Cascade Brewery - Lounge Bar Northern Tour - NE

Australia, March 8-10, 2003

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Stage 4 - March 9: Longford Criterium

Div 1:40 mins + 3 laps; Div 2:30 mins + 3 laps

Menzies' Grip On Jersey Strengthened

From Rod Morris in Longford

Scoring two second placings in consecutive stages of the Cascade Launceston 3-Day Tour has only enhanced Karl Menzies' hopes of winning one of Tasmania's premier road cycling races.

Menzies (25) ran second to Hobart's Jai Crawford in yesterday morning's Claun 74.5 km Stage 3 and then in the afternoon played the role of "bridesmaid" to visiting Victorian rider Joel Pearson in the 60.3 km Stage from Longford to Bishopsbourne and return.

But Menzies' two bold showings increased his overnight lead of 27-points to a whopping 39-points with just two stages remaining.

Pearson moved into second place on General Classification, but to overhaul Menzies, will have to rely on two Stage wins, pick up points in either the intermediate sprint or King of the Mountain and at the same time, rely on Menzies not riding in the top five or featuring in the bonus points - a tall order indeed.

Menzies said yesterday's stages were tougher than the opening day.

"The wind certainly didn't make it easy," he explained.

"Most of the Stage leaders were only little guys and for a rider my size, there was nowhere to hide."

Of the three intermediate sprints on offer yesterday, Pearson won at Carrick and Menzies then picked up valuable bonuses at Westbury and again at Bishopsbourne.

With the wind picking up in velocity in the afternoon, a breakaway group of seven riders put a sizeable gap into the peloton before Pearson won the Stage ahead of Menzies, David Klyne, Richard Moffatt, Kharne Hammersley, Matt Goss and Dale Woolston.

Visiting Austrian rider, Lou Cobler upstaged his rivals in the combined Category 3-4-5 races, with victories in both the morning and afternoon stages, although former Austral Wheel winner, Matthew Atkins of Devonport maintained his hold on the Cat. 3 lead.

Kaidan Homan is the new leader of Cat. 4 and Paul Wilson remained at the head of the pack in Cat. 5.

Devonport's John Rayner won both Junior 1 races yesterday to open a healthy gap in GC honours with one Stage remaining, while Tom Robinson is the outright leader in Junior 2 racing, although Clay Murfett is due for a change of fortune after running four successive second placings.

The Junior 3s (Under 13) is an extremely close affair with David Lyons and Ed Robinson locked together on 74 points.

Results

Overall
 
1 Joel Pearson
2 Karl Menzies
3 David Klyne
4 Richard Moffatt
5 Kharne Hammersley
 
Category 2
 
1 Kharne Hammersley
2 Matthew Goss
3 Dale Woolston
4 Jason Andersch
 
Category 3
 
1 Lou Cobler
2 Andrew Hanigan
3 Mark Rathmell
4 Wes Sulzberger
 
Category 4
 
1 Kaidan Homan
2 Louise Yaxley
3 Mark Wilkie
4 Nathan Hingston
 
Category 5
 
1 Paul Wilson
2 Darren Cook
3 Paul Guest
4 Neville Veale
 
Junior 1 (U17)
 
1 John Rayner
2 Jarrod Harman
3 Josh Myers
 
Junior 2 (U15)
 
1 Tom Robinson
2 Clay Murfett
3 Samantha Hellyer
 
Junior 3 (U13)
 
1 Ed Robinson
2 David Lyons
3 Jason Bounday
 
General Classification
 
Overall
 
1 Karl Menzies         82 pts
2 Joel Pearson         43
3 Jai Crawford         22
4 Ryan Sullivan        21
5 Jono Clark           14
6 Kharne Hammersley     9
7 David Klyne           8
8 Richard Moffatt       6
9 Laurie Venn           4
10 James Hannam         4
11 David Tanner         3
12 Michael Grenda       3
13 Jason Bellchambers   1
 
Sprint leader
 
Karl Menzies
 
Category 2
 
1 Matt Goss            48
2 Laurie Venn          36
3 Kharne Hammersley    31
4 Mark Bowden          20
5 Jason Andersch       16
6 Jason Bellchambers   13
7 Matt Conn            12
8 Dale Woolston         8
9 Michael Grenda        3
 
Sprint leader
 
Kharne Hammersley
 
Category 3
 
1 Matthew Atkins       58
2 Lou Cobler           40
3 Wes Sulzberger       30
4 Josh Wilson          23
5 Michael Wilson       20
6 Andrew Hanigan       17
7 Mark Rathmell         8
8 Ryan Johnson          4
9 Nick Clark            1
10 Nick Reid            1
 
Sprint leader
 
Matthew Atkins
 
Category 4
 
1 Kaidan Homan         51
2 Belinda Goss         44
3 Mark Wilkie          36
4 Louise Yaxley        21
5 Nathan Hingston      18
6 Tim Walker           16
 
Sprint leader
 
Nathan Hingston
 
Category 5
 
1 Paul Wilson          72
2 Darren Cook          48
3 Paul Guest           24
4 Colin Barnes         12
5 Stephanie Williams    8
5 Andrew MacDonald      8
6 Neville Veale         4
 
Junior 1 (U17)
 
1 John Rayner          76
2 Josh Myers           67
3 Will Robinson        64
4 Jarrod Harman        64
5 Sean Oliver          56
6 Aaron Jones          53
7 Grace Sulzberger     47
8 Alex Lyons           41
9 Tiffany Manion       35
 
Junior 2 (U15)
 
1 Tom Robinson         76
2 Clay Mufrett         68
3 Samantha Hellyer     62
4 Alex Holden          62
5 Carrie Price         54
5 Ben Grenda           51
6 Hugh Williams        41
7 Chris Cunningham     40
8 Daniel Jamieson      32
9 Sarah Eaves          31
10 Brenden Sutton      30
11 Andrew Dolan        21
12 Kailee Goodwin      21
 
Junior 3 (U13)
 
1 David Lyons          74
1 Ed Robinson          74
3 Jason Bounday        62
3 Stephen Heppel       63
5 Josh Berrell         56