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Riverland Cycling Club
45 km handicap road race, Loveday, Sunday, August 5, 2007
Stevens blitzes the field
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The Riverland Cycling Club hosted its race at Loveday on Sunday with the regular riders again turning out for the handicap event. Although the early morning conditions were perfect, as the race time drew near, the conditions became less favourable for the riders. Each competitor would have to face the head wind up the finishing straight, not once, but four times during the 45 km race.
The Stevens men, Angus Boase and Peter Weston rode to Loveday and seized the opportunity to gain valuable time on their bikes in preparation for the race at Loveday. The training will also help them prepare for the scheduled events on the club's calendar, including the Stan Heritage Memorial race on August 12, the Mildura-Coomealla invitational at Werrimul and of course the support races for the Tour of the Murray River in September.
Gordon Lawton began the proceedings at Loveday, eager to make use of his 16-minute buffer to fellow riders Angelo Ylia, John Eshman and Ruth Strout. Peter Weston and Peter Evans would have to dig deep to stay away from Chris Stevens, just 1.5 minutes behind. Angus Boase and Lee Stevens started 28 minutes from Lawton and by the close of lap one it was evident that they would have to chase for the entire 45 km.
Lap one saw Lawton in the lead with a 13 minute time gap to the next bunch. In the field behind was Chris Stevens, bridging his 3.5 minutes to Ylia, Eshman and Strout seamed all to easy for the lone chopping block rider, now giving the chasing bunch a total of six members. Although riding their first lap in 19 minutes, the scratchmen of Boase and Stevens were unable to tap into their original 8.5 minute gap to Chris.
The final lap had somewhat smaller margins for the leading riders with Chris Stevens and Peter Evans one-minute behind race leader Lawton. Eshman managed to stay with the duo earlier in the race but by the bell lap Weston and Eshman's time-gap had increased to 3 minutes. Boase crossed into the final lap six minutes behind Lawton but riding solo after his fellow rider Stevens pulled out due to injury. Angelo Ylia continued his solo effort for the final lap with Strout 3 minutes behind.
Although Strout trained with six of her fellow cyclists at Monash last Sunday, she is only just making her return to competitive cycling after being forced off the bike due to illness. Ruth thrives on pushing herself on her bike so it was great to see her out for the action once again.
Stevens convincingly won the 45 km event pushing it up the final straight to complete his final lap in just over 20 minutes with Evans making a mad dash behind him. Eshman and Weston followed in third and fourth respectively followed by Angus Boase, who managed to pass Lawton just metres before the line. A mere two second gap between the two, with Ylia to follow. Boase completed the race in 1.19.02, awarding him the honour of fastest time.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Riverland Cycling Club
Results
1 Chris Stevens 2 Peter Evans 3 John Eshman 4 Peter Weston 5 Angus Boase 6 Gordon Lawton 7 Angelo Ylia DNF Lee Stevens DNF Ruth Strout
