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Bevan Docherty on the men's podium of the Continental Cup - Source: Triathlon NZ/Adrian Malloch -
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Bevan Docherty overcame a slow start to win the men's Continental Cup triathlon race while Canada's Kirsten Sweetland took out the women's title.
Docherty and contryman Kris Gemmell missed the lead group out of the water, trailing young Australians Shane Barrie, Ben Allen and Clayton Fettell by 20 seconds.
But it wasn's long before both rode up to a lead group of a dozen riders on the cycle leg and they set to work to put some distance on a big chase group.
Gemmell's hopes were dashed when he crashed at almost 60kph.
"It was no one's fault really, there was a bump in the road right on the corner," a grazed and bruised Gemmell said.
"Clayton Fettell got on the wrong side of the bump, his back wheel jumped out and caught my front wheel and I had nowhere to go."
With that the group lost momentum and the chase pack closed, forming a lead group of 25 to 30 riders for the remainder of the 40km until young New Zealander Martin Van Barneveld broke on the final lap to hold a 32-second goin into the run leg.
Docherty didn't wait long before he assumed the lead and control of the race, running comfortably within himself to win by 10 seconds from New Plymouth favourite Clark Ellice and Germany's Andreas Raelert, clocking one hour, 51 minutes 33 seconds.
"Once Kris crashed we lost a lot of power in the lead group, and were caught by the others and it was going to come down to the run," Docherty said.
"That was comfortable for me, the ride wasn't as tough as some thought it was going to be so overall it was an easy day.
"I haven't been pushed yet this year so it is hard to tell just how good my form is, but we'll find out just how good I am going in a month in Korea for the first world championship race."
Sweetland who scored her second World Cup win in Mooloolaba, Australia, last weekend, ran clear of New Zealand's Nicky Samuels and Japan's Kiyomi Niwata to win in 2hr 02min 22sec .
She broke clear on the bike along with Samuels and New Zealander Andrea Hewitt and the three worked together on the undulating six-lap course.
With Australian Felicity Abram, ranked No 2 in 2008, suffering mechanical failure and a puncture behind them, the three looked set to battle it out.
Samuels' chances were damaged by incurring a 10-ten second stand down penalty at the end of the bike leg because she had mounted her bike too soon at the start of the 40km.
Hewitt led early in the run but suffered the effects of her runner up finish at the Singapore 70.3 (half Ironman) two weeks ago and faded to fourth, with Niwata posting the second quickest run split (36:19) after Sweetland to finish on the podium.
Leading results from the ITU Continental Cup raced in New Plymouth on Sunday:
Men: Bevan Docherty (New Zealand) 1:51:33 1, Clark Ellice (New Zealand) 1:51:43 2, Andreas Raelert (Germany) 1:51:50 3, Claude Eksteen (South Africa) 1:52:01 4, Michael Raelert (Germany) 1:52:16 5.
Women: Kirsten Sweetland (Canada), 2hr 02min 22sec 1, Nicky Samuels (New Zealand) 2:03:50 2, Kiyomi Niwata (Japan) 2:04:37 3, Andrea Hewitt (New Zealand) 2:05:54 4, Misato Takagi (Japan) 2:06:39 5.
