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Eastern Suburbs CC

Heffron Park, November 4, 2003

A windy day

By John Sunde

The first Tuesday in November, Melbourne Cup day and week 2 of Eastern Suburb's summer criterium at Heffron Park. While racegoers all over the country were intoxicated with the excitement and celebration of the race that stops the nation, 78 local cyclists were only concerned with surviving the blustery north easterly winds which caused havoc among the 30km graded handicap around Sydney's Heffron Park circuit.

A big jump in numbers from last week with 16 lining up in A grade, 29 in B grade and once again, a large C grade bunch of 33. There were also an interesting mixture of new and old faces in the field, with US based and recently crowned World Masters Pursuit Champion, Peter Coulson coming back to show his form and rainbow stripes in A grade, alongside former NSW Road Champion Nathan Russell, back from a season in US and cyclingnews.com Belgium based editor and no stranger to Heffron Park, Jeff Jones. And giving the race a Rugby World Cup flavour all its own was big Randwick and former Wallaby second rower, Warwick Waugh starting his first race in C grade. After experiencing a few laps getting buffeted by the headwind, maybe being on the bottom of an All Black ruck isn't so bad after all.

After last week's handicap when none of the grades came together, A grade were hoping for slightly more favourable time gaps this week, however it appears there are still a few burglars sneaking under the handicappers form guide. Either that or the handicapper is using the same form guide which the office secretary used for the Melbourne Cup office sweep.

"I haven't been doing many kms lately and I'm only going to roll around in B grade!" It might have fooled the handicapper, but when Masters Road champion, Laurie Vignes (Parramatta) bolted on the first lap, the 28 other B grade riders could only gasp and struggle in the wind to hold his wheel. That was all except Irishman John Kenny (Easts) and cycle clothing male model, Dan Brickel (Sutherland) who managed to establish a solid gap on the fifth lap.

Buoyed by the presence of Jose Rodriguez (Easts) and NSW track champ Steve Fitzpatrick (St George), A grade were making good inroads into the B grade bunch and hit them with power and speed with 6 laps to go. Was there still enough time to pick up the 3 earlier escapees and C grade with only 5 to go? Laurie Vignes, obviously benefiting from his new minimal training programme, continued to drive the break and managed to gather up the remains of C grade with 3 to go.

For the A grade train, which continued to be driven by Rodriguez, the gap was just a little too big as the stronger C grade riders managed to find fresh legs and maintain the gap to the last lap. In the sprint, Vignes showed off his training benefits again by taking the sprint from his fellow B grade escapees, Brickel and Kenny.

David McHugh (Sydney) riding perhaps his last C grade race, grabbed 4th spot to lead the C grade field in and Steve Fitzpatrick showed his recent form is coming along nicely when he won the sprint for A grade.

Meanwhile, the handicapper will be brushing up on recent club results and training form before next week...

Tuesday night racing starts promptly at 6pm every Tuesday night through summer. Arrive early to enter and sign on and you will need to bring a current CA/UCI licence. Don't forget Randwick Botany's "100 years of Cycling Race Day" at Heffron Park on Saturday 15th November - full details at www.randwickbotanycc.com

Results

Overall
 
1 Laurie Vignes (Parramatta)
2 Dan Brickel (Sutherland)
3 John Kenny (Easts)
4 David McHugh (Sydney)
5 Andy Portes (UK)
 
A Grade
 
1 Steve Fitzpatrick (St George)
 
C Grade
 
1 Peter McDonald (Randwick Botany)