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Central Australian Bike Challenge - NE
Alice Springs, NT, Australia, May 13-19, 2006
Main Page Results Previous Race Next Race
Stage 5 - May 18: Top Gear Car and 4WD Centre Route, 31 km
Over the hill
150 weary riders with aching legs rolled out of the Aurora Resort today to climb Anzac Hill, the small but steep lookout in the middle of Alice Springs. This climb on the warm up ride was bearable but no one was looking forward to hitting it at full tilt after 31km of frenzied racing.
This penultimate stage before the final time trial would be the last opportunity for the Scott team to use their numbers up the front of the field with Lewis, Both, Jackson and the always aggressive Mark Frendo attacking hard all week but with not much to show for it. While it is one of the shortest stages of the race it's also the most fun with lots of excellent singletrack, and a fast finish along the crumbling blacktop of old Stuart Highway.
After a neutral decent of Anzac Hill behind the pace car it was on, with the usual suspects up the front, those who were riding into the race in the middle and those who were suffering after 250 very rough and demanding kilometers out the back.
Open Men
By the feed zone at the 16km mark, race leader Mathew Fleming (Trek) had opened up a lead of almost two minutes from his nearest rival Mark Frendo who again demonstrated his skill in the technical sections and was able to get a break on the rest of the bunch.
This would be the situation for the rest of the stage, Fleming taking yet another stage win with Frendo two and a half minutes behind. The remaining spot on the podium was fought out over a drag race up the 250 meter - 25% climb to the top of Anzac Hill between Aiden Lefman (Cannondale/Maxxis) and Shaun Lewis (Scott). Lefman thought he had it in hand only to see Lewis lunge for the line, taking 3rd by a wheel. Fleming now just needs to finish the Time Trial to take victory, "Barring a major catastrophe it should be wrapped up tomorrow, I won't be riding conservatively, I'll still try and push but I won't be worried if I lose a little bit of time tomorrow."
Open Women
The more technical nature of today's stage also suited Imogen Smith (Scott) who crested Anzac Hill 1 min 33 secs ahead of race leader Katrin Van der Spiegel (Trek), with Kimberley Fleming (Trek) putting in another solid result third. "I just pushed as hard as I could because I knew Katrin could catch me on the flat stuff, I just made it!" Despite some bad luck with flat tyres Smith has enjoyed the week immensely, "I've had big ups and downs, I won four stages and then I lost so much time on the other two, but I've learnt a lot… this is the most fun stage race I've ever done, the atmosphere has been great, the organization is great, a lot of good energy out there on the track!"
Like Matt Fleming, Van der Spiegel now just needs to complete the Time Trial tomorrow to take her second consecutive victory of the event. "
Veterans
The vet men continue to the most entertaining category of the event with another flat out drag race to the line. Craig Peacock found his wings to fly up the steep grades of Anzac Hill just 4 seconds ahead of Hans Dielacher. Category leader Gordon Garradd made up significant ground over the last five kilometers of mostly flat tar but could not catch the two out in front. Garradd finished 10 seconds behind, but still has 6 minutes in hand before the Time Trial.
Janine Ridsdale completed a clean sweep of the Veteran Female category again leading Sharon Prutton (NZ) through the stage with a commanding win of almost five minutes.
The Open Teams Category will come down to the wire in the final Time Trial Stage tomorrow. Only a minute separates the leaders, McGrath/Vroom from Robertson/Robinson. The latter taking the stage today in a very strong performance putting 4 minutes into McGrath and Vroom. The leading pair will be hoping their legs can recover overnight to hold off the chasing pair.
Tomorrow's stage
The only individual time trial stage of the CABC takes place along the 18km long sealed bike path from Flynn's grave to Simpson's gap in the shadows of the MacDonnell Ranges.
Results
Open Women 1 Imogen Smith (QLD) 1.28.20 2 Katrin Van Der Spiegel (NSW) 1.33 3 Kimberley Fleming (NSW) 3.03 4 Nicole James (NT) 6.20 5 Meg Chalker (ACT) 10.44 6 Belinda Allison (NSW) 11.30 7 Lyndall Smythe (NT) 15.47 8 Tania Churchill (ACT) 15.51 9 Gayle Connell (NT) 16.07 10 Dior Loveridge (NSW) 19.03 11 Nicole Burton (NT) 20.39 12 Stacey Bitz (NT) 23.00 13 Justine Gerdsen (NT) 26.03 14 Merridy Pearce (SA) 27.41 15 Rosanne Kwan (NSW) 32.00 Veteran Women 1 Janine Ridsdale (NSW) 1.31.09 2 Sharon Prutton (NZ) 4.42 3 Carolyn Jackson (VIC) 8.00 4 Jane Ollerenshaw (VIC) 21.32 5 Katrina Roper (NT) 31.30 6 Kathy Hays (NT) 37.16 7 Debra Eason (VIC) 49.25 8 Jenny Anderson (NT) 51.54 DNS Kim Kelleher (QLD) Open Men 1 Matthew Fleming (NSW) 1.11.09 2 Mark Frendo (QLD) 2.24 3 Shaun Lewis (ACT) 3.30 4 Aiden Lefmann (NSW) 5 Nick Both (NSW) 3.33 6 Adrian Jackson (VIC) 3.34 7 Alex Randall (VIC) 3.42 8 Jason Chalker (ACT) 4.52 9 Andrew Crawley (NSW) 5.30 10 Mick Café (NT) 6.12 11 Graham Rankin (NT) 6.20 12 Ashley Wass (SA) 7.24 13 Liam O'Dea (NSW) 7.28 14 David Clark (SA) 7.45 15 Vince O'Brien (NT) 8.46 16 Straun Lamont (QLD) 9.23 17 Chris Lander (NSW) 11.09 18 Sam Latz (NT) 11.31 19 Craig Cross (NT) 11.52 20 Matt Jones (NT) 13.12 21 Neville Bailey (HongK) 14.00 22 Aaron Caden (NT) 14.05 23 Jason Mansbridge (HongK) 15.15 24 Jaime Burton (NT) 15.48 25 Cosmo Richards (HongK) 15.50 26 Mark Hardy (NSW) 15.55 27 Ron Schroeder (NSW) 16.06 28 Stuart Grimm (HongK) 16.22 29 James Gardner (ACT) 16.26 30 Jimmy Goode (NSW) 17.06 31 Tony Hawke (NSW) 17.49 32 Anthony Darr (NSW) 17.55 33 Tavis Johannsen (NT) 18.06 34 Kristian Bitz (NT) 18.17 35 Paul Darvodelsky (NSW) 18.23 36 Peter Nott (HongK) 18.42 37 Peter Svara (NT) 19.29 38 Bert Heathwood (SA) 19.47 39 Jonathan Cowan (VIC) 19.55 40 Joe Ward (NSW) 20.46 41 Kane Chandler (VIC) 20.57 42 Jason Sprague (QLD) 21.08 43 Jack Dermody (WA) 21.34 44 Tim Hay (QLD) 22.44 45 Martin Pritchard (NT) 22.57 46 Richard Mountstephens 23.49 47 Paul Witzerman (QLD) 24.29 48 Steve Sauerwald (NT) 25.14 49 Ray Giddins (NSW) 25.16 50 Ramon Gregory (NT) 25.36 51 Malcolm Neville (NT) 25.50 52 Todd Stafford (NSW) 26.28 53 Peter McGann (NT) 27.12 54 Rob Parbery (NSW) 27.14 55 Mike Heyburn (NT) 27.38 56 Paul Guerin (NT) 28.06 57 Rick Swanwick-Howarth (NT) 29.08 58 John Waddell (WA) 30.10 59 Ben Scott (NSW) 30.50 60 Helge Suhr (NT) 31.50 61 Kyle Bawden (NT) 33.27 62 Chris Jackson (QLD) 34.07 63 Craig Armour (NSW) 35.13 64 Andrew Pettitt (NT) 35.18 65 Tony McLellan (NT) 35.21 66 Neil Prosser (NSW) 36.22 67 Greg Lander (QLD) 37.08 68 Vladimir Todorovski (VIC) 37.19 69 Craig Wilzen (NT) 70 Justin Dabner (QLD) 38.48 71 Philip Blum (NT) 39.01 72 Dan Harris (NT) 40.05 73 Malcolm Barrett (QLD) 42.32 74 Matthew Barr (NSW) 42.44 75 Bryan Connell (NT) 43.13 76 Euan Buchanan (VIC) 43.59 77 Manuel Silva 44.42 78 Iain Blair (VIC) 51.49 79 Dean Chandler (QLD) 51.58 80 Russell Goodwin (QLD) 58.11 81 Steve Munyard (VIC) 1.01.44 82 Bruce McEllister (NT) 1.08.27 DNS Corey Gerdsen (NT) DNS Dan Johnston Veteran Men 1 Craig Peacock (VIC) 1.22.47 2 Hans Dielacher (NSW) 0.04 3 Gordon Garradd (NSW) 0.31 4 Kym Hansen (NT) 1.32 5 Robert Watson (NSW) 4.31 6 Laurie Berryman (NT) 5.10 7 Graant Benett (NSW) 7.25 8 Finlay Luff (VIC) 9.42 9 David Wells (NT) 13.21 10 Gwyn Tavener-Smith (NSW) 13.59 11 Mark Meyers (QLD) 14.55 12 Mark Mannering (NT) 15.29 13 Trevor Kloeden (NSW) 15.34 14 Steve Bryan (NT) 15.35 15 Ken Wilyman (NSW) 16.09 16 Lew Marshall (QLD) 17.19 17 Leon Fisher (SA) 17.21 18 John Nutter (NT) 17.38 19 Alan Brockman (NT) 18.51 20 Adam Korab (NT) 19.29 21 Chris Waring (NSW) 20.44 22 Paul Verheijden (VIC) 21.10 23 Pat Black (NT) 22.57 24 Jeff Hays (NT) 24.04 25 Andrew Koop (NT) 27.07 26 Col Smith (NT) 29.02 27 Jungle Bateman (NT) 33.33 28 Leon Malzinskas (VIC) 55.07 29 Ian Johnson (NT) 1.01.45 DNS Andre Gavlik (TAS) Teams 1 Drew Robertson (NSW)/Ian Robinson (NSW) 1.27.36 2 Damian McGrath (NT)/Michael Vroom (NT) 3.32 3 Matthew Guggisberg (NT)/Simon Murphy (NT) 11.54 4 Malcolm Johnston (NT)/Mathew Pirani (NT) 16.07 5 Craig Trevallion (NSW)/Matt Ogilvie (ACT) 18.28 6 Nigel Blake (NSW)/Ben Goscombe (NT) 28.43 Mixed Teams 1 Alison Whitehead (QLD)/Ron Whitehead (QLD) 1.53.31 2 Virginia Ffitch (NSW)/Andrew Lloyd (NSW) 40.45 3 Hamish Fitzhardinge (NSW)/Kylie Henry (NSW ) 55.28
