Broadgreen School student Escher Laufkotter proved unbeatable at the South Island School Track Championships which doubled as the cycling nationals.
Escher won all four of his U14 events over the two days at the Invercargill Velodrome.
He started with 250m time trial, added both the 2000m and 515m scratch races and then rode off with the 2500m point-a-lap event to claim the overall omnium title.
Escher then turned his attention to composite team racing, joining his older sister Amelie (Nayland College), Noah Eden (Waimea College) and Jim Baskett (Nelson College) to win the U16 Boys 2000m team pursuit.
A sixth title came in the Boys Year 7&8 500m team sprint with George MacDonald (Wakefield School).
Amelie was also part of a composite U16 girls’ team which took out the 500m team sprint, unopposed.
Felix Laufkotter was coach and mechanic for the seven-strong team drawn from six schools across the region and all of them shared in victories.
Noah and George also secured overall omnium titles after their consistency across four events.
All seven riders started their trip by competing in the two-day Junior Tour of Southland.
It took in six stages with 100kms on the second day, so it was a lot of riding.
Just a day later, they switched from their road to track bikes.
Escher and Noah also enjoyed success in the second round of the U17 national track series which followed in Southland.
“It was an amazing 11 days and great to be a part of. They are an awesome bunch of young riders, a really tight group and get on well together,” declares Felix, who was one of seven parents who made the trip south.
