Cascade Brewery - Lounge Bar Northern Tour - NE

Australia, March 8-10, 2003

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Stage 2 - March 8: Lake River Road, 56.8km

Menzies off to flying start

By Rod Morris in Longford

Launceston based cyclist Karl Menzies kick-started the final preparations for his European assault with a tremendous start to the annual Cascade Launceston 3-Day Tour yesterday (March 8).

Menzies (25) won both stages on an exciting opening day, that was marred only by intermittent rain. Menzies will carry a 27-point lead into today's third and fourth stages and is concentrating hard on holding the prized leaders' jersey.

"I had to work hard in the first two stages, particularly with the quality of the field, so if I can maintain that type of form, I will be happy," Menzies said.

After winning the 2001 Tasmanian Road Championship and then being the best performed Tasmanian in last year's VicRoads Herald Sun Tour and also the best Tassie rider in the $20,000 Launceston Criterium during the Telstra Country Wide Tasmanian Carnivals, Menzies is about to take up a six-month contract in Holland.

"I leave on April 4 and because of Doherty's Hotels, I will be able to make a full-on assault at the European road circuit," he explained.

Menzies said the overcast and still conditions didn't make race conditions any easier. "There are a lot of in-form Tasmanian riders at the moment and the Victorian Institute of Sport has sent some strong riders here as well, so you cannot afford to relax for a moment."

Menzies won the morning's Oaks Road stage (53.2 km) from Victorian Joel Pearson, with Evandale's Ryan Sullivan claiming third. In the afternoon's Lake River Rd stage (56.8 km), Menzies was again to the fore, while Sullivan edged ahead of Pearson to grab second place, which also pushed him ahead of the Victorian because of the bonus point he gained in the intermediate sprint.

Veteran Laurie Venn scored a surprise win in Cat. 2 and also leads that division in general classification. In the combined Catgery 3, 4 & 5 races, Devonport's Matthew Atkins showed a full return to form of old, by emulating Menzies's higher category dual success, by winning both stages.

In the afternoon stage, Atkins had little to spare from former topline Australian "roadie" Michael Wilson, while the ever-promising Wes Sulzberger claimed third. Atkins holds a big lead in his individual category, while Belinda Goss leads Cat. 4 and former Victorian Paul Wilson is the Cat. 5 leader.

In junior racing John Rayner and Josh Myers were the two Under 17 stage winners, Alex Holden and Tom Robinson shared honours in the Under 15s and Ed Robinson and David Lyons did likewise in the Under 13s.

Racing continues with two more stages, the first of which will start at Longford at 10 a.m tomorrow (March 9).

Results

Open Men
 
1 Karl Menzies
2 Ryan Sullivan
3 Joel Pearson
 
Cat 2
 
1 Mark Bowden
2 Matt Conn
3 Laurie Venn
 
Cat 3
 
1 Matthew Atkins
2 Michael Wilson
3 Wes Sulzberger
 
Cat 4
 
1 Mark Wilkie
2 Belinda Goss
3 Nathan Hingston
 
Cat 5
 
1 Paul Wilson
2 Darren Cook
3 Paul Guest
 
Junior 1 (U17)
 
1 Josh Myers
2 Will Robinson
3 John Rayner
 
Junior 2 (U15)
 
1 Tom Robinson
2 Clay Murfett
3 Alex Holden
 
Junior (U13)
 
1 David Lyons
2 Ed Robinson
3 Jason Bounday
 
General classification after stage 2
 
Open Men
 
1 Karl Menzies             48 pts
2 Ryan Sullivan            21
3 Joel Pearson             20
4 Jon Clark                 6
5 Kharne Hammersley         5
6 Laurie Venn               4
7 David Tanner              3
8 Jai Crawford              2
9 Jason Bellchambers        1
 
Category 2
 
1 Laurie Venn              28
2 Mark Bowden              20
3 Matt Goss                16
4 Matt Conn                12
5 Kharne Hammersley         9
6 Jason Bellchambers        9
 
Category 3
 
1 Matthew Atkins           45
2 Wes Sulzberger           23
3 Michael Wilson           20
4 Josh Wilson              11
5 Nick Clark                1
 
Category 4
 
1 Belinda Goss             32
2 Mark Wilkie              24
3 Tim Walker               16
4 Nathan Hingston          14
5 Kaidan Homan              8
 
Category 5
 
1 Paul Wilson              40
2 Darren Cook              36
3 Colin Barnes             12
4 Stephanie Williams        8
5 Paul Guest                8
6 Andrew MacDonald          4
 
Junior 1 (U17)
 
1 John Rayner              36
2 Josh Myers               35
3 Will Robinson            34
4 Jarrod Harman            31
5 Sean Oliver              28
6 Aaron Jones              26
7 Grace Sulzberger         23
8 Natasha Mapley           23
9 Alex Lyons               20
10 Dara Bugg               16
11 Tiffany Manion          16
12 Ebony Manion            16
13 Luke Carr                6
 
Junior 2 (U15)
 
1 Tom Robinson             36
2 Alex Holden              36
3 Clay Murfett             34
4 Samantha Hellyer         30
5 Lennon Duncombe          28
6 Carrie Price             25
7 Ben Grenda               24
8 Brenden Sutton           21
9 Christopher Cunningham   16
10 Sarah Eaves             16
11 Kailee Goodwin          13
12 Daniel Jamieson         12
 
Junior 3 (U13)
 
1 David Lyons              37
2 Ed Robinson              37
3 Jason Bounday            31
4 Stephen Heppel           31
5 Josh Berrell             28