Results and Reports for February 9New Zealand Mountainbike Championships, #4Taupo, New Zealand, February 6, 2000 Courtesy of Jeff Lyall/NZMBA Results Cross-country Pro-elite men 1 Paul Bishop 2.25.04 2 Jeremy Houlthan 1.48 3 Timothy Vincent 4.25 4 Dean Hill 4.42 5 Andrew East 5.09 6 Andrew Reid 5.59 7 Stuart Houltham 6.11 8 Mark Leishman 6.14 9 Ben Powell 7.38 10 Steve Pearson 8.13 Cross-country Pro-Elite Women 1 Susy Pryde 2.20.02 2 Sadie Parker 3.40 3 Lisa Savage 6.07 4 Brenda Clapp 7.16 5 Sarah King 7.29 6 Sharon Harris 8.20 7 Patricia Wrigley 9.46 8 Robyn Wong 13.29 9 Nic Kelly 14.09 10 Myra Moller 20.44 Downhill Pro-Elite Men 1 Rankin Nathan 3.50.0 2 Paterson Karl 0.11.8 3 Wilson Shaun 0.12.7 4 Kirkcaldie John 0.14.5 5 De Graff Jason 0.16.5 6 Rogers Dene 0.18.6 7 Mcginnity Craig 0.18.9 8 Metz Robert 0.20.0 9 Lynch Stuart 0.21.5 10 Flexman James 0.24.6 Pro-Elite Women 1 Quin Vanessa 04.28.5 2 Horlor Lisa 0.03.8 3 Macleod Sheryl 0.12.3 4 Drabble Kirsten 0.34.0 5 Campbell Elizabeth 1.32.3 Carnegie-Caulfield CriteriumsMulgrave, Australia, February 8, 2000 Courtesy of Mark Chadwick The forecast top temperature of 39C failed to arrive but did keep the numbers down this evening. The 133 riders who faced the starter welcomed a cooling sea breeze that rose as the evening progressed. 25 men in A grade, a quality field that was not going to let last week's escape occur again. Attacks were pounced on with vigor and any counters were dealt with with similar aggression. Early in the race the spectators had the opportunity to watch a classic "locked handlebars" crash right in the finishing straight. Anthony Smith was unlucky enough to have his bike bent as well as losing skin, minor scrapes to the other two participants. As the bell rang the bunch was all together, then Luke Weir skipped away and held a handy lead to the finish. Weir is returning to Guernica in the Basque country next week to resume racing with Saunier-Duval. He won the Rioja Trophy and the Basque mountain championships in 1999 and is starting to show some form after laying down the base km’s in the Australian summer. Second home was state road and crit champ Robert Tighello out sprinting Mildara Blass Bay series rookie Michael Gill and Rob Young. Russell Newnham took the first prize money tonight thanks largely to Ashley Goewie’s last lap effort, and will ride the rest of the summer in A grade. A promising break of eight or nine riders held a solid 20 second advantage during the latter half of the race, however the bunch was determined to sprint and the trains formed. Footscray’s Glen Hutchison managed second ahead of Matt Heath and Glen Harley in a hard fought sprint. C grade, with 46 starters, drew back two early breakaway attempts then seemed to decide en masse to ride quickly to the finish and sprint. Tandem pilot Russell Wolfe had the night off from steering for vision impaired Christine Fisher and won a hurly-burly sprint from Peter Costello, Ron "Gadget" Gallagher and "Fast" Eddie Perez. The veterans cleaned up in D grade. After a quick 45 minutes in which many attacks came to nothing yet another sprint saw Ray Smith get over the club president Bob Beattie. Mick Braund took third and the amazing Bill Dove took fourth. "Dovey" is 74 years old and won the Melbourne to Warrnambool road race in the mid 1970’s. Results A GRADE 25 Starters 60 minutes + 3 laps 1 Luke Weir 2 Robert Tighello 3 Michael Gill 4 Rob Young B GRADE 34 Starters 60 minutes + 3 laps 1 Russell Newnham 2 Glen Hutchison 3 Matt Heath 4 Glen Harley C GRADE 46 Starters 40 minutes + 3 laps 1 Russell Wolfe 2 Peter Costello 3 Ron Gallagher 4 Eddie Perez D GRADE 28 Starters 35 minutes + 3 laps 1 Ray Smith 2 Bob Beattie 3 Mick Braund 4 Bill Dove |