain split the pack, and the first lap saw a battle of attacks, but according to live timing, by the end of the second lap, nine riders were in the lead and the gap to the peloton was over a minute.

In addition to the three Bolton Equities Black Spoke riders, Fouchet, Tom Sexton, and Ryan Christensen, Keith Duivestein (Mito Q-NZ Cycling Project) and his teammates Oliver Grave, Cameron Jones (Rushvelo Ridley), and three U23 riders, Matthew Wilson (Rushvelo Ridley), Blake Bailey (Te Awamutu Sport Cycling) and Ruben Thompson (Groupama-FDJ).

Duivestein and Jones dropped out, and two more Bolton Equities riders, James Oram and Luke Madgway, bridged along with Ali Scott (Couplands Booth Group).

The peloton was led by George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates) who drove strongly to close the gap. George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates) drove strongly to close the gap, which was reduced to about 90 seconds. However, at least one man jumped over the gap and passed U23 time trial winner Currie (Black Spoke).

The lead group split on the final lap, with Oram and Kristen sprinting to over 20 seconds ahead of Currie, who held off fellow U23 rider Ruben Thompson (Groupama-FDJ) to take the U23 title. The next duo was Tom Sexton (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) and Oliver Grave (MitoQ-NZ Cycling Project), with Sexton winning the battle and the elite podium for Bolton Equities. The race was the final round of the 2023 New Zealand National Championships, and U23 rider Allie Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal-Quick Step) won the women's combined road race on Saturday over elite rider Georgia Williams (EF Education-Tibco SVB) won the race ahead of the winner.