Promoters wishing to submit results should send them to cyclingnews
By Mark Chillingworth
If there is a race on near the office, there is usually someone from the cyclingnews
teams keen to don the padded shorts, and in the case of the 2001 Sydney Urban
Polaris, wet weather coat and get out there and compete. For the race around
the north shore of Sydney, it fell to me and the trusty Giant XTC test bike.
For those of you who aren't in the know, Polaris events are orienteering races
for mountain bikers. The Sydney Urban event mixes the challenges of the many
National Parks around the suburbs, with a bit of urban warrior mountain bike
riding. As a result, you get to prove your single track skills are every bit
as good as your kerb hopping and flying jumps over traffic calming humps. That
said, the organisers do not tolerate irresponsible bike use and this competitor
saw nothing but well mannered competition.
For the 2001 event the organisers took the event to the beautiful northern shores
of coastal Sydney. Cross the famous bridge and Sydney takes on a green and lush
look, dotted amongst the coves and beaches are some great national parks and
houses that make you wish you'd sold your soul and taken a job that was high
on salary and low on moral fibre. The topography is also on the challenging
side, it's hilly and the extra chain ring of a mountain bike is certainly needed
(especially if you are as unfit as Mark. Ed).
The whole idea of entering this event in Sydney, as an Englishman, was to race
in enjoyable weather, well, Sydney could have been good old Blighty on Saturday.
When it rains in Sydney, it truly rains, like Australian people, if it's going
to do something, it will do it straight and with no fuss. Thus the 147 of the
157 registered riders set off from the start under threatening clouds, and it
wasn't long before we were all taking part in water sports, a popular past time
here, but not with bikes.
The cyclingnews team had to chant the saying, 'it's the taking part that counts,
not the winning.' Why? Well, I'd be the first to admit my fitness has dropped
off faster than a downhill bike on a dual-slalom track, or Ullrich in the World's.
Coupled to that, team mate Andy and I made some pretty horrendous navigation
errors and team strategy decisions.
Polaris events are team events and this is one of the beauties of them. I could
sit here and blame my team mate for making me spin my knees faster than a retreating
Talaban tank in the pouring rain, but we made the decisions together, agreed
the strategy together, and together we got it quite outstandingly wrong. As
with all wrong decisions, there's a price to pay and it usually rears its ugly
head pretty quickly. Having set off in completely the wrong direction and spent
far too long chasing far too few points, we were getting wet, in fact we were
getting very wet, and then the mechanical problems started. But we were not
deterred, my team mate is one of the most competitive people I know and wouldn't
give up on a clear loser (like Mark). And that is the spirit of these events,
it is a heap of fun. For all our misuse of the map we managed to find Check
Point 13, unlucky for some and one of the least visited and undoubtedly hardest
points to find. We were rewarded with some good slippery sandstone single tracking
to get to it.
With the weather getting worse and the middle ring dead on Andy's bike, we decided
to head for suburbs, and rack up some points. Sydney's north shore has some
of the hilliest suburbs and as you slog up hills in the pouring rain, it doesn't
do your self confidence or determination a lot of good to see some of the most
amazing houses pass you bye. There were more than a few moments when I considered
becoming what ever it was that these people got paid so much to do.
The marshals on the event cannot go without a mention, they're efforts make
these events possible, and although not cold out here, sitting in the rain all
day just to allow cyclists to have a laugh is just, well, nice. Especially the
very kind marshal at Check Point 14 with the Jelly Babies - thank you!
Due to the problems high lighted and the terrible lack of fitness on my part,
our team came in 100th over-all, not a good result when you consider the efforts
of Jeff Jones and Øyvind Aas from the cyclingnews team. We racked up
150 points, dropped 20 through being late back in. The winners Ian Stewart and
Graeme Moffett collected 400 points - their route, as you can guess, was somewhat
different to ours.
As ever with amateur races, the camaraderie was fantastic with the usual post
race swapping of stories as we queued for the much needed sausage sandwiches.
The start point was a good venue, unless, like us, you were without a car, making
access the start by train very difficult. A small complaint in an otherwise
very well organised event.
Polaris events have to appear on your list of 10 things to do on a bicycle,
the mix of map reading, problem solving, off-road and on-road riding coupled
with fitness, working against the clock is just great fun, very challenging
and rewarding.
Sadly this was the last Urban Polaris in Sydney, the events organiser Huw Kingston
announced at the prize giving that he would not be staging any more events in
the city, citing bureaucracy as the killer of this great event. (See
news story)
Time Points 1 Ian Stewart/Graeme Moffet (Men) 8.08 392 2 Andy Simpson/Neil Prosser (Men) 7.43 390 3 Rodney Hart/Steve Gibbs (Men) 7.44 390 4 Toby Cogley/Rosemary King (Mixed) 7.58 390 5 Bruce Perry/Nick Lake (Men) 7.58 380 6 David Cottee/Mike Kent (Men) 7.56 360 7 Damien Demunck/Richard Davis (Men) 7.51 350 8 Sean Fitzpatrick/Ian Simpson (Men) 7.32 330 9 Gaye Camm/Melanie Mc Intyre (Women) 7.43 330 10 Jonathan Potts/Tom Brennan (Men) 7.55 330 11 Eric Dole/Andrew Lewin (Men) 8.16 330 12 Glenn Horrocks/Merryn Mathie (Mixed) 7.40 320 13 Greg James/David Coward (Men) 7.46 310 14 David West/Martin Handley (Men) 8.09 291 15 Richard Bourne/Roger Bourne (Vet) 8.13 275 16 Tony Board/Alan Garde (Men) 7.22 270 17 Kin-Yat Lo/Chris Smith (U21) 7.30 270 18 Daniel Cooper/Emma Cooper (Mixed) 7.37 260 19 Gary Farebrother/Glen Farebrother (Men) 7.56 260 20 Julian Thompson/Mat Garrod (Men) 7.59 260 21 Mark Cranston/Thomas Cranston (Men) 8.02 258 22 Michael Blackwell/Michael Curley (U21) 8.03 257 23 Nigel Leadbitter/Stephen Harvey (Men) 8.08 252 24 Jeff Ray/Stewart Mitchell (Vet) 8.08 252 25 Jason Goddard/Mark Worsfold (Men) 7.44 250 26 Ian Cameron/Susan Kurrle (Vet) 8.00 250 27 Stephen Lacey/Oliver Whatnall (Men) 8.01 249 28 Eddie Bosch/Steve Mc Millan (Vet) 8.04 246 29 Helen Jeffs/Vinessa Berry (Women) 8.11 245 30 Gary Bortz/Clive Bortz (Men) 8.06 244 31 Stephen Moon/Jacinta Garrett (Mixed) 8.08 242 32 Stephen Reynolds/Janelle White (Mixed) 7.13 240 33 Stuart Clark/Heather Selwyn (Mixed) 7.32 240 34 Rob Russell/Chris Clement (Men) 7.32 240 35 Grant Cunningham/Andrew Martin (Men) 8.05 235 36 Stuart Mcintyre/Simon Blakers (Men) 6.50 230 37 Guido Simionato/Roger Simionato (Super Vet) 6.52 230 38 Peter Lane/Robert Lane (Men) 7.34 230 39 Penelope Maher/Robyn Simionato (Women) 7.43 230 40 Elizabeth Carritt/Nicole Lowres (Women) 7.55 230 41 Marcel Van Schie/Jill Mc Naught (Mixed) 8.12 230 42 Dana Skopal/Joanne Clendon (Women) 7.34 220 43 Richard Mountstephens/Katrin Van Der Speigel (Mixed) 7.46 220 44 Colin Baker/Greg Conroy (Men) 7.48 220 45 Val Gomez/Katie Lahodny (Mixed) 7.32 210 46 Paul Adamson/Paul Aubrey (U21) 6.38 200 47 Phil Munn/Stephen Kershaw (Men) 7.17 200 48 Fiona Russell/Martine Robin (Women) 7.25 200 49 David Hocking/Bryan Van Eck (Men) 7.44 200 50 Alex Mc Nee/Greg Berry (Vet) 7.48 200 51 Paul Haynes/Rik Eagles (Vet) 7.53 200 52 Justin Bagge/Simon Hayes (Men) 8.12 200 53 Ian Greenwood/Steven Higgins (Men) 8.02 198 54 Andrew Thom/John Aurisch (Vet) 7.18 190 55 Jamie Cunningham/Brooke Cunningham (Mixed) 7.19 190 56 Lynn Dabbs/Kevin Williams (Super Vet) 7.27 190 57 Andrew Harmer/John Moran (Men) 7.44 190 58 Fee Macrae/Jill Calkin (Women) 7.47 190 59 Bill Lewis/Peter Taylor (Vet) 7.49 190 60 Mark Krawiarz/Sergio Corona (Men) 7.49 190 61 Jason Kaul/Tony Jones (Men) 7.51 190 62 Ionas Kaltenbach/Rilke Kaltenbach (Men) 7.31 180 63 Amirah Kullack/Miles Mc Cusker (Mixed) 7.42 180 64 Philip Dupal/Phil Lamrock (Men) 7.42 180 65 Ralph Noldan/Gordon Ward (Men) 7.45 180 66 Paul Mason/Stephen Rowley (Men) 7.46 180 67 Mike Baldwin/Colin Wagstaff (Men) 7.48 180 68 Robert Strong/Adrian Brown (Vet) 7.57 180 69 Wayne Thompson/John Curtis (Vet) 7.18 170 70 Steve Robinson/Vincent Moreau (Men) 7.33 170 71 John Rawlinson/John Watson (Men) 7.37 170 72 David Napper/Robbie Napper (Men) 7.40 170 73 Arthur Crampton/Jim Prendergast (Vet) 7.45 170 74 Michael Moore/Robyn Sharpe (Mixed) 7.48 170 75 Ian Smith/Blanka Galebiowski (Mixed) 7.58 170 76 Daniel Gerber/Greg Reinhardt (Men) 8.02 168 77 Tomasz Kaminski/Christina Sidor (Mixed) 8.02 168 78 Christian Godyn/Brett Whalan (Men) 5.53 160 79 Les Dowd/Jody Marshall (Men) 6.23 160 80 Dean Jones/Christine Duncan (Mixed) 7.19 160 81 Nigel Eggins/David Browne (Men) 7.19 160 82 Ann-Marie Reid/Adam Granquist (Mixed) 7.27 160 83 Janice Bates/Stewart Doig (Mixed) 7.56 160 84 Mark Cohen/Darryl Sacks (Men) 7.59 160 85 Lou Vaccari/Nick Vaccari (Men) 8.07 153 86 Martin Budd/Trent Sutton (Men) 8.08 152 87 Brett Longley/Mathew Halls (Men) 7.07 150 88 John Woldhuis/Karine Woldhuis (Mixed) 7.15 150 89 Lesley Vest/Michelle Van Der Voort (Women) 7.15 150 90 Fred Bangert/Marianne Bangert (Mixed) 7.58 150 91 Jimmy Chan/Seamus Frahill (Men) 8.02 148 92 Glenn Dickson/John Green (Vet) 7.13 140 93 Anthony Darr/Christine Curtin (Mixed) 7.20 140 94 Paul Rowe/Craig Learmonth (Men) 7.30 140 95 Greg Searle/Graham Smith (Super Vet) 7.39 140 96 Dileen De Silva/Graeme Millar (Men) 7.56 140 97 Anna Parry/Emily Ravenscroft (Women) 7.45 130 98 Ross Thomas/Dominique Bond (Mixed) 7.54 130 99 Dave Shailer/David Mcneice (Men) 7.54 130 100 Andy Kervell/Mark Chillingworth (Men) 8.12 130 101 Shannon Ryan/Robert Martin (Men) 6.03 120 102 Stephen Ross/Joel Wright (Men) 6.36 120 103 Sean Wright/Don Dixon (Men) 6.56 120 104 Dennis Valsamis/Jason Tighe (Men) 7.06 120 105 Greg Scheetz/Chris Luff (Vet) 7.51 120 106 Andrew Vickery/Lincoln Keogh (Men) 6.05 110 107 Andrew Johnson/Bruce Bennett (Men) 6.35 110 108 Brian Farrelly/Bronwyn Thornhill (Mixed) 7.10 110 109 John Seidel/Sophie Powrie (Mixed) 7.16 110 110 Brian Budd/Michael Dark (Men) 7.49 110 111 Nathan Breen/Megan Wilson (Mixed) 7.57 110 112 Andrew Dodds/Brad Truran (Men) 6.21 100 113 Darren Marks/Christine Pratt (Mixed) 7.10 100 114 Paul Darvodelsky/Vanessa Knight (Mixed) 6.18 90 115 Michael Smith/Peter Baldwin (Men) 7.05 90 116 Ross Easton/Gared Simmons (Men) 7.18 90 117 Gerard Coggan/Anthea Coggan (Mixed) 7.52 90 118 Craig Starling/Chris Wallace (Men) 7.56 90 119 Simon Dale/Sonia Mc Manus (Vet) 7.56 90 120 Peter Mc Conaghy/Wendy Mc Conaghy (Mixed) 5.04 80 121 Jane Mac Cormick/Pam Fairhurst (Women) 6.41 80 122 Nicholas Thain/Dominic Sims (Men) 8.27 80 123 Anthony Wentzel/Eugene Dagher (Men) 5.45 70 124 Gavin Wright/Jason Wright (Men) 7.03 70 125 Melissa Foster/Narelle Walters (Women) 6.47 60 126 Dwayne Grant/Kellie Foster (Mixed) 6.47 60 127 Stephen Levett/Brian Morton (Super Vet) 8.18 60 128 Rob Bradford/Matt Donnan (Men) 8.28 60 129 Gabe Holmik/Sam Cowley (Men) 8.26 30 130 Andrew Waudby/Andrew Carroll (Men) 8.37 20 131 Andrew Narunsky/Stephen Gould (Men) 8.31 10 132 Melissa Butcher/Geoff Nash (Mixed) 8.33 0 133 Tim Easton/Alistar Catterall (U21) 8.38 0 134 Marea England/Stephen Murphy (Mixed) 8.45 0 135 Wayne O'Young/David Earls (Men) 8.57 0 136 Stephen Bannister/John Kane (Vet) 9.20 0
Men Time Points 1 Ian Stewart/Graeme Moffet 8.08 392 2 Andy Simpson/Neil Prosser 7.43 390 3 Rodney Hart/Steve Gibbs 7.44 390 4 Bruce Perry/Nick Lake 7.58 380 5 David Cottee/Mike Kent 7.56 360 6 Damien Demunck/Richard Davis 7.51 350 7 Sean Fitzpatrick/Ian Simpson 7.32 330 8 Jonathan Potts/Tom Brennan 7.55 330 9 Eric Dole/Andrew Lewin 8.16 330 10 Greg James/David Coward 7.46 310 11 David West/Martin Handley 8.09 291 12 Tony Board/Alan Garde 7.22 270 13 Gary Farebrother/Glen Farebrother 7.56 260 14 Julian Thompson/Mat Garrod 7.59 260 15 Mark Cranston/Thomas Cranston 8.02 258 16 Nigel Leadbitter/Stephen Harvey 8.08 252 17 Jason Goddard/Mark Worsfold 7.44 250 18 Stephen Lacey/Oliver Whatnall 8.01 249 19 Gary Bortz/Clive Bortz 8.06 244 20 Rob Russell/Chris Clement 7.32 240 21 Grant Cunningham/Andrew Martin 8.05 235 22 Stuart Mcintyre/Simon Blakers 6.50 230 23 Peter Lane/Robert Lane 7.34 230 24 Colin Baker/Greg Conroy 7.48 220 25 Phil Munn/Stephen Kershaw 7.17 200 26 David Hocking/Bryan Van Eck 7.44 200 27 Justin Bagge/Simon Hayes 8.12 200 28 Ian Greenwood/Steven Higgins 8.02 198 29 Andrew Harmer/John Moran 7.44 190 30 Mark Krawiarz/Sergio Corona 7.49 190 31 Jason Kaul/Tony Jones 7.51 190 32 Ionas Kaltenbach/Rilke Kaltenbach 7.31 180 33 Philip Dupal/Phil Lamrock 7.42 180 34 Ralph Noldan/Gordon Ward 7.45 180 35 Paul Mason/Stephen Rowley 7.46 180 36 Mike Baldwin/Colin Wagstaff 7.48 180 37 Steve Robinson/Vincent Moreau 7.33 170 38 John Rawlinson/John Watson 7.37 170 39 David Napper/Robbie Napper 7.40 170 40 Daniel Gerber/Greg Reinhardt 8.02 168 41 Christian Godyn/Brett Whalan 5.53 160 42 Les Dowd/Jody Marshall 6.23 160 43 Nigel Eggins/David Browne 7.19 160 44 Mark Cohen/Darryl Sacks 7.59 160 45 Lou Vaccari/Nick Vaccari 8.07 153 46 Martin Budd/Trent Sutton 8.08 152 47 Brett Longley/Mathew Halls 7.07 150 48 Jimmy Chan/Seamus Frahill 8.02 148 49 Paul Rowe/Craig Learmonth 7.30 140 50 Dileen De Silva/Graeme Millar 7.56 140 51 Dave Shailer/David Mcneice 7.54 130 52 Andy Kervell/Mark Chillingworth 8.12 130 53 Shannon Ryan/Robert Martin 6.03 120 54 Stephen Ross/Joel Wright 6.36 120 55 Sean Wright/Don Dixon 6.56 120 56 Dennis Valsamis/Jason Tighe 7.06 120 57 Andrew Vickery/Lincoln Keogh 6.05 110 58 Andrew Johnson/Bruce Bennett 6.35 110 59 Brian Budd/Michael Dark 7.49 110 60 Andrew Dodds/Brad Truran 6.21 100 61 Michael Smith/Peter Baldwin 7.05 90 62 Ross Easton/Gared Simmons 7.18 90 63 Craig Starling/Chris Wallace 7.56 90 64 Nicholas Thain/Dominic Sims 8.27 80 65 Anthony Wentzel/Eugene Dagher 5.45 70 66 Gavin Wright/Jason Wright 7.03 70 67 Rob Bradford/Matt Donnan 8.28 60 68 Gabe Holmik/Sam Cowley 8.26 30 69 Andrew Waudby/Andrew Carroll 8.37 20 70 Andrew Narunsky/Stephen Gould 8.31 10 71 Wayne O'Young/David Earls 8.57 0 Mixed Time Points 1 Toby Cogley/Rosemary King 7.58 390 2 Glenn Horrocks/Merryn Mathie 7.40 320 3 Daniel Cooper/Emma Cooper 7.37 260 4 Stephen Moon/Jacinta Garrett 8.08 242 5 Stephen Reynolds/Janelle White 7.13 240 6 Stuart Clark/Heather Selwyn 7.32 240 7 Marcel Van Schie/Jill Mc Naught 8.12 230 8 Richard Mountstephens/Katrin Van Der Speigel 7.46 220 9 Val Gomez/Katie Lahodny 7.32 210 10 Jamie Cunningham/Brooke Cunningham 7.19 190 11 Amirah Kullack/Miles Mc Cusker 7.42 180 12 Michael Moore/Robyn Sharpe 7.48 170 13 Ian Smith/Blanka Galebiowski 7.58 170 14 Tomasz Kaminski/Christina Sidor 8.02 168 15 Dean Jones/Christine Duncan 7.19 160 16 Ann-Marie Reid/Adam Granquist 7.27 160 17 Janice Bates/Stewart Doig 7.56 160 18 John Woldhuis/Karine Woldhuis 7.15 150 19 Fred Bangert/Marianne Bangert 7.58 150 20 Anthony Darr/Christine Curtin 7.20 140 21 Ross Thomas/Dominique Bond 7.54 130 22 Brian Farrelly/Bronwyn Thornhill 7.10 110 23 John Seidel/Sophie Powrie 7.16 110 24 Nathan Breen/Megan Wilson 7.57 110 25 Darren Marks/Christine Pratt 7.10 100 26 Paul Darvodelsky/Vanessa Knight 6.18 90 27 Gerard Coggan/Anthea Coggan 7.52 90 28 Peter Mc Conaghy/Wendy Mc Conaghy 5.04 80 29 Dwayne Grant/Kellie Foster 6.47 60 30 Melissa Butcher/Geoff Nash 8.33 0 31 Marea England/Stephen Murphy 8.45 0 Super Vet Time Points 1 Guido Simionato/Roger Simionato 6.52 230 2 Lynn Dabbs/Kevin Williams 7.27 190 3 Greg Searle/Graham Smith 7.39 140 4 Stephen Levett/Brian Morton 8.18 60 U21 Time Points 1 Kin-Yat Lo/Chris Smith 7.30 270 2 Michael Blackwell/Michael Curley 8.03 257 3 Paul Adamson/Paul Aubrey 6.38 200 4 Tim Easton/Alistar Catterall 8.38 0 Vet Time Points 1 Richard Bourne/Roger Bourne 8.13 275 2 Jeff Ray/Stewart Mitchell 8.08 252 3 Ian Cameron/Susan Kurrle 8.00 250 4 Eddie Bosch/Steve Mc Millan 8.04 246 5 Alex Mc Nee/Greg Berry 7.48 200 6 Paul Haynes/Rik Eagles 7.53 200 7 Andrew Thom/John Aurisch 7.18 190 8 Bill Lewis/Peter Taylor 7.49 190 9 Robert Strong/Adrian Brown 7.57 180 10 Wayne Thompson/John Curtis 7.18 170 11 Arthur Crampton/Jim Prendergast 7.45 170 12 Glenn Dickson/John Green 7.13 140 13 Greg Scheetz/Chris Luff 7.51 120 14 Simon Dale/Sonia Mc Manus 7.56 90 15 Stephen Bannister/John Kane 9.20 0 Women Time Points 1 Gaye Camm/Melanie Mc Intyre 7.43 330 2 Helen Jeffs/Vinessa Berry 8.11 245 3 Penelope Maher/Robyn Simionato 7.43 230 4 Elizabeth Carritt/Nicole Lowres 7.55 230 5 Dana Skopal/Joanne Clendon 7.34 220 6 Fiona Russell/Martine Robin 7.25 200 7 Fee Macrae/Jill Calkin 7.47 190 8 Lesley Vest/Michelle Van Der Voort 7.15 150 9 Anna Parry/Emily Ravenscroft 7.45 130 10 Jane Mac Cormick/Pam Fairhurst 6.41 80 11 Melissa Foster/Narelle Walters 6.47 60