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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 1 - May 14: Chambers Engineering Ridge Trail - Asprint Hill Sprint, 37 km
Fleming extends lead; disappointing day for Van der Speigel
The first stage of the Central Australian Bike Challenge gave riders a big taste of what's to come over the remaining 5 days with loose rocky climbs, sand and technical downhills.
The course started with a half lap of the city velodrome, which is conveniently located next to some excellent mountain biking territory. After following the newly constructed Darwin to Adelaide rail link the trail diverts into undulating, rocky singletrack. The full range of gears got a workout through here but the fun factor was always set to high! With some excellent flowing singletrack towards the end of the stage it was a demanding but very enjoyable ride for all.
Men
Up at the pointy end it was another titanic battle between Matt Fleming, Aiden Lefman and the Scott team with Shaun Lewis leading the way for them.
Before halfway Fleming put a gap into Lefman and Lewis and continued to open it up coming in over 4 minutes ahead of Lefman with Scott's Mark Frendo charging at the end to take 3rd. Fleming now has a overall lead of 5.40 and will be looking to merely defend his lead on the long 90km stage tomorrow. "I'll just be watching what everyone else does, I've got a 5 minute lead so I'm going to be pretty conservative."
Women
The rocks and thorns of the desert can bite hard and it was defending women's champion Katrin Van der Spiegel's turn today. She was leading until she suffered a front flat just 6km from the finish that took her many minutes to fix eventually losing almost 7 minutes to stage winner Imogen Smith. "I thought it was really fun, it was rocky, sandy, lots of really technical climbs." While she has an almost 3 minute lead she knows she could easily lose that on the long flat stage tomorrow. "Tomorrow could really make or break it, it's not my kind of stage… Katrin's the one to watch tomorrow."
Kimberly Fleming found today's stage more to her liking and brought home 2nd place 1.49 behind.
Veterans
Craig Peacock of Victoria put in a surprise performance in the Vet men to beat more fancied riders like Taverner-Smith and Dielacher. It was a close contest with the top 5 coming in within 5 minutes of each other. The Vet women was almost a repeat of yesterdays prologue with Janine Ridsdale and Sharon Prutton sprinting for the line with Carolyn Jackson over 10 minutes back.
Stage 2
Riders will be transported out to the Ross River homestead before dawn for a 7.30am start. With bleary eyes the riders will negotiate numerous river crossings and the now ubiquitous sand until they hit the corrugated dirt roads leading back to Alice Springs. This will an opportunity for the closet roadies as the pacelines will snake down the road until a final bit of singletrack that we're told will make all that flat road slogging worthwhile!
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by movingpictures.com.au
- Alice Springs local Corey Gerdsen has all the creek crossings dialled as keeps riding where others walk.
- "Ha! Eat my dirt 45!" Pocket rocket Kimberly Fleming kicks up a roost in Mike Heyburns face.
- Mark Frendo with his patented "I'm shagged" look, crests the singletrack climb with the MacDonnell ranges in the background.
- "It's as dry as a dead dingo's...." says one-gear nutter Rob Parbury, only fond thoughts of beer will keep him going today.
- Matt Fleming out in front - again. "Man, all that talk about carbon this and titanium that, I just had to get away from those guys, so boring!" he thought.
- Unusually, Shaun Lewis uses his middle fingers for braking... or he really doesn't like getting his picture taken.
- "Now if I just stick my tongue out far enough I might be able to hook it around 18's seatpost and get a tow out of this freakin' sand!" Wishful thinking from Mark Frendo.
- Shaun Lewis checks his fluoro orange sweat band, "Fashion accessories - check! Photographer - check! Yeow, I'm gonna look sooo cool!"
- Imogen Smith couldn't believe how much fun this stage was... later...
- In the women's leader jersey after winning the prologue, Imogen Smith bombs the descents on the way to another stage victory.
- Defending women's champion, Katrin Van der Speigel looks focused on chasing down Smith but a flat later in the stage would see the deficit blow out to 7 mins.
- Race leader Matt Fleming considers a career in cyclocross but decides he prefers the desert over frozen muddy paddocks.
- Alex Randall hoofing it across the sand, proof that carbon is no match for silica.
- Shaun Lewis stares in disbelief at the previous rider's shoes, "He calls himself a pro? The shoes don't even match his kit!" he mumbled.
Results
Open Women 1 Imogen Smith (QLD) 2.07.54 2 Kimberley Fleming (NSW) 1.11 3 Katrin Van Der Spiegel (NSW) 6.47 4 Nicole James (NT) 10.11 5 Belinda Allison (NSW) 12.04 6 Meg Chalker (ACT) 14.12 7 Dior Loveridge (NSW) 27.09 8 Justine Gerdsen (NT) 27.21 9 Tania Churchill (ACT) 34.26 10 Lyndall Smythe (NT) 38.28 11 Gayle Connell (NT) 38.59 12 Nicole Burton (NT) 40.43 13 Rosanne Kwan (NSW) 59.04 14 Stacey Bitz (NT) 59.53 15 Merridy Pearce (SA) 1.18.30 Veteran Women 1 Janine Ridsdale (NSW) 2.12.58 2 Sharon Prutton (NZ) 0.07 3 Carolyn Jackson (VIC) 13.43 4 Jane Ollerenshaw (VIC) 27.54 5 Katrina Roper (NT) 48.01 6 Kathy Hays (NT) 56.14 7 Debra Eason (VIC) 1.14.20 8 Jenny Anderson (NT) 1.30.08 DNF Kim Kelleher (QLD) Open Men 1 Matthew Fleming (NSW) 1.36.12 2 Aiden Lefmann (NSW) 4.40 3 Mark Frendo (QLD) 4.44 4 Shaun Lewis (ACT) 4.50 5 Adrian Jackson (VIC) 5.03 6 Alex Randall (VIC) 5.06 7 Andrew Crawley (NSW) 10.23 8 Nick Both (NSW) 10.24 9 Straun Lamont (QLD) 10.50 10 Mick Café (NT) 11.40 11 Graham Rankin (NT) 12.28 12 Ashley Wass (SA) 13.34 13 Corey Gerdsen (NT) 14.06 14 David Clark (SA) 17.34 15 Liam O'Dea (NSW) 18.01 16 Vince O'Brien (NT) 18.09 17 James Gardner (ACT) 20.24 18 Paul Darvodelsky (NSW) 20.28 19 Sam Latz (NT) 20.43 20 Jason Mansbridge (HongK) 21.24 21 Matt Jones (NT) 21.29 22 Jason Chalker (ACT) 22.28 23 Chris Lander (NSW) 22.49 24 Neville Bailey (HongK) 24.56 25 Craig Cross (NT) 26.55 26 Jaime Burton (NT) 27.42 27 Tim Hay (QLD) 29.30 28 Mark Hardy (NSW) 30.31 29 Ron Schroeder (NSW) 30.38 30 Aaron Caden (NT) 30.48 31 John Waddell (WA) 30.52 32 Tavis Johannsen (NT) 31.15 33 Jimmy Goode (NSW) 32.32 34 Stuart Grimm (HongK) 32.48 35 Peter Nott (HongK) 33.06 36 Cosmo Richards (HongK) 33.19 37 Tony Hawke (NSW) 33.38 38 Peter Svara (NT) 34.42 39 Jack Dermody (WA) 35.52 40 Kristian Bitz (NT) 36.11 41 Ray Giddins (NSW) 36.35 42 Jonathan Cowan (VIC) 37.40 43 Malcolm Neville (NT) 38.52 44 Paul Witzerman (QLD) 39.49 45 Joe Ward (NSW) 41.44 46 Mike Heyburn (NT) 42.23 47 Kane Chandler (VIC) 43.14 48 Anthony Darr (NSW) 43.33 49 Steve Munyard (VIC) 44.12 50 Ramon Gregory (NT) 44.21 51 Steve Sauerwald (NT) 45.28 52 Bert Heathwood (SA) 45.49 53 Peter McGann (NT) 46.28 54 Kyle Bawden (NT) 46.44 55 Craig Armour (NSW) 46.49 56 Neil Prosser (NSW) 47.18 57 Martin Pritchard (NT) 48.59 58 Philip Blum (NT) 49.31 59 Jason Sprague (QLD) 50.08 60 Bryan Connell (NT) 54.17 61 Rob Parbery (NSW) 54.30 62 Greg Lander (QLD) 56.16 63 Matthew Barr (NSW) 56.41 64 Ben Scott (NSW) 58.48 65 Rick Swanwick-Howarth (NT) 1.01.42 66 Tony McLellan (NT) 1.02.48 67 Chris Jackson (QLD) 1.03.14 68 Vladimir Todorovski (VIC) 1.03.27 69 Manuel Silva 1.05.28 70 Helge Suhr (NT) 1.05.43 71 Andrew Pettitt (NT) 1.07.04 72 Craig Wilzen (NT) 1.14.36 73 Dan Harris (NT) 1.17.13 74 Todd Stafford (NSW) 1.19.07 75 Malcolm Barrett (QLD) 1.20.01 76 Justin Dabner (QLD) 1.20.45 77 Bruce McEllister (NT) 1.21.12 78 Paul Guerin (NT) 1.23.57 79 Euan Buchanan (VIC) 1.27.04 80 Iain Blair (VIC) 1.41.45 81 Dean Chandler (QLD) 1.42.50 82 Russell Goodwin (QLD) 2.13.05 DNS Dan Johnston DNS Richard Mountstephens Veteran Men 1 Craig Peacock (VIC) 1.54.18 2 Gwyn Tavener-Smith (NSW) 0.03 3 Gordon Garradd (NSW) 2.13 4 Hans Dielacher (NSW) 4.31 5 Ken Wilyman (NSW) 4.33 6 Kym Hansen (NT) 6.38 7 Robert Watson (NSW) 7.14 8 Chris Waring (NSW) 8.46 9 Graant Benett (NSW) 14.06 10 Laurie Berryman (NT) 16.31 11 Finlay Luff (VIC) 18.10 12 Paul Verheijden (VIC) 22.03 13 Mark Mannering (NT) 23.40 14 Steve Bryan (NT) 27.31 15 Alan Brockman (NT) 28.27 16 Mark Meyers (QLD) 28.55 16 John Nutter (NT) 18 Trevor Kloeden (NSW) 32.19 19 Pat Black (NT) 32.28 20 Adam Korab (NT) 36.08 21 Leon Fisher (SA) 38.13 22 David Wells (NT) 39.20 23 Lew Marshall (QLD) 39.23 24 Andrew Koop (NT) 49.35 25 Jungle Bateman (NT) 51.24 26 Col Smith (NT) 52.29 27 Jeff Hays (NT) 58.04 28 Leon Malzinskas (VIC) 1.36.40 29 Ian Johnson (NT) 1.43.34 30 Andre Gavlik (TAS) 2.04.58 Teams 1 Drew Robertson (NSW)/Ian Robinson (NSW) 2.08.53 2 Damian McGrath (NT)/Michael Vroom (NT) 2.49 3 Matthew Guggisberg (NT)/Simon Murphy (NT) 3.39 4 Craig Trevallion (NSW)/Matt Ogilvie (ACT) 23.48 5 Malcolm Johnston (NT)/Mathew Pirani (NT) 27.39 6 Nigel Blake (NSW)/Ben Goscombe (NT) 30.53 Mixed Teams 1 Alison Whitehead (QLD)/Ron Whitehead (QLD) 2.55.39 2 Virginia Ffitch (NSW)/Andrew Lloyd (NSW) 1.02.23 3 Hamish Fitzhardinge (NSW)/Kylie Henry (NSW ) 1.02.25
