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Eastern Suburbs Cycling Club
Heffron Park, Sydney, March 21, 2006
Cater wins final round as Richardson takes series win
By John Sunde
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Up and coming FRF Couriers rider, Robbie Cater capped off a consistent summer to win the last round of the 2006 Trek Bikes Summer series and clinch second place overall in the Trek series pointscore. As expected, age group triathlete and ironman champ Aaron Richardson won the series after his early season points spree from five starts in C grade netted him an unbeatable 20 point haul. Aaron goes home with the coveted series prize of a trek Madone SL frame valued at $3999. Peter O'Connor also capped an impressive month of racing when he won C grade for the third consecutive week edging him to the top of the C grade pointscore.
The final night of racing was blessed with a clear sunny night, with the usual wind of course, however the long shadows of autumn were well and truly creeping across the course putting a lot of guess work into the cornering during the closing laps. Another strong turnout with 70 riders signing on to do battle around Heffron Park's twisting, challenging 2km circuit with an even spread of riders in all grades. Local rider Dave Treacy was lining up before heading off to compete in this weekends Commonwealth Games road race where he will be flying the Maltese flag.
Mein Host, Herr Conceicao made a surprise announcement on the start line to announce the missing key to the Easts petty cash tin had at last been found and that first place prizemoney for the final round would be an attractive purse of $300. In real cash money, mate. Aussie dollars, mate. The substantially increased purse had C grade fired up from the gun and at the halfway point of the race it looked like they were going to make it eight wins from 11 rounds.
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B grade's effort once again folded as they were caught by the FRF Couriers
driven A grade with seven laps to go. C grade still had a comfy half lap buffer
at this stage, but with Dave Evans already crowned 2006 Sprint King the fast
dwindling bunch were at last more focused on closing the gap than winning sprint
primes. Stewart Campbell was again at his aggressive best when he attacked with
two laps to go with Tim Willing in tow. Troy Glennan and Liam Kelly were the
next to go then Anthony Spurgeon put in a big effort to cart team mate Robbie
Cater across. C grade were finally rounded up just after the bell when St George
track stars Steve Fitzpatrick and Warren Scott put in a last ditch effort.
Hitting the straight, Kelly, Scott and Cater got the jump on Willing and Campbell
as they tired from their earlier 2-lap effort, then it was Cater all the way
as he held out Scott to record his first outright win after two strong second
place finishes in recent weeks. Kelly finished strongly for third while Campbell
and Willing completed the placings. John Sunde proved there's still some life
left in the legs when he managed another win in B grade, sharing the season
honours with Scott Callum with three wins each. Peter O'Connor rode a very smart
closing lap on the coat tails of the A grade break to bag the 5 points on offer
and finish on top of the C grade pointscore while Adam Socha continued his recent
good form to finish with another second place.
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With the final race in another outstanding season of summer racing at Heffron Park run and won, it was time for the annual closing ceremony to get underway. Fortunately no flames to extingush, only the thirst of the riders to quench after 20 weeks of racing in hot, windy conditions. Unfortunately the keys to the Easts chilly bin are still missing (try the second drawer under the Albion Cycles work bench) so it was left to John Boles who very generously provided a slab of Hahn Premium which everyone enjoyed.
Congratulations to the top five placegetters in the series - Aaron Richardson, Robbie Cater, Anthony O'Brien, Andy Portess and Peter O'Connor who were all awarded prizemoney and prizes, along with Sprint King Dave Evans.
On behalf of all the riders a big hearty thank you must go to Pat Johnston, Jenny Spurgeon, Fred and Helen Vella who made it all happen, week in week out. Thanks also to the generosity of the Randwick Botany club for their continued supprt of the series and of course to Trek Bicycles Australia for their sponsorship. Easts are planning a one off race next Tuesday night before daylight saving ends, so get along if you're keen for one last race before winter sets in, otherwise ride safely over winter, there's only 30 weeks to go.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Stuart Baker
- Liam Kelly makes a bold move on the final lap to bridge the gap
- Robbie Cater throws his arms to celebrate his win
- Tony Iannacito enjoys one of the free beers which were courtesy of John Boles (right)
- Alan Bozunovic and Scott Callum bask in the warm glow of another summer season at Heffron
- John Sunde checks his B grade winners envelope to see whether the currency is $A, $NZ or Escudos
- The Heffron Park tifosi gather in the sunset for the presentation
- The 2006 winners circle (l-r): Shane Howley (third, C Grade), Anthony O'Brien (third overall), Peter O'Connor (C Grade winner) Stewart Campbell (sixth overall), Robbie Cater (second overall), Aaron Richardson (series winner) and Dave Evans (Sprint King)
- A definite autumn feel to racing as C grade round the top bend
- Stewart Campbell tries a different breathing exercise at the tail end of A grade
- Luis Trueba was a consistent performer in A grade each week
- Troy Glennan in his favourite position... on the front with the bunch in the gutter.
- John Sunde celebrated 20 seasons at Heffron with another win in B grade.
- Adam Socha leads Roger Shackelton as C grade get the last race underway.
- Stewart Campbell escapes with Tim Willing with 2 laps to go.
- Dave Treacy in his last hit out before putting on his Maltese jersey for the Commonwealth Games road race.
Results
1 Robbie Cater (FRF Couriers) 2 Warren Scott (St George) 3 Liam Kelly (Sydney) 4 Stewart Campbell (Easts) 5 Tim Willing (Midland WA) B Grade 1 John Sunde (St George) 2 John Baxter (Easts) 3 Tony Iannacito (Caravello) C Grade 1 Peter O'Connor (Easts) 2 Adam Socha (Randwick Botany) 3 Shane Howley (Easts) Sprint Primes 7 laps to go 1 Liam Kelly 2 Tim Willing 3 Robbie Cater 5 laps to go 1 Luis Trueba 2 Dave Evans 3 Robbie Cater 3 laps to go 1 Troy Glennan 2 Stewart Campbell 3 Tim Willing Trek Bikes Poinstcore 1 Aaron Richardson 20 pts 2 Robbie Cater 15 3 Anthony O'Brien 13 4 Andy Portess 11 5 Peter O'Connor 10 6 Peter Carscadden 9 6 Stewart Campbell 9 8 Paul Watzlaff 7 8 Stuart Dangerfield 7 8 Dave Whyman 7 8 Shane Howley 7 12 Frank Fortuna 6 12 Simon Parker 6 12 Adam Socha 6 12 Tim Willing 6 16 Karl Bellamy 5 16 Jose Rodriguez 5 16 Andrew Duggan 5 16 Liam Kelly 5 16 Warren Scott 5 21 Mike Bolt 4 21 Marko Turner 4 21 Chris Sutton 4 24 Gavin Bates 3 24 Anthony Spurgeon 3 26 Alf Brown 1 26 Brad McGarry 1 26 Emma James 1 26 Anthony Taylor 1 26 Luis Trueba 1 A/B Grade Sprint King 1 Dave Evans 66 pts 2 Matthew Lucas 39 3 Tim Willing 31 4 Robert Cater 21 5 Jose Rodriguez 16 6 Sean Vale 15 7 Stewart Campbell 14 8 Richard Vial 13 9 Liam Kelly 12 10 John Kenny 11 10 Gerard Donaldson 11 12 Scott Callum 10 13 Stan Genakis 9 14 Dave Whyman 8 14 Michael O'Brien 8 16 Brad Mills 6 16 Chris Reynolds 6 16 John Peppard 6 16 Peter Fitzpatrick 6 16 Peter McDonald 6 21 Dave Green 5 21 Josh Flemming 5 21 Mark Cavendish 5 21 Stuart Dangerfield 5 21 Troy Glennan 5 21 Alex Frame 5 21 Luis Trueba 5 21 Troy Glennan 5 29 Alan Bozunovic 3 29 Chris Reynolds 3 29 Chris Sutton 3 29 Jim Moore 3 29 Jonothan Cridland 3 29 Patrick Naughton 3 29 Adam Shephard 3 29 Anthony Spurgeon 3 29 Matt Fleming 3 29 Warren Scott 3 39 Gavin Bates 2 39 Joe McDonnell 2 39 Marko Turner 2 42 George Diniakos 1 42 John Baxter 1 42 John Boles 1 42 Steve Wooldridge 1 42 Tony Corrigan 1 42 Brad Glennan 1 C Grade Poinstcore 1 Peter O'Connor 19 pts 2 Aaron Richardson 17 3 Shane Howley 12 4 Andy Portess 9 5 Anthony O'Brien 8 6 Adam Socha 6 7 Paul Watzlaff 5 7 Peter Carscadden 5 9 Chris Taylor 4 10 Marko Turner 3 10 Mike Bolt 3 10 Frank Fortuna 3 13 Simon Parker 2 14 Karl Bellamy 1 14 Andrew Duggan 1 14 Andrew Kirk 1 Previous series winners 2005 Anthony Spurgeon 2004 Jose Rodriguez 2003 Craig Dempsey 2002 Anthony Spurgeon 2001 Stewart Campbell 2000 Stewart CampbellLocal results 2006
