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By Garry Doughty
There is nothing like a time trial or as the Europeans call it 'the race of truth' to decrease the number of riders at the weekly race. There is no hiding in the bunch waiting for the sprint or having a rest in someone's slipstream. A time trial it is just the rider against the elements and himself.
The morning started off quite promising with very little wind and a clearing sky but by the time the first rider set off the breeze had picked up and was starting to gust. Recently appointed National Development Officer for Cycling Australia and coach for the Illawarra Academy of Sport cycling squad Glen Doney was on hand to hold the riders up for their start.
The riders set off at 1 minute intervals. Joe Chiaverini provided the excitement of the morning when he twisted his foot into his chain ring and making a hell of a racquet but managed to stay upright. Not to be deterred he regained his composure and set off like a scalded cat.
The riders had been seeded with the slowest starting off first and the rider expected to record the fastest time starting last. The early results came in close to the times anticipated by the handicapper, all be it a little slower from the effects of the wind.
The early surprise was the 28:04 recorded by Dave Russel. Russel has been steadily improving over the year, resulting in his elevation to A grade, but the time was below what had been expected, in fact with nine riders still to finish it was the fastest time recorded.
As the riders that were expected to record quicker times and therefore had started behind Russel came in it was evident that under the wind conditions his time was excellent.
Frank Soto had looked the goods out on the course and this was confirmed when he crossed the line with an elapsed time of 28:25, second fastest so far. Russel's time still held.
The next rider to come into view after Soto was Adam Rourke. He had started off last and had caught and passed the two riders infront of him. His personal best time to date was low a 28 minute.
Rourke stopped the clock at 49:45, after taking off the 23 minutes that he started on his elapsed time was 26:45. A very respectable time for the distance and almost 1:30 under his personal best time.
Next Sunday's race is a 27.5km scratch race with group 2 providing the marshals.
(handicap time in brackets) 1 Adam Rourke (0.23) 26.45 2 Dave Russel (0.16) 1.19 3 Frank Soto (0.20) 1.40 4 Rob Calladine (0.19) 1.58 5 Mal Haigh (0.22) 2.03 6 Raf Moriana (0.18) 2.13 7 Tim Morris (0.21) 2.39 8 Marcus Arnold (0.15) 2.39 9 Richard Lorenc (0.14) 3.00 10 Joe Pereira (0.12) 3.39 11 Patrick Delahunty (0.10) 4.07 12 Mark Owen (0.07) 4.17 13 Kirk Brown (0.08) 4.27 14 Paul Hooper (0.17) 4.35 15 Tony Pulo (0.13) 4.36 16 Lionel Covington (0.11) 4.41 17 Tony Clifford (0.03) 5.11 18 Phil Jones (0.09) 5.12 19 Dave Morris (0.05) 5.25 20 Jeff Gray (0.06) 5.51 21 Joe Chiaverini (0.01) 6.26 22 Paul Kaye (0.04) 8.06 23 Peter Vesel (0.02) 8.25 24 Max Baker (0.00) 8.52