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Mildura-Coomealla Cycling Club
The L & V Westcott Perpetual Shield - Spring Tour, October 31, 2004.
Top Time Trialler Takes Trophy
By Peter WintonMildura's "Spring Tour" requires a top effort in the 16km time trial and a placing in the top ten in the 48km handicap road race for any rider to earn the privilege of their name being engraved on the L & V Westcott shield, appropriately adorned with a Campagnolo chain ring.
With the thermometer recording 22°c at 9:00am and the wind in the NE at 15 knots the first stage was underway. In Mildura, where does one look to for the best time trialler? No further than Kevin Tankard. He stomped around (an unkind phrase really, as he is quite adept with his pedalling) two laps of our "Riverside" circuit in 22.01minutes! His nearest rival today, Peter Mulhearn, was out a further 19 seconds at 22.20 minutes. Both these guys regularly take on South Australian state-level triathlons and often come up trumps in their age groups.
In third place was Scott Giles, at 22.21 minutes. One minute he's dressed in police blue, next he's wearing lycra, and lo' and behold he's back in blue again. I guess crooks never rest either. Dion Bassi-Anstee also slotted a good time of 24:39 to finish stage 1 in 6th place. With the temperature at 10:00am sitting on 26°c and the wind in the NNE at 20 knots the road race stage was being set.
Handicapper, Ralph Morrish then set about organising bunches and time gaps for the 48km road race. With several time triallers not entering the road race stage there would be some shuffling of the otherwise predictable order. Notable riders slipping down the list today were Peter Doody (with his fresh role as road tester for hangover cures) and Harvey Dwyer, off his regular pace due to 'parenting distress' (lack of sleep). Paul Trott, a visitor, was into scratch due to his 4th place in the TT with 23.43. Adrian Lloyd and Peter Winton were on the chopping block due to their TT times of 25.14 and 25.33 minutes respectively. The warming conditions of Sunraysia extracted much fluid from riders today, and those not gorging themselves with watery substances after the time trial would suffer the pangs of cramp!
Limit enjoyed a 22 minute respite from scratch today, however, their first challengers were only three minutes behind. So Robyn Doyle, Kristan Cerini, Dat Rudd, Sandra Gievan and Joe Monteleone were away, hot on their heels at 19 minutes were Bob Pedler, Harvey Dwyer and Nathan McInnes. Next out at 9:30 were Michael Shipsides, Peter Doody, Richard Hale, Greg Scott, Jeff Mitchell and Blackburn CC member Stuart Birnie (an ex-local). Awaiting beheading at 3 minutes were Arthur Anderson, Rob Akkermanns, Adrian Lloyd, Dion Bassi-Anstee and Peter Winton. The hunters were Errol Schmidt, Kev Tankard, Peter Mulhearn, Ian Brade, Steve Fenwick and Paul Trott.
You all know the feeling when you're TT effort comes home to haunt you? Those compounding quad muscles when you stand up on your pedals... And then when scratch comes round you before the halfway mark of the race, all you hope for is to hang on for a while and hope there aren't too many debilitating surges designed to drop the "chewing gum" riders. Thank goodness some of the scratchies had been out last night doing other social things rather than staying home and saving up for a head-hunting expedition today.
As we went by the Club marquee during the early laps it was noticeable the growing number of DNFs in the shade. Then, two more riders who had turned tail and rode back to the shady surrounds must have given the scratch riders a slight hope of taking out the event. As the list of retirements grew the likelihood of the limit groups surviving rapidly decreased, and it was looming as a close finish. Through the skinny bow-tree timber below the horse racing circuit of Sandilong Park a bunch of riders were spotted, and what's that? Another smaller bunch 15 seconds behind them. At the Golf Club turn and 300 metres out the gap was about 10 seconds. The leading quartet of the 2nd limit group were now digging deep, and it was the visiting colours of Stuart Birnie that came over the top of Richard Hale to take the win by a length. Close in third was Bob Pedler edging out Dat Rudd into 4th. Fast finishing Kevin Tankard failed by a mere 50 metres or less to bridge the gap to take fastest time (7th place) from Ian Brade. A welcome handicapping result.
Juniors today included Sam Peck, Troy Francis, Josh Francis and Damon Watson. All boys are new to the Club. In their one lap time trial Troy Francis was fastest in 13.15 minutes from Sam Peck, Josh Francis and Damon Watson. The young blokes followed this up with a 24km scratch race with the result being reversed. Sam Peck in 42.53 clearing out to win from Troy Francis, Josh Francis and Damon Watson.
Results
16km TT, 28 starters 1 K Tankard 22.01 2 P Mulhearn 0.19 3 S Giles 0.20 4 P Trott 1.42 5 I Brade 1.49 6 D Bassi-Anstee 2.38 7 P Mills 2.48 8 A Anderson 3.06 9 S Fenwick 3.07 10 A Lloyd 3.13 11 P Winton 3.32 12 S Birnie 3.44 13 J Mitchell 3.58 14 G Scott 4.11 15 R Hale 4.18 16 R Pedler 4.32 17 P Doody 4.34 18 H Dwyer 4.47 19 M Shipsides 4.50 20 N McInnes 5.15 21 G Kluske 5.27 22 C Burke 5.27 23 R Doyle 5.36 24 D Rudd 6.19 25 J Monteleone 7.07 26 K Cerini 8.18 27 S Gievan 10.14 Junior boys TT 1 T Francis 13.14 2 S Peck 0.01 3 J Francis 3.00 4 D Watson 3.02 48km handicap road race, 25 starters 1 S Birnie 1.31.23 2 R Hale 3 R Pedler 4 D Rudd 5 R Doyle 6 J Mitchell 7 K Tankard 8 I Brade 9 P Mulhearn 10 P Trott 11 A Anderson 12 J Monteleone Junior boys 24km scratch, 4 starters 1 S Peck 42.53 2 T Francis 3.33 3 J Francis 5.42 4 D Watson 5.52
