Little more than 90 seconds separated the top two teams at the end of the Cycling Otago time trial on Saturday.
The Cycle Surgery team won by 1min 34sec from the new Ricoh team on the gruelling 40km course at Outram.
Usual rivals became team-mates in racing before the South Island time trial championships in Invercargill early next month.
The two laps of the Outram course featured a howling headwind after the turn at 10km and 30km, sapping the energy of the riders, some of whom found the pace too quick.
Three riders have to finish the race, and within 10km Gary Gardner (Cycle Surgery) found his team-mates' blistering pace too much.
On the other hand, the Ricoh team of Glen Todd, Justin Stott, Stu Thomas and Kyle Cameron worked well together and had the ride of the day, keeping tight to the finish, life member Barry Ellis said.
However, the three remaining riders of the Cycle Surgery team - Paul Gough, Mark Spessot and Brendon Hastie - managed to keep ahead of their closest rivals.
Kevin Thomson, Emma Masterton and Chris Harvey finished outside the one hour mark by a mere three seconds.
The Chapman Consultancy team, which actually began with five riders, was reduced to three. Tony Chapman kept the tempo high and the team finished 51sec further back.
The team of Glenda Bruce, Lorraine Stewart, Robyn Cameron and Tom Campbell had a great ride to finish in fifth place.
The juniors of Jonathon Atfield, Lockie McGregor and Daniel Cresswell displayed great teamwork to complete their 20km race.
- Steve Havard
