Fresh, remarkably, from her five gold medal haul at the national track cycling championships in Cambridge last month, the 13-year-old claimed the age group road race national championships under-15 time trial and road race double over Anzac weekend.
Fellow Papanui High School student Kirsty Watts also had plenty to celebrate in Hokitika with golds in the under-17 time trial and road race.
Sayers, who only joined Canterbury Track Cycling’s development programme last November now has an unprecedented eight national titles in her age group, an indication she has a promising career ahead of her.
Sayers made light of the blustery conditions that impacted on the race against the clock.
“I actually quite like those conditions, it didn’t freak me out too much,” she said.
However, the duo had a tighter tussle in the road race, with Sayers, McIvor and Canterbury’s Jesse Thomson separated by a photo finish after they each timed 1hr 3min 25sec.
“That was really close. It was really good, there were quite a few attacks. Everyone was really on form,” Sayers said.
Watts recorded two comfortable triumphs in her events, she won the time trial in 26min 28.62sec, almost a minute clear of Counties Manukau’s Ava Maddison (27min 28.40sec).
She had the luxury of coasting to the line in the road race after powering clear to win by 47sec in a time of 1hr 57.01sec; Wellington’s Millie Donald was her closest challenger.
