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Norwood CC Main North Nissan Renault Daewoo Summer Series

November 15, 2003

Breaking away in the heat

Hot temperatures, 36 degrees and above, just what the Aussie cyclists love. Well that's what greeted the cyclists at Regency Park on Saturday 15th November 2003. This perfect weather had over sixty strong hearted cyclists attend this event. It would turn out for all to be a race of attrition, only the well hydrated, clever cyclist would achieve their goal. (Quite fitting with the topic of hydration posted on the NCC forum this week). If we are getting these record temperatures in November the TDU cyclist will be looking forward to more of the same 38 to 44 degrees as they raced in last year.

E and D grades raced together due to their low numbers, but a nice steady pace kept these riders together for their duration, culminating in bunch sprints with both new rider Alan Braggs and Andrew Gooley quite happy to take the points and money. C Grade saw young Darryl Margrate (first year U19) put the hammer down from the word go, he flew off the start line and made the rest of the bunch chase him. It was a high tempo race under those conditions with a few riders succumbing to the heat and withdrawing. With only a few minutes to go, Mark Smith took a flyer and opened up a huge gap on a bunch reluctant to chase him down. It was all or bust for Mark as he then got two laps to go, he kept hammering as the bunch rolled past 200m behind at the start finish line. One lap to go and he was still ahead holding his 200m lead, the bunch was not fazed by his break away attempt, thinking they would catch him. Into the finishing straight first came Mark, 75m behind came the bunch which started their sprint. Mark looked around to see where his rivals were to loose at least 20m in the process. With the bunch gaining fast and Mark still in front he looked around again with a sinking feeling, they were 20m behind with 40m to go. He didn't look back again as he tried everything to get to the line, Mark finished a bike length in front of a fast finishing Greg Ford and Daryl Margrate. A well timed sprint by Mark!

B Grade had breakaway after breakaway, with Dale Rycroft, Steve Nash, trying a number of attacks to no avail. Then came a three man break of Steahr, Kenning and dos Santos and they worked well together and stayed away, with Kenning winning the sprint finish. A Grade was also a race of riders trying to take an advantage over their opponents in the heat. Riders who had early attempts at breakaways such as Ryan Milton succumbed after returning to the bunch not able to get the stars out of his head. New A grade rider Russell Gill also suffered the same fate after a breakaway. Again a breakaway of Lindsay, Biggs and Hedley looked like it might be the one to take the win, but coming into the last few minutes they didn't get the two to go they wanted. The bunch reacted to this and in a bit of confusion prior to the break and bunch coming together Hedley swung wide to the middle of the road and slowly increased his pace whilst the other two were taken by the bunch. No-one in the bunch wanted to go after Hedley again, he had opened up a gap and it just kept growing and finished easily to take the win by 200m. Mat Rex then went on to sprint the rest on the bunch in to take second.

Results

A Grade
 
1 S. Hedley
2 M. Rex
3 T. Moss
4 C. Luxton
5 A. Gill
 
B Grade
 
1 D. Kenning
2 C. Dos Santos
3 R. Steahr
4 C. Malouf
5 D. Eckert
 
C Grade
 
1 M. Smith
2 G. Ford
3 D. Margrate
4 D. Sayers
5 J. Seneque
 
D Grade
 
1 A. Gooley
2 F. Immesi
3 L. Underwood
 
E Grade
 
1 A. Braggs
2 M. Vugts
3 J. Jacobs
4 T. Cromwell