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Norwood Cycling Club Criterium
Regency Park, South Australia, December 23, 2003
For the last Regency Park race of 2003, which was conducted at short notice, quite a large quality field of riders turned up to race. Perfect conditions greeted the riders who have missed the past two Tuesday evening race meets due to the heat ruling set out by the Norwood Cycling Club executive.
It was going to be an evening of fast paced bunch riding with not too many breakaways. E grade was content to ride for their 30 minutes, with the mix of old and new riders still gaining experience. Peter Sabine was again too quick in the sprint for Peter Teickert, both new riders were a little too quick for masters Tony Brennand in third. Hopefully more of the 54 E grade riders will take advantage of the licence they have bought.
It was pretty much the same type of race in D grade with the whole bunch staying together. The only real breakaway attempt came from new rider Scott Bradley from the Adelaide club, making an attempt half way through the race. Eventual line honours went to a very worked up Matthew Grimmond who altered his line in front of the riders coming fast behind him. Grimmond heatedly promised to win by a larger margin his next race. Second and third went to the improving Thom Edwards and Alan Braggs who have both earned their elevation to C grade.
Dave Kubler made a couple of attempts to get away during the C grade 40 minute race. His first attempt also with Brendan Handel was in the opening ten minutes, but didn’t eventuate to much with the bunch rolling fast behind them not wanting to let them both go. Later Kubler again tried a solo effort but was again bought back to the bunch. Daniel Kelsh made his move just before a lap to go, bold and brazen he attacked off the front and caught the bunch by surprise. Into the finishing straight he was still in front and just managed to get to the line as he was swamped by the fast finishing bunch.
Much the same for the B grade bunch as they rolled around at a very fast pace holding off attempts at breaks. Neil McNaughton sporting his TYCO teams new colours was the first to attempt a break, but a solo effort was not going to add up to much so early in the race. After he was bought back Scott Smith and James Ross made their move, but again this was controlled by the bunch and they were only let out at a safe distance. The race also came down to the bunch sprint for the sprinters. A smokey in the last couple of weeks David Miller after being dropped to ‘C’ and gaining a first, third and fifth made it back to ‘B’ only to take out the win quite easily and gain maximum points. The sprinters took out all five placings with Cameron Spears second and Bradley Smith third, James Ross fourth and Queenslander Darren Knowles fifth.
Quite a spectacular field lined up in A grade this evening with their largest field to date. Home again after his tenth professional season in Europe Patrick Jonker led the line up riding for new sponsor Diamond Back. Others included Gene Bates, Stephen Cunningham, James Hannam, Russell Van Hout all preparing for the TDU and State Champions Mat Rex and Alan Gill. It looked to be no easy criterium with James Hannam going on the attack in the first few minutes, this was followed by UK rider Robin Thompson who went off the front and then out the back with the awesome pace put on by this quality field.
Half way through this one hour drag race a good breakaway had formed with Michael McGee, Nick Underwood, Shane Gill and Pat Jonker, but the riders were unable to keep up the 60km/h plus required to stay ahead of the bunch and were bought back. Toward the end of the race another break went with Shaun Lewis - SASI, Chris Jongewaard -NT and Mat Rex - SASI, this looked good and Rex was hoping for his thirteenth place from fifteen races but it was not going to happen, he wore himself out in the break and had nothing for the finish. The complete bunch came together with two laps to go.
With total disbelief, history was going to be made this evening with the youngest ever rider to win an Open Men's criterium in South Australia. Like a mirage, a mass of riders headed up the finishing straight as one hoping to take the chequered flag. As if it was magic, sixteen year old Russell Gill popped out of the middle of the bunch and floated out in front. Gill was able to stay there to easily hold off the fast finishing field for the win. No-one could match his turn of speed which took many of the seasoned riders by surprise. A bike length back in second place was AIS rider Gene Bates and third was Chris Luxton. Gill has now set new standards and raised the bar for the rest of the A grade field. Well done Russell!
Results
A Grade 1 Russell Gill (SASI (Polar Heart Rate Monitors) 2 Gene Bates 3 Chris Luxton 4 Shane Gill (Bianco Cycling Team) 5 Tim Moss (Main North Renault) B Grade 1 David Miller 2 Cameron Spears 3 Bradley Smith 4 James Ross (JT Cycles - Brighton) 5 Darren Knowles C Grade 1 Daniel Kelsh 2 Brenden Handel 3 Tim Cronk 4 Ron Jonker 5 Troy Dajka D Grade 1 Matthew Grimmond 2 Thom Edwards 3 Alan Braggs 4 Martin Middlemiss 5 Richard Markowski E Grade 1 Peter Sabine 2 Peter Teickert 3 Tony Brennand 4 Bradley Crawford 5 Gemma Kernick Juniors 1 Michael Davies 2 Tiffany Cromwell (Bicycle Express)
