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Eastern Suburbs Club Championships

Port Botany, December 22, 2002

The Eastern Suburbs Cycling Club annual championships were decided on Sunday, December 22 at Port Botany. In the elite men's category, Canberra resident David Stewart claimed a last minute victory over Jeff Jones and John Kenny. Alison Urquhart won the women's race from Emma Spruik, while in the veterans classes, Adam Radford won the 35-39 division and Hans Visch the 40+ division.

Elite Men's report

The elite men's race was held over 20 laps of a fast but testing 5.1 km circuit around Port Botany container terminal. The course contained a 1 km climb split into several sections, which became a real leg sapper towards the end of the race. The weather was perfect, with almost no wind and temperatures in the mid to high 20's for the duration of the 102 km race.

The attacking started in earnest on the second lap, and after only five laps a group of eight riders established a lead over the rest of the bunch, courtesy of some big turns by Paul Rowney and Stewart Campbell. However the cooperation wasn't perfect and several more riders rejoined at the end of the lap. Stewart Campbell then tried a solo move, lasting another lap before he was caught on the hill.

The key move came a couple of laps later, with Campbell, Dave Stewart, Adam Radford and Michael Papadakis establishing a gap on the climb. They were joined by Jeff Jones and John Kenny, but Paul Rowney was caught napping and missed the cut. The six leaders became four when Radford and Papadakis finished their veterans race after lap 12, Radford leading out with 500m to go to take a clear win from Papadakis.

Then it became more of a tactical game as the laps ticked by, but when Dave Stewart accelerated on the climb on lap 15, pre-race favourite Stewart Campbell was left behind after breaking a spoke in his front wheel. The remaining three traded turns until two to go, when Stewart again went on the climb, only to be countered by Jeff Jones. That didn't last long though, and the three crossed the line together with one lap to go.

The final time up the hill saw Jones put in another attack, in an attempt to prevent a three-up sprint with the Irish fast man John Kenny. But he could not get more than a 100m gap on the pair of chasers, who maintained their distance to the leader over the final 3km. Turning into the finishing straight with less than 1km to go, and Stewart decided that he'd better do something about the gap, accelerating away from Kenny and catching and passing Jones with 50m to go to take a well timed and well earned win.

Results

Elite Men - 102 km

1 David Stewart        2.37.20 (38.9 km/h)
2 Jeff Jones
3 John Kenny

Elite Women - 61 km

1 Alison Urquhart
2 Emma Spruik

Veterans 35-39 - 61 km

1 Adam Radford
2 John McKenzie
3 Michael Papadakis

Veterans 40+ - 61 km

1 Hans Visch
2 Phil Kauter
3 Alan Jarvis