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Central Australian Bike Challenge - NE
Alice Springs, NT, Australia, May 13-19, 2006
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Stage 2 - May 15: The Rhodes Contracting Big One, 90 km
CABC hits fever pitch at Ross River
Most riders at the Central Australian Bike Challenge are here for an adventure and to get out of their comfort zone. This was most admirably achieved today and that was just the bus ride to the start at Ross River homestead. After a 5am wake up, our buses were not only late but the freezing riders had to endure a bus that was almost as cold as the pre-dawn ambient temperature. There was no relief at Ross River as the thermometer read 2 degrees at the sun came over the horizon.
Within 200 meters of the start riders hit soft sand, so off the bikes and running, this would become the pattern for the early part of the days racing much to some riders disgust. Indeed much of the trail through N'Dhala Gorge was un-ridable with loose sand punctuated by large rocks. Once off the Ross River Station a new theme emerged - corrugations.
This is the biggest stage of the race at 90 km, over half of it is on unrelenting deeply corrugated dirt roads, mainly used by road trains carrying cattle. Pacelines snaked all over the width of the road with the lead riders trying to find the smoothest and fastest line.
After what seemed an eternity, riders were rewarded with some very nice flowing singletrack, though some (like this author) were too shattered to really enjoy it. The course ended as it began with some sandy track and a final hike-a-bike across the Todd River.
Men
Matt Fleming (Trek) sounded content yesterday to consolidate his lead and allow his pursuers to do the work today but as has happened on the previous stages he just rode away. Many considered this to be a waste of effort due to the long, fast dirt road sections but with the aid of a tail wind he held his 65km solo break to the end, putting 4 minutes into his rivals. Fleming again proving that he is by far the strongest rider.
While most would have seen today's flat and non-technical stage as one suited to a hardtail, the corrugations beat the hell out of anyone without a bit of plushness. The pursuing group of Jackson, Lewis, Randall and Lefman worked well together to make up the distance until fatigue (and an aching posterior) hit the two hardtail riders in the most corrugated section of road close to the finish. Lewis and Jackson of the Scott/Flight Centre team took the minor placings.
Women
After the disaster of yesterday, Katrin Van der Spiegel (Trek) was looking forward to today's stage as she has ridden it before and knows how crucial this stage can be to determining the overall result.
Wearer of the leaders jersey, Imogen Smith (Scott) got off to a poor start and didn't deal with the deep sand well, losing time and the opportunity to work with the fast kids on the road sections. She was also on a hardtail with wasn't likely to help her situation either.
At the line a surprisingly refreshed Van der Spiegel watched Smith come in ??? behind and handing her the Leaders jersey once again. Kimberly Fleming placed 2nd also handing time to Van der Spiegel.
Veterans
The vets class was always going to be competitive today with a zillion kilometers in the legs between the top 4, it would be all about horsepower. Pushing his 46T big ring was Gordon Garradd who dropped all his rivals early on to power down the road for the victory and the overall lead in the over 45's class.
There was little change in the vet women with Janine Ridsdale taking the glory again over Sharon Prutton and Carolyn Jackson. Ridsdale now has an almost unassailable lead and will be looking to just keep the rubber side down for the rest of the week.
Tomorrow riders will have a relatively easy day with 39km of undulating fire roads and singletrack near to Alice Springs.
Results
Open Women 1 Katrin Van Der Spiegel (NSW) 3.56.14 2 Belinda Allison (NSW) 7.37 3 Kimberley Fleming (NSW) 12.14 4 Imogen Smith (QLD) 19.49 5 Meg Chalker (ACT) 23.25 6 Nicole James (NT) 32.00 7 Gayle Connell (NT) 48.36 8 Justine Gerdsen (NT) 48.57 9 Tania Churchill (ACT) 49.32 10 Lyndall Smythe (NT) 1.05.48 11 Dior Loveridge (NSW) 1.09.37 12 Nicole Burton (NT) 1.37.56 13 Merridy Pearce (SA) 1.46.39 14 Stacey Bitz (NT) 2.07.51 15 Rosanne Kwan (NSW) 3.00.23 Veteran Women 1 Janine Ridsdale (NSW) 4.06.56 2 Sharon Prutton (NZ) 7.05 3 Carolyn Jackson (VIC) 22.03 4 Jane Ollerenshaw (VIC) 1.00.16 5 Katrina Roper (NT) 1.05.01 6 Debra Eason (VIC) 1.11.23 7 Kathy Hays (NT) 1.18.32 8 Jenny Anderson (NT) 1.57.09 DNS Kim Kelleher (QLD) Open Men 1 Matthew Fleming (NSW) 3.11.33 2 Shaun Lewis (ACT) 4.36 3 Adrian Jackson (VIC) 4.39 4 Aiden Lefmann (NSW) 5.28 5 Alex Randall (VIC) 5.30 6 Andrew Crawley (NSW) 12.20 7 Mark Frendo (QLD) 12.59 8 Nick Both (NSW) 15.51 9 Graham Rankin (NT) 16.18 10 Liam O'Dea (NSW) 17.57 11 Vince O'Brien (NT) 22.36 12 Straun Lamont (QLD) 22.55 13 Mick Café (NT) 23.30 14 Ashley Wass (SA) 23.56 15 Chris Lander (NSW) 24.32 16 Paul Darvodelsky (NSW) 25.09 17 Jason Mansbridge (HongK) 28.24 18 David Clark (SA) 31.16 19 Corey Gerdsen (NT) 31.17 20 Jason Chalker (ACT) 36.47 21 Neville Bailey (HongK) 37.15 22 Stuart Grimm (HongK) 37.23 23 Sam Latz (NT) 40.27 24 Ron Schroeder (NSW) 40.41 25 Tavis Johannsen (NT) 41.21 26 Craig Cross (NT) 42.02 27 Tim Hay (QLD) 42.14 28 Mark Hardy (NSW) 42.58 28 James Gardner (ACT) 30 Peter Nott (HongK) 44.17 31 Cosmo Richards (HongK) 46.53 31 John Waddell (WA) 33 Jaime Burton (NT) 48.05 34 Matt Jones (NT) 50.11 35 Ray Giddins (NSW) 50.39 36 Kristian Bitz (NT) 51.30 36 Aaron Caden (NT) 38 Jimmy Goode (NSW) 52.35 39 Jack Dermody (WA) 57.49 40 Martin Pritchard (NT) 1.01.32 40 Jason Sprague (QLD) 42 Jonathan Cowan (VIC) 1.02.30 43 Paul Witzerman (QLD) 1.03.08 44 Joe Ward (NSW) 1.03.21 45 Tony Hawke (NSW) 1.04.06 46 Kane Chandler (VIC) 1.05.00 47 Anthony Darr (NSW) 1.05.42 48 Peter Svara (NT) 1.08.16 49 Bert Heathwood (SA) 1.08.37 50 Mike Heyburn (NT) 1.09.11 51 Steve Sauerwald (NT) 1.10.03 52 Malcolm Neville (NT) 1.11.19 53 Ramon Gregory (NT) 1.11.30 54 Craig Armour (NSW) 1.14.04 55 Todd Stafford (NSW) 1.17.58 56 Peter McGann (NT) 1.20.08 57 Steve Munyard (VIC) 1.20.39 58 Kyle Bawden (NT) 1.22.39 59 Neil Prosser (NSW) 1.25.59 60 Ben Scott (NSW) 1.26.51 61 Bryan Connell (NT) 1.27.35 62 Paul Guerin (NT) 1.29.59 63 Helge Suhr (NT) 1.30.38 63 Philip Blum (NT) 65 Chris Jackson (QLD) 1.32.41 66 Matthew Barr (NSW) 1.44.35 67 Greg Lander (QLD) 1.47.55 68 Vladimir Todorovski (VIC) 1.50.14 69 Rob Parbery (NSW) 1.54.18 70 Tony McLellan (NT) 1.55.19 71 Rick Swanwick-Howarth (NT) 1.55.36 72 Craig Wilzen (NT) 1.56.09 73 Manuel Silva 2.00.09 74 Andrew Pettitt (NT) 2.01.33 75 Dan Harris (NT) 2.01.34 76 Bruce McEllister (NT) 2.02.15 77 Euan Buchanan (VIC) 2.06.01 78 Justin Dabner (QLD) 2.06.07 79 Malcolm Barrett (QLD) 2.20.46 80 Dean Chandler (QLD) 2.25.36 80 Iain Blair (VIC) 82 Russell Goodwin (QLD) 2.33.05 DNS Dan Johnston DNS Richard Mountstephens Veteran Men 1 Gordon Garradd (NSW) 3.34.36 2 Craig Peacock (VIC) 1.38 3 Hans Dielacher (NSW) 5.21 4 Chris Waring (NSW) 10.08 5 Gwyn Tavener-Smith (NSW) 14.27 6 Kym Hansen (NT) 15.55 7 Laurie Berryman (NT) 16.06 8 Ken Wilyman (NSW) 24.29 9 Robert Watson (NSW) 31.33 10 Graant Benett (NSW) 41.05 11 Finlay Luff (VIC) 44.46 12 David Wells (NT) 46.01 12 Mark Mannering (NT) 14 Leon Fisher (SA) 48.42 15 Adam Korab (NT) 48.57 16 Steve Bryan (NT) 51.13 17 Alan Brockman (NT) 51.43 17 Paul Verheijden (VIC) 19 John Nutter (NT) 52.30 20 Trevor Kloeden (NSW) 55.04 21 Pat Black (NT) 59.18 22 Lew Marshall (QLD) 1.00.06 23 Mark Meyers (QLD) 1.03.48 24 Andrew Koop (NT) 1.37.00 25 Jungle Bateman (NT) 1.38.21 26 Jeff Hays (NT) 1.38.46 27 Col Smith (NT) 1.42.24 28 Leon Malzinskas (VIC) 2.11.23 29 Ian Johnson (NT) 2.51.57 DNS Andre Gavlik (TAS) Teams 1 Damian McGrath (NT)/Michael Vroom (NT) 4.05.52 2 Drew Robertson (NSW)/Ian Robinson (NSW) 14.11 3 Matthew Guggisberg (NT)/Simon Murphy (NT) 23.33 4 Nigel Blake (NSW)/Ben Goscombe (NT) 38.31 5 Craig Trevallion (NSW)/Matt Ogilvie (ACT) 42.08 6 Malcolm Johnston (NT)/Mathew Pirani (NT) 1.00.29 Mixed Teams 1 Alison Whitehead (QLD)/Ron Whitehead (QLD) 5.34.10 2 Virginia Ffitch (NSW)/Andrew Lloyd (NSW) 59.52 DNF Hamish Fitzhardinge (NSW)/Kylie Henry (NSW )
