New Zealand’s Ben Oliver was lining up for his very first professional race in Europe on Thursday and by the end of the day he had already stepped up to the podium for new team, Modern Adventure Pro Cycling.
Oliver had already given some indication of the speed he was carrying into the season for his first year as a dedicated road professional. The 29-year-old, with more than a decade of racing mountain bikes internationally, took third in the time trial at the national championships in New Zealand and then in the road race was the first of riders from the main peloton over the line, although that left him with sixth given the early break survived.
The break, however was caught at Vuelta a Andalucía and the team then turned their focus to putting Oliver in position for the flat run into the line for the sprint. As the strong lead outs of teams like Visma-Lease a Bike, UNO X-Mobility and Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling emerged Oliver surfed the wheels to stay in position up near the front. That could have all been to no avail, however, if not for his quick reaction to avoid an accident, with a seamless bunny hop in response to a squeeze onto the curb at a roundabout well inside 1km to go.
“It was a wild day of racing with the boys, the pace never let up the whole day,” said Oliver in a team statement. “A lot of us got over the first 25k climb then Lucas got in the break and the rest of us managed to stick together.”
It was clearly a result to be celebrated for the rider, who had also given track a whirl last year, as well as the ProTeam which have only just stepped into the international peloton. The team now already has two 2.Pro level race podium results on the results sheet, from Bryan Munton’s second on stage 5 at the AlUla Tour and now Oliver’s third at Vuelta a Andalucía.
“First pro race in Europe and first podium – absolutely wrapped! Team vibes are good, now four more days to go,” said Oliver.