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Eastern Suburbs Cycling Club
Heffron Park, Maroubra, December 9, 2003
Rodriguez is back!
Jose Rodriguez (Easts) who has been riding with threatening good form since his return to racing over the past 2 months finally cracked a win in the Eastern Suburbs weekly Tuesday night criterium at Heffron Park. And to round out the victory, the win was in an elite A grade scratch race, not the traditional 3 grade handicap which is usually a feature of Tuesday night racing.
With El Presidente Frank Conceicao running the show it is unlikely that anything will be as usual, so with 83 enthusiastic riders all lined up for the usual 15 lap handicap battle, it was no surprise when the format was changed to a scratch race for the 21 A grade riders and a separate handicap race for the 62 B & C grades riders. The different format certainly makes for harder racing and everyone liked the idea of El Presidente paying out an extra 2 places in prizemoney!
The international flavour also returned to the race as Australian summertime visitor and English TT champion, Stuart Dangerfield returned to again inflict his form and pain on the locals, along with Luxemburg based German rider Matthias Schnapka who looked far to comfortable riding in B grade.
The B and C grade handicap got off to a flying start with B grade closing down the race when they rounded up C grade with a handsome margin of 8 laps still to race. Despite some energetic moves to sneak away, it was clear that the 50 strong bunch weren't going to let any attempts get far, but that didn't seem to bother Peter McDonald (Randwick Botany) who was intent on having a go almost on every lap.
Down to the last three laps and the dangerous moves started to materialise, first from Trent Iliffe (Easts), then Peter McDonald, again. In the end it was down to a good ol' fashioned bunch gallop, with Ride magazine bike reviewer John Kenny putting his latest bike to the test by outsprinting the field, ahead of Trent Iliffe and canny veteran, Tony Innacito. And proving that older riders continue to improve with age, Roger Shackleton claimed the 1st C grade spot.
Meanwhile, back in A grade with no other bunches to chase, the pace was somewhat slower but more varied - to be expected in a scratch race. There were numerous attempts to break clear of the field but nothing stuck, a testimony to the relatively calm conditions that made it very easy to organise a chase.
With three laps to go it was clear that the race would end in a bunch sprint, and although Stuart Dangerfield tried to slip away from the field on the last lap, he was chased down by three Eastern Suburbs riders. Jeff Jones (Randwick Botany) started the sprint for his teammate and last week's winner Liam Kelly, however it was not enough to prevent Liam from being passed by eventual winner Jose Rodriguez (Easts), second placed CJ Sutton and third placed Stewart 'Computer' Campbell who was finishing like the proverbial train.
The win has given a huge confidence boost to Rodriguez, who has targeted January's Australia Day Joseph Sunde Memorial Race as the race he really wants to win. Next week, it's back to the 'usual' handicap format before the pre Christmas 'semi Classic' - the Annual Trophy Race on Tuesday 23rd December.
Results
A Grade Scratch - 30km 1 Jose Rodriguez (Easts) 2 Chris Sutton (St George) 3 Stewart Campbell (Easts) B&C Grade Handicap - 30km 1 John Kenny (Easts) 2 Trent Iliffe (Easts) 3 Tony Innacito (Waratah) 4 Matthias Schnapka (Germany) 5 Michael Cowan (Randwick Botany) C Grade 1 Roger Shackleton (Manly)
Local results 2003
