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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 4 - May 17: The Gorey & Cole Drillers Track, 46 km
Lefman breaks through for a stage win
For your average office worker, Wednesday is called hump day and for the riders of the Central Australian Bike Challenge, Wednesday means that by the end of today they were over bulk of the riding with just two stages to go.
However today wasn't a stage to be taken lightly with 51km of rocky singletrack, corrugated dirt roads and seemingly endless wheel sucking sand. So as to quell an outbreak of rider protest, the race organisation placed some particularly fine singletrack at the beginning and the end the stage. In between that, well, less said the better.
Men
After a dominant display all week, Matt Fleming (Trek) found himself on the third step of the podium while Aiden Lefman (Cannondale/Maxxis) finally found the legs for a long awaited stage win. It was very tight racing up the front, with all the now familiar jerseys jostling for position into the first singletrack. On the dirt road section, tactics came into play with the Scott team of Frendo, Jackson, Lewis and Both attacking hard but to no avail.
With 6km to go Lefman attacked, gapping the remaining pack, eventually pushing it to 30 seconds on the line. Fleming was content to merely defend his 10 minute overall lead, sitting in 2nd only to hesitate navigating the final downhill singletrack, allowing Shaun Lewis to pass, who held it to the end. "I had Matty's help, he kept me out of the wind and we were able to control the race and then I zipped off with 6km to go" Lefman said.
The overall standings remain unchanged, with only stage wins realistically up for grabs in the final two stages.
Women
The fastest female of today's stage isn't even in the Open women's category as Vet woman's leader Janine Ridsdale took the fastest time for the ladies by a minute over the womens race leader Katrin Van der Spiegel. Unlike her hubby Matt, Kimberly Fleming is finding a stage win elusive coming in 2nd again, while Imogen Smith's chances of regaining the race leaders jersey slipped further away with a flat tyre costing her another couple of minutes.
Veterans
As previously mentioned Janine Ridsdale showed she could have been a serious threat in the Open class with another win today. The minor places didn't change for the 4th stage in a row, Sharon Prutton in 2nd and Carolyn Jackson 3rd.
The vet mens race was the most exciting all day, coming down to a dramatic sprint finish on the fast gravel skirting the lush greens of the Alice Springs Golf Club. Gordon Garradd took the win a length ahead of Hans Dielacher and Craig Peacock shook his tail feather into third.
Tomorrow's stage is a fast and furious 31km of bitumen, fireroad, singletrack and a fast finish along the Old Stuart Highway back to Anzac Hill in Alice Springs. The elite riders are expected to cover the course in just over an hour.
Results
Open Women 1 Katrin Van Der Spiegel (NSW) 2.29.34 2 Kimberley Fleming (NSW) 3.19 3 Belinda Allison (NSW) 4.11 4 Imogen Smith (QLD) 9.32 5 Nicole James (NT) 13.12 6 Gayle Connell (NT) 21.11 7 Meg Chalker (ACT) 23.46 8 Tania Churchill (ACT) 30.43 9 Dior Loveridge (NSW) 32.06 10 Justine Gerdsen (NT) 36.02 11 Lyndall Smythe (NT) 36.48 12 Stacey Bitz (NT) 44.39 13 Nicole Burton (NT) 48.08 14 Merridy Pearce (SA) 1.13.12 15 Rosanne Kwan (NSW) 1.20.36 Veteran Women 1 Janine Ridsdale (NSW) 2.28.14 2 Sharon Prutton (NZ) 10.52 3 Carolyn Jackson (VIC) 20.47 4 Jane Ollerenshaw (VIC) 41.57 5 Kathy Hays (NT) 57.13 6 Katrina Roper (NT) 1.04.17 7 Debra Eason (VIC) 1.28.40 8 Jenny Anderson (NT) 1.36.29 DNS Kim Kelleher (QLD) Open Men 1 Aiden Lefmann (NSW) 2.01.49 2 Shaun Lewis (ACT) 0.23 3 Matthew Fleming (NSW) 0.27 4 Adrian Jackson (VIC) 0.37 5 Nick Both (NSW) 0.44 6 Alex Randall (VIC) 1.25 7 Mark Frendo (QLD) 1.39 8 Jason Chalker (ACT) 2.21 9 Andrew Crawley (NSW) 7.10 10 Mick Café (NT) 7.22 11 Graham Rankin (NT) 8.24 12 David Clark (SA) 9.27 13 Straun Lamont (QLD) 9.39 14 Ashley Wass (SA) 11.10 15 Liam O'Dea (NSW) 12.18 16 Vince O'Brien (NT) 13.06 17 Jason Mansbridge (HongK) 15.05 18 Paul Darvodelsky (NSW) 19 Craig Cross (NT) 16.12 20 Chris Lander (NSW) 20.10 21 Sam Latz (NT) 21.05 22 Neville Bailey (HongK) 22.10 23 Cosmo Richards (HongK) 22.37 24 Jaime Burton (NT) 23.51 25 Aaron Caden (NT) 23.52 26 Tim Hay (QLD) 26.24 27 Anthony Darr (NSW) 26.47 28 Jimmy Goode (NSW) 27.05 29 Mark Hardy (NSW) 27.09 30 Tavis Johannsen (NT) 27.39 31 Peter Nott (HongK) 27.55 32 Richard Mountstephens 27.57 33 James Gardner (ACT) 28.22 34 Ron Schroeder (NSW) 28.32 35 Matt Jones (NT) 30.31 36 Stuart Grimm (HongK) 30.53 37 Bert Heathwood (SA) 33.30 38 Jonathan Cowan (VIC) 33.41 39 Kane Chandler (VIC) 34.53 40 Jason Sprague (QLD) 34.59 41 Steve Munyard (VIC) 35.06 42 Peter Svara (NT) 35.12 43 Joe Ward (NSW) 37.27 44 Tony Hawke (NSW) 37.30 45 Martin Pritchard (NT) 39.31 46 Kyle Bawden (NT) 40.03 47 Kristian Bitz (NT) 40.11 48 Ray Giddins (NSW) 40.22 49 Jack Dermody (WA) 40.57 50 Ramon Gregory (NT) 43.04 51 Steve Sauerwald (NT) 43.36 52 Bryan Connell (NT) 45.17 53 Mike Heyburn (NT) 45.37 54 Paul Witzerman (QLD) 45.59 55 Peter McGann (NT) 47.25 56 Paul Guerin (NT) 47.46 57 Todd Stafford (NSW) 49.00 58 Malcolm Neville (NT) 50.19 59 Philip Blum (NT) 52.23 60 John Waddell (WA) 56.12 61 Craig Armour (NSW) 56.28 62 Rob Parbery (NSW) 57.36 63 Helge Suhr (NT) 58.28 64 Chris Jackson (QLD) 59.41 65 Ben Scott (NSW) 59.51 66 Neil Prosser (NSW) 1.00.10 67 Greg Lander (QLD) 1.00.52 68 Matthew Barr (NSW) 1.03.11 69 Craig Wilzen (NT) 1.03.21 70 Rick Swanwick-Howarth (NT) 1.04.34 71 Tony McLellan (NT) 1.05.57 72 Manuel Silva 1.08.23 73 Andrew Pettitt (NT) 1.10.05 74 Justin Dabner (QLD) 1.10.40 75 Malcolm Barrett (QLD) 1.12.30 76 Vladimir Todorovski (VIC) 1.13.27 77 Dan Harris (NT) 1.14.37 78 Bruce McEllister (NT) 1.16.39 79 Euan Buchanan (VIC) 1.29.00 80 Iain Blair (VIC) 1.29.59 81 Dean Chandler (QLD) 82 Russell Goodwin (QLD) 1.44.43 DNF Corey Gerdsen (NT) DNS Dan Johnston Veteran Men 1 Gordon Garradd (NSW) 2.16.54 2 Hans Dielacher (NSW) 3 Craig Peacock (VIC) 2.15 4 Kym Hansen (NT) 6.55 5 Robert Watson (NSW) 7.35 6 Laurie Berryman (NT) 8.10 7 Gwyn Tavener-Smith (NSW) 9.50 8 Ken Wilyman (NSW) 14.38 9 Chris Waring (NSW) 18.30 10 Graant Benett (NSW) 20.53 11 Finlay Luff (VIC) 22.11 12 David Wells (NT) 24.26 13 Mark Mannering (NT) 26.12 14 Steve Bryan (NT) 26.52 15 Mark Meyers (QLD) 27.49 16 John Nutter (NT) 28.04 17 Lew Marshall (QLD) 30.19 18 Trevor Kloeden (NSW) 30.21 19 Paul Verheijden (VIC) 31.50 20 Leon Fisher (SA) 37.36 21 Adam Korab (NT) 42.18 22 Pat Black (NT) 47.06 23 Alan Brockman (NT) 49.43 24 Andrew Koop (NT) 52.24 25 Jeff Hays (NT) 55.50 26 Jungle Bateman (NT) 59.36 27 Col Smith (NT) 1.08.12 28 Ian Johnson (NT) 1.34.30 29 Leon Malzinskas (VIC) 1.35.07 DNS Andre Gavlik (TAS) Teams 1 Drew Robertson (NSW)/Ian Robinson (NSW) 2.35.54 2 Matthew Guggisberg (NT)/Simon Murphy (NT) 0.46 3 Damian McGrath (NT)/Michael Vroom (NT) 12.25 4 Craig Trevallion (NSW)/Matt Ogilvie (ACT) 21.05 5 Nigel Blake (NSW)/Ben Goscombe (NT) 24.45 DNS Malcolm Johnston (NT)/Mathew Pirani (NT) Mixed Teams 1 Alison Whitehead (QLD)/Ron Whitehead (QLD) 3.20.27 2 Virginia Ffitch (NSW)/Andrew Lloyd (NSW) 46.19 3 Hamish Fitzhardinge (NSW)/Kylie Henry (NSW ) 1.15.46
