Stage 9, Coogee Criterium, 36 km
Wednesday, November 8, 2000, 18:35 - 19:27
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By Jeff Jones
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The
lunge...
Photo: © Tom Balks
21 year old Ben
Brooks (NSWIS) turned in a brilliant result in the Coogee criterium
tonight, winning it in a tight sprint from a breakaway group of four
riders. Brooks bested Matthew Illingworth (DuPont), "Hurricane" Hilton
McMurdo (Glen Parker-Fondriest) and Ben Day (Bates Bikes) in a desperate
lunge to the line after the four had escaped at half way.
The Coogee criterium
has been the showpiece of the Cycle Classic for the past three years,
starting just five hours after the Centennial Park stage earlier today.
Riders had to complete 40 laps of a 0.95 kilometre "hot dog" circuit,
with a fresh breeze blowing of the sea from the North East. A large
and appreciative crowd greeted the riders in this last Coogee Criterium,
and the racing was once again fast and aggressive.
A number of sprint
primes (cash prizes) were put up by various businesses in an attempt
to make the racing even more active. This was probably not necessary,
but it gave Dariusz Skoczylas a chance to add to the Mroz team's earnings
as he took the first sprint. The next was taken by Peugeot's Baden Burke,
before an attack came from Queenslander Ben Day after 20 minutes of
racing. He took the next two primes solo, before being caught by three
riders: Ben Brooks (NSWIS), Matt Illingworth (DuPont) and Hilton McMurdo
(Glen Parker-Fondriest).
The four worked
perfectly, strafing up and down the beachfront to establish a maximum
40 second gap to the bunch. The latter were being towed by the Websdale
and Bosch teams, who found their efforts frustrated by teammates of
the breakaway riders. The leaders traded primes and still had 30 seconds
with five to go - more than enough to hold off the bunch.
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The
break
Photo: © Tom Balks
Matt Illingworth
led for the entire final lap, sitting on the right hand side coming
up the straight. A surprise move came from Brooks on the left, who attacked
from the back of the group to hit the lead with 250 metres of uphill
to go. Illingworth wound up, and the two were neck and neck all the
way up to the line, but Brooks had his wheel in front when it counted.
The win came two
years after Brooks' victory in the Centennial Park stage in the 1998
race. That helped him get a professional contract with the Linda McCartney
team although things have not been easy since then. After a year plagued
by terrible luck, Brooks found out just a week ago that his contract
had not been prolonged next season. His racing so far in the Classic
has reflected this, spending much of the time on the back of the bunch.
"I've had really
low morale for the last few weeks, and to be honest I haven't been enjoying
the racing at all for the last few days. But I wanted to do the right
thing by the team and stay here. I'm really happy," said the quietly
spoken Brooks.
"I've just had
a really rough year - a few crashes and illness, and I only found out
last week that they [Linda McCartney] weren't keeping me on. I'm sort
of in limbo at the moment to what I'm doing, I just really want to get
something definite for what I'm doing next year - hopefully this will
help."
"Last time I had
to sprint was probably three years ago! I never get to finish in the
bunch because I am always riding for the team," he finished, before
going to accept the crowd's adulation on the podium.
The festivities
will continue into the night for many of the riders, but tomorrow they
will wake up to probably the toughest stage of the race - 106 kilometres
from Wollongong to Nowra, taking in two category one climbs (Jamberoo
Pass and Cambewarra Mtn). In the afternoon, there is another 30 km criterium
in Nowra.
Results
1 Ben Brooks (Aus) NSWIS 52.23 (41.23 km/h)
2 Matt Illingworth (GBr) Dupont
3 Hilton McMurdo (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest
4 Ben Day (Aus) Bates Bikes
5 Dirk Schumann (Ger) Bosch 0.18
6 Graeme Brown (Aus) NSWIS
7 Brent Dawson (Aus) Qantas-One World
8 Ashley Hutchinson (Aus) NSWIS
9 Jans Koerts (Ned) Websdale
10 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Caravello
11 Russel Van Hout (Aus) Bates Bikes
12 Julian Winn (GBr) Dupont
13 Dariusz Wojciechowski (Pol) Mroz
14 Dennis Mungoven (Aus) Casino Canberra
15 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Casino Canberra
16 Grzegorz Wajs (Pol) Mroz
17 Phil Thuaux (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec
18 Bart Duraj (Aus) Mroz
19 Pawel Niedzwiecki (Pol) Mroz
20 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Peugeot
21 Chris White (Aus) Team Caravello
22 Dan Smith (GBr) Qantas-One World
23 Cameron Hughes (Aus) Peugeot
24 Dariusz Skoczylas (Pol) Mroz
25 Scott Suckling (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest
26 Edmund Hollands (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest
27 Timo Scholz (Ger) Bosch
28 Andrew Payne (Aus) Team Caravello
29 Giles Baudet (Aus) Team Caravello
30 Glen Chadwick (Aus) Peugeot
31 Joshua Collingwood (Aus) NSWIS
32 Steve Williams (Aus) Team Caravello
33 Brent Millar (Aus) Casino Canberra
34 Yento Barker (GBr) Dupont 0.27
35 Peter Milostic (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec
36 Baden Burke (Aus) Peugeot
37 Tino Haakman (Ned) Websdale
38 Darren Rolfe (Aus) NSWIS
39 Henk Vaassen (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec
40 Adam Cox (Aus) Bates Bikes
41 Scott Bradburn (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec
42 Anthony Malarczyk (GBr) Dupont
43 Danny Clark (Aus) Qantas-One World
44 Huw Pritchard (GBr) Dupont
45 Alan Sieper (Aus) Casino Canberra
46 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) Qantas-One World
47 Stephan Gottschling (Ger) Bosch
48 Danilo Klaar (Ger) Bosch
49 Bjorn Hoeben (Ned) Websdale 0.53
50 Paul Van Schalen (Ned) Websdale 1.12
51 Thorsten Wilhelms (Ger) Bosch 1.19
52 Tomas Buchacek (Cze) Bates Bikes 1.24
53 Michael Tolhurst (Aus) Casino Canberra 2.27
54 Mark Chadwick (Aus) Peugeot 1.46
55 Jono Davis (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec 2.32
56 Martijn Simons (Ned) Websdale 2.56
57 Heiko Szonn (Ger) Qantas-One World 5.11
Points:
1 Ben Brooks (Aus) NSWIS 5 pts
2 Matt Illingworth (GBr) Dupont 3
3 Hilton McMurdo (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest 2
4 Ben Day (Aus) Bates Bikes 1
General classification after stage 9:
1 Grzegorz Wajs (Pol) Mroz 12.19.15
2 Dariusz Wojciechowski (Pol) Mroz 0.05
3 Julian Winn (GBr) Dupont 0.17
4 Scott Suckling (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest 1.14
5 Peter Milostic (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec 1.37
6 Dan Smith (GBr) Qantas-One World 1.43
7 Pawel Niedzwiecki (Pol) Mroz 2.17
8 Baden Burke (Aus) Peugeot 3.07
9 Chris White (Aus) Team Caravello 3.39
10 Glen Chadwick (Aus) Peugeot 3.57
11 Hilton McMurdo (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest 5.04
12 Phil Thuaux (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec 5.18
13 Henk Vaassen (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec 6.05
14 Steve Williams (Aus) Team Caravello 6.46
15 Brent Dawson (Aus) Qantas-One World 7.08
16 Giles Baudet (Aus) Team Caravello 8.45
17 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Peugeot 8.51
18 Tino Haakman (Ned) Websdale 9.35
19 Yento Barker (GBr) Dupont 9.36
20 Bart Duraj (Aus) Mroz 10.07
21 Darren Rolfe (Aus) NSWIS 10.32
22 Danny Clark (Aus) Qantas-One World 10.43
23 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Casino Canberra 10.45
24 Jans Koerts (Ned) Websdale 11.06
25 Adam Cox (Aus) Bates Bikes 11.52
26 Scott Bradburn (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec 12.27
27 Anthony Malarczyk (GBr) Dupont 12.34
28 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) Qantas-One World 13.02
29 Stephan Gottschling (Ger) Bosch 13.34
30 Ben Brooks (Aus) NSWIS 14.06
31 Heiko Szonn (Ger) Qantas-One World 15.00
32 Edmund Hollands (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest 24.55
33 Ashley Hutchinson (Aus) NSWIS 25.10
34 Dariusz Skoczylas (Pol) Mroz 25.16
35 Andrew Payne (Aus) Team Caravello 25.20
36 Russel Van Hout (Aus) Bates Bikes 26.05
37 Bjorn Hoeben (Ned) Websdale 26.26
38 Cameron Hughes (Aus) Peugeot 26.31
39 Ben Day (Aus) Bates Bikes 26.33
40 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Caravello 26.37
41 Timo Scholz (Ger) Bosch 26.56
42 Brent Millar (Aus) Casino Canberra 26.56
43 Danilo Klaar (Ger) Bosch 27.10
44 Paul Van Schalen (Ned) Websdale 27.25
45 Matt Illingworth (GBr) Dupont 27.44
46 Graeme Brown (Aus) NSWIS 27.57
47 Tomas Buchacek (Cze) Bates Bikes 28.17
48 Huw Pritchard (GBr) Dupont 28.46
49 Dennis Mungoven (Aus) Casino Canberra 28.56
50 Mark Chadwick (Aus) Peugeot 29.24
51 Jono Davis (Aus) NSW Sport & Rec 29.38
52 Joshua Collingwood (Aus) NSWIS 29.38
53 Dirk Schumann (Ger) Bosch 29.57
54 Michael Tolhurst (Aus) Casino Canberra 30.05
55 Martijn Simons (Ned) Websdale 32.21
56 Alan Sieper (Aus) Casino Canberra 33.15
57 Thorsten Wilhelms (Ger) Bosch 39.47
Giant Sprint King:
1 Jans Koerts (Ned) Websdale 11 pts
2 Grzegorz Wajs (Pol) Mroz 10
3 Graeme Brown (Aus) NSW Institute of Sport 8
4 Hilton McMurdo (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest 7
5 Pawel Niedzwiecki (Pol) Mroz 5
6 Dariusz Skoczylas (Pol) Mroz 5
7 Ben Brooks (Aus) NSW Institute of Sport 5
8 Ashley Hutchinson (Aus) NSW Institute of Sport 5
9 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) QANTAS-One World 5
10 Dariusz Wojciechowski (Pol) Mroz 5
11 Dirk Schumann (Ger) BOSCH 4
12 Julian Winn (GBr) DuPont 3
13 Matt Illingworth (GBr) DuPont 3
14 Bjorn Hoeben (Ned) Websdale 3
15 Brent Dawson (Aus) QANTAS-One World 3
16 Steve Williams (Aus) Caravello 3
17 Edmund Hollands (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondries 2
18 Dan Smith (GBr) QANTAS-One World 2
19 Cameron Hughes (Aus) Peugeot 2
20 Henk Vaassen (Aus) NSW Sport & Recreation 1
21 Phil Thuaux (Aus) NSW Sport & Recreation 1
22 Scott Suckling (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest 1
23 Glen Chadwick (Aus) Peugeot 1
24 Ben Day (Aus) Bates Bikes 1
Coca Cola King of the Mountains
1 Julian Winn (GBr) DuPont 14 pts
2 Dariusz Wojciechowski (Pol) Mroz 12
3 Grzegorz Wajs (Pol) Mroz 10
4 Scott Suckling (Aus) Glen Parker Cycles-Fondriest 7
5 Dan Smith (GBr) QANTAS-One World 2
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