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Eastern Suburbs CC Criterium
Heffron Park, January 14, 2003
By John Sunde
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The starting line up for Round 2 of the 12 week Trek Bikes Summer Series had a genuine international flavour with US Postal rider Matt White, World Pursuit Champion Steve Wooldridge and British time trialist Stuart Dangerfield lining up with 80 club riders to battle around the Heffron Park circuit in the 30km group handicap.
In the end though it was still the undisputed King of Heffron, Caravello rider Anthony "Spurge" Spurgeon, who reigned supreme with his trademark power sprint to hold out Matt White at the finish. Commenting after the race, one rider even claimed "not even Tafi could beat Spurge at Heffron!"
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After last week's opening round when Randwick Botany B Grade junior Robbie Cater held off the entire field, this week's race was dominated by a slick and coordinated effort from the 16 strong A Grade field.
By comparison, the almost 40 strong C Grade field just did not quite get going and were caught with 6 laps to go by three B Grade escapees which, once again, included Robbie Cater who was intent on building his lead in the intermediate sprint competition which is available to A&B Grade riders on laps 7, 5, 3 to go and the final sprint.
Three laps later, the entire race had completely fragmented as the A Grade locomotive being driven by Steve Williams, Stuart Dangerfield and Matt White & co. ripped through the B & C Grade bunches to establish a 15 strong lead bunch to line up for the finale.
In the finale the first move came from pursuiter Steve Wooldridge who attacked over the first ‘hill’ only to be quickly reeled in by mountain biker Paul Rowney. Lining up for the straight, the next move came from Matt White using his power to simply ride the peloton off his wheel. Normally, this strategy would have worked, except for King Spurge stamping his authority on his home turf to take the outright win and yellow jersey for the series lead. It would appear Spurge has already got one hand on the Trek 5500 carbon US Postal team frame which is 1st prize for the series.
Caught up in lead group were also 3 B Grade riders with Robbie Cater claiming 1st B Grade while C Grade strongman, Craig Dempsey, easily claimed the points and money for 1st C Grade.
Round 3 in the Trek Bike Series is next Tuesday 21st January before the Heffron Park Double Header of the Joseph Sunde Memorial Criteriums on Monday 27th January followed by Round 4 on Tuesday 28th January.
Photos
Images by John Sunde
- Aussie Champions! Steve Wooldridge, World Teams Pursuit Champion and Matt White from US Postal enjoy the Sydney club racing scene
- Trek Bikes Australia National Sales Manager, Graeme Moffat, presents Robbie Cater with the Trek Bikes Series leader jersey
Results
1 Anthony Spurgeon (Caravello Joinery) 2 Matt White (US Postal) 3 Stewart Campbell (Easts) 4 Dave Stewart (Easts) 5 Liam Kelly (Easts) 1st B Grade: Robbie Cater (Randwick Botany) 1st C Grade: Craig Dempsey (Easts) Trek Bikes Series standings 1 Anthony Spurgeon (A Grade) 11 pts 2 Robert Cater (B Grade) 7 3 Stewart Campbell (A Grade) 6 4 Matt White (A Grade) 4 5 Liam Kelly (A Grade) 3 6 Stuart Dangerfield (A Grade) 3 7 Jose Rodriguez (A Grade) 1 A&B Grade Sprint King 1 Robert Cater 31 2 Anthony Spurgeon 12 3 Chris Jenkins 9 4 Patrick Jones 4 5 John Kenny 4 6 Stewart Campbell 3 7 Paul Rowney 3 8 Matt White 3 9 Liam Kelly 1 10 Steve Williams 1 C Grade Pointscore 1 Craig Dempsy 10 2 Roger Shackleton 6 3 Stefan Borunivic 1 4 Tim Rice 1
