Results and Reports for February 23 - 24, 2002

Australia

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Mildura-Coomealla Cycling Club

February 24, 2002

Tankard serves Curry up to Wells

By Peter Winton
On a beautiful sunny Sunraysia Sunday local competitive cyclists turned out in their new club jerseys to compete in a criterium in front of an interested home crowd gathering to watch and compete in the Emergency Services Triathlon. 15 riders in all, including St Kilda Cycling Club member, Darren Curry, lined up for a 20 minute plus two laps crit. The circuit of 800 metres was longer than our usual distance however, the time available was almost halved. Riders didn't mind this as the benefit was racing on a closed road courtesy of the Triathlon Club.

Christoph Baudry had the instruction from the starter to lead the bunch around for one neutral lap before cranking it up. The fast circuit suited the high-end speed riders and it wasn't long before Adam Wightwick tested the "waters" so to speak when he broke away on lap three.

Kevin Tankard copped a bit of a buffeting on one hot-dog corner on lap four and that was enough to send him to the front and stretch out the bunch. The B grade riders trying to conserve some energy early at the back suffered the consequences and were jettisoned from the chase. Tankard riding at 50kmph rode Wightwick down and stayed away for two laps before Baudry bridged the gap and the two A graders looked like doing it easy. Meanwhile back in the chase bunch Wells was getting edgy about the outcome and time was ticking away fast. Darren Curry hadn't twitched a muscle yet and being of unknown quantity to the locals there was an air of expectation of some explosive speed from him.

Unfortunately for Baudry his passing manoeuvre on the last of the hot-dog turns brought him undone. His pedal contacting the road surface caused him to dismount his bike ungracefully, so non-French like. Tankard was able to ride away unchallenged over the closing 100 metres and he went on to win the triathlon as well.

Darren Curry took second place from Damian Wells and Rob McNally placed third. In the "also-ran" group Ken Joy and Arthur Anderson put in a spirited effort to avoid the "lantern rouge" which was unceremoniously dumped on Peter Winton.

Results

1 Kevin Tankard
2 Darren Curry
3 Damian Wells
4 Rob McNally
5 Geoff Marshall
6 Ian Brade
7 Mark Phillips
8 Jack Lokan
9 Adam Wightwick
10 Christoph Baudry
11 Arthur Anderson
12 Ken Joy
13 Mick Vaughan
14 Peter Winton
Dnf Peter Mills

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