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Results and Reports from Australia
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Norwood CC Weekend Criterium Series #10
Gumeracha, South Australia, January 11, 2004
Today the Norwood Cycling Club bought road racing to the summer season. The last two criteriums have been cancelled because of rain, so the riders were happy to be back in the saddle racing again.
The A grade riders wanted a long road race to prepare themselves for the upcoming Australian Road Championships and the TDU. It was an interesting race, with the whole field combined for a massed start and then peeling off for the run home and sprint finish.
A group of four A grade riders went off the front at about 20km into the 126km race, with Adrian Laidler, James Hannam, Chris Jongewaard and Shaun Lewis opening a 30 second lead. These four riders worked impressively to hold this gap over the main field of 50 riders which included 16 other A graders. They stuck to their guns and for the next 50km held the main bunch off as it grew smaller with the lower grades peeling off for their finishes.
The main pack could not organise itself to chase these four breakaways as team tactics came into play disrupting every attack to bring them back. Meanwhile the smooth engine of these four breakaway riders opened the lead to over a minute.
The chasers had now split into two main groups mixed of A, B and C grade riders as D and E had finished. The fire had gone out of the A grade chasers by the 100km mark and they were content to ride to the finish for the minor placings. At the finish, the lead riders had a gap of over a four minutes. James Hannam took advantage of a lapse in concentration from the breakaway riders as they exited the circuit to head back to the finish and attacked down the middle of the road.
Hannam opened a 100 metre gap while the other three were looking at each other to see who was going to chase. No-one did. They decided just to work together doing easy turns. 2km from the finish, Hannam was still leading by 50m with a small rise to go and then downhill to the finish. Too late, a clever Hannam crossed the line well ahead of the others to take an easy win, with Jongewaard making no mistakes this time to sprint over Lewis for second and Laidler fourth. The bunch sprint was won by Shane Gill.
Results
A Grade, 126 km 1 James Hannam (SASI/Fairmont Homes) 2 Chris Jongewaard (JT Cycles/Brighton) 3 Shaun Lewis (SASI/Bicycle Express) 4 Adrian Laidler (SASI/Rio Coffee/Main North Nissan) 5 Shane Gill (Bianco Cycling Team) B Grade, 93 km 1 Nick Shipp (TYCO) 2 Nick Wood (Bianco Cycling Team) 3 Mikael Strom (Den) 4 Rohan Essex 5 Harley Johnstone C Grade, 76km 1 Jeff Wheeler (Herb Valley/Art Ceramics) 2 Ross Bate 3 Paul Volkmann 4 Rob Gaggini (Bianco Cycling Team) 5 Bryce Alexander D Grade 1 Judd Walker 2 Martin Middlemiss 3 Len Underwood 4 Jonathan King 5 Heintje Lange E Grade 1 Ian Taylor 2 Peter Teickert 3 James Guy 4 Scott Goodwin 5 Gemma Kernich (Bicycle Express)
