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Eastern Suburbs Cycling Club
Heffron Park, Sydney, November 9, 2004
B grade sweeps the money
After C grade stayed away to claim overall honours in last week's Heffron Park Tuesday night handicap, this week it was the turn of B grade to hit the jackpot. Benefiting from calmer conditions and a large, well organised group, B grade's Tim Rice (Sydney CC) held off Charles Topfer (Lidcombe Auburn) for the money in a bunch sprint at the end of the 15 laps (30 km).
Despite some solid rain falling earlier in the afternoon, things cleared up well in time for the 6pm start which saw 70 riders spread between three grades on the line. The wind was only blowing at a moderate strength from the southeast, which helped keep things together among each grade.
A grade, numbering only 14 this week, set a brisk tempo of over 43 km/h to complete the 15 laps two minutes faster than the previous week. But it wasn't nearly enough to peg back a coordinated B grade, which was strengthened by a few A grade regulars. The B graders caught C grade with approximately three laps to go and held off A grade by 40 seconds, with Tim Rice (Sydney CC) taking the overall win ahead of Charles Topfer (Lidcombe Auburn) and Pete Fitzpatrick (St George).
A diminished A grade had to settle for just one prize, and again it was Jeff Jones (Randwick Botany) attacking on the final lap to try to steal it. But Stewart Campbell (Easts) was having none of it this time, and did a strong turn on the back straight to catch Jones at the top of the finishing straight, before pulling off. That left Steve Fitzpatrick (St George) to take the A grade prize just ahead of Pat Naughton (Randwick Botany).
Results
Overall 1 Tim Rice (Sydney CC) 2 Charles Topfer (Lidcombe Auburn) 3 Pete Fitzpatrick (St George) 4 Brendan Fehon (St George) 5 Antonio Iannacito (Caravello) 1st A Grade: Steve Fitzpatrick (St George) 1st B Grade: David McHugh (Sydney CC)
