Club Results

Crystall - Mutiny Road Circuit
12/06/2010

Starter: Roy van Panhuys
Marshalls:
Cathie Trotter
Janice Kennerley
Andrew Townsend
Sergei John Turnbull
Peter Treseder
Ken Tunnicliffe

Volunteer Mentor riders:
Robert Oliver
Keri Anne Torkler

Ideal weather and a flat course saw over 120 riders register for the Ramblers Cycling Club races held on Saturday from Crystal Road. The Winter Series continued with the A to D grades racing 50km over four laps of the Crystall Road - Stock Road - Mutiny Road - Middle Road circuit, E, F and Fem grades completing 38km over three laps with G grade completing two laps for 25km.
With the forecast gale force winds not arriving, there was no 'gutter riding'. This left the course tailor made for sprinters and large bunch sprint finishes were the order of the day.

Entering the finishing straight, the D grade tandem pairing of Mark Todd and Pauline Summers used the road to their advantage, accelerating past the bunch, who were largely caught napping. However, Chris Macauly and Kevin Welsh quickly moved to take advantage of the tandem's draft, with Welsh timing his sprint perfectly to edge Macauly into second place.

In F grade, Vicki Fuhrer, Sue Hobbs, Kaye Weskett, John McDowell and Kerry Sixtus were dropped from the front runners midway on the first lap. They soon got themselves organised and settled into chase mode. Although they never made contact again with the lead bunch, they started to pull in and pass other riders. On the second lap, they caught E grader Henry Heather who elected to stay with them. Although everyone in the group was rotating well and taking good pulls on the front, by the time they were into Mutiny Road on the last lap it was Sue Hobbs (recently promoted from G grade) that was getting stronger by the minute. On the small climb before the end of Mutiny Rd, she served notice by riding off the front. Entering Middle Road, the bunch had to work quite hard to pull her back in. They didn't have her back in the fold for long before she broke away again and that was the pattern for the rest of Middle Road. Entering Crystall Road with the finish line in sight, Hobbs was clear ahead by 100 metres and looking strong enough to hold off any challenge from behind. Sadly, a higher grade rider caught and passed her with one of the group (Vicki Fuhrer) in tow, thereby robbing Hobbs of a moral victory in what was, by far, her best race to date.

The A grade pace matched the spring like temperatures with speeds of over 60km/h recorded with an average speed approaching 43km/h. With the fast pace, the large bunch ensured no breakaways were successful and were reeled in largely at will. In a fiercely competed final sprint, the electronic timing system struggled to separate the leading bunch with Ross Simmons being recorded as crossing the line first.

Unfortunately, B grade was involved in a finish line crash and 5 riders fell. 'Baton Rouge' applies here and they will all get 2 points each.
Wally Woods was the worst affected. he suffered a suspected broken right collar bone (to match the break in the other shoulder). Sorry Wally, we wish you a speedy rocovery!

Two “A grade” members helped the lower grades as mentor riders, assisting them with riding tactics and skills.

Next Saturday's racing is from Puketapu School on the Apley Road circuit.

To view provisional results please click below....

Click here to download this weeks results
(Note: Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

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