Your Right To Vote

RACE REPORT
60km Graded Scratch Road Race, Riverside, Saturday 21 August 2010

Your Right To Vote

Mildura-Coomealla Cycling Club staged a 60km graded scratch road race on its Riverside Long course on the afternoon of Saturday 21 August 2010. The race committee had arranged for a combined A/B, C/D and under 15/17 races. But being election day everybody wanted to vote, after much back room power playing at the start of the race B grade sat up to race individually. Twenty-nine riders fronted the line on a fine westerly day. We had one visiting rider in Mathew Benson doing recovery from the tour of Geelong, readying himself for the Tour of the Murray.

A grade had six starters in Kevin Tankard, Mark Phillips, Gary Henderson, Richard Hale, Dean Taylor and Riverland rider Mathew Benson. The race got off to a moderate start with everybody swapping turns for a couple of laps. The attacks came and went with no serious time being able to be put in at any time. Benson did a lovely counter attack up to the palms caravan park hard against the road with no shelter from the cross wind and didn’t let up when he was dragged in. That was on lap four and the pace settled until just before the scout hall, Henderson gently rode off the front through the will of the group. When he realised he was away the gears went quickly up. With the group tactics coming into it Henderson stayed away until the one kilometre to go banner, Taylor was doing a lot of the work to bring it all back together. The pace eased until Phillips went with 500 metres to go, everybody was looking at each other and pacing to the line. By the time the bunch got going, all weary of Benson. Mark had made the dash a success, crossing 3 seconds ahead of Taylor, Benson, Hale, Tankard and finally Henderson. Phillips showed a good race brain to use the group against each other for the late charge, something he has had mixed results within the past (please refer to club championship finish).

The B graders were already away and through the democratic process had bid farewell to the back of the A Grade bunch. They settled down to business and business of the day was attack and counter attack. A Rob Akkermans burst up to the palms roundabout on lap two saw Adrian Lloyd pull his foot from a pedal in his effort to follow, this was enough to open a noticeable gap. With the reason not known to the others, some solid work of swapping turns on the front meant Lloyd was never going to get back in touch. Lap three and Tom Athorn attacked hard across the top section of the course with only Arthur Anderson going with him, at the catch it was the counter attack by Garry Pitt that found Anderson in trouble and finally tailing off the group leaving Akkermans, Pitt, Athorn and Andrew Ryan at the head of their race. The fun and games continued for the next three laps with no-one gaining any advantage despite numerous attempts. Heading down Park Lane for the final time Pitt found himself on the front followed by Ryan, Athorn and then Akkermans. Into the final corner Ryan went first with a well timed jump that the others did not quite close. Ryan crossed first ½ a wheel ahead of Athorn then Akkermans and Pitt. Lloyd and Anderson had joined forces in the chase behind and finished together in that order a couple of minutes down.

With combined C & D grade next off, the race saw a group of nine riders at the line . The field included Rachel Hanlin, Michael Allford, Ken Dean, Michael Shipsides, Dave Digby, Harry Robbins, Terry Miller, Greg Scott and Anne Jones.

Scott was first to attack on the long straight to the caravan park, with several other attacks following soon after the race split into the two grades with all six C graders and 3 D graders settling down to fight out the race. With C grade on their own, Robbins was particularly aggressive on the next two laps and had Allford and Digby fighting to hang onto the back of his wheel. Hanlin and Scott continued to attack off the front but all breaks were eventually caught. On the 4th lap Scott again broke away, however this time Hanlin and Shipsides were able to join him. Digby and Allford played a waiting game to see who would start to bridge the gap. Robbins suffered a puncture and this left Allford and Digby to cover the gap. The gap had become too great and after some long efforts they realised they had blown there chance of victory. The leading three settled into a good pace to ensure the other riders did not rejoin the group. Several attacks ensured a fast pace but in the end Shipsides was too fast and won his first race this winter from Hanlin with Scott taking third. Having ridden together for the last two laps Allford and Digby settled down to fight out the sprint with Allford getting the better in the finish for fourth with Digby fifth.

Once the D grade group was dropped at the roundabout the three riders were left to fight it out alone. Although Jones was unlucky not to catch up to C grade and rejoin, which would have been the winning move. The three regrouped about halfway round the first lap and worked together for the rest of the race, (this was two weeks in a row for Miller to keep up with his grade). It came down to a sprint for the line & Dean proved too strong, narrowly beating Jones with Miller a further 50m back as they crossed the line. The others may need to rethink how they will come to the line in the last two weeks of racing.

The junior under 15/17 race had eight starters in Ben Athorn, James Burge, Megan Hale, Martin Ryan, Thomas Allford, Tyler Beruldsen, Lachlan Ryan and Sean Schilling. The race was over thirty kilometers, unlike their senior riders the two groups stayed together for most of the race. At the finish line it was the Under seventeen’s leading the sprint in Ben Athorn followed by James Burge, Tom Allford taking 1st under fifteen , Megan Hale, Tyler Beruldsen 2nd under fifteen, Martin Ryan, Lachlan Ryan 3rd under fifteen and Sean Schilling under 13.

Thanks to Penny, Julieanne, Harry Robbins and Arthur Anderson for helping out with race administration and set-up duties. The next event is the Werrimull Hotel Inter-club handicap road race on Saturday 28 August 2010. Mark Phillips and Kevin Tankard are on race set-up duty.





Masters & Juniors South Australian State Road Championships

On the Sunday five M-CCC members raced in the South Australian Masters and juniors state championships in Williamstown. The weather was clear with a head wind on the back stretch, the course itself was undulating and had a one kilometer hill to negotiate each lap of ten percent. It was a gold medal for Alison Curry who won her age group, even though there were a lot of nerves before the race after we all drove the course. Barry Pollock got a silver for his troubles with the race splintering with every rider coming in alone.
Les Jordan received a bronze medal in his age group, with the pace to high on the hill section he fell away early in the race and time trialed most of the race to hold off the others. Gary Henderson was fourth in his age group not handling the pace on the hill climb each lap, only to time trial three kilometers to rejoin the group. Nathan Jordan came in ninth in the under 15 category, seeing first hand the new crop of up and coming state representatives. The experience was very positive for him to see where he sits in the scheme of things.

Every rider had a great day and learnt a little bit more about themselves on a testing course, please talk to them about their experience and see if you aren’t on the starting line for 2011.

RESULTS

SENIORS
Pos Name Elapsed Time

A Grade
1 Mark Phillips 1:34:59.3
2 Dean Taylor 1:35:02.3
3 Matthew Benson 1:35:02.4
4 Richard Hale 1:35:03.2
5 Kevin Tankard 1:35:03.4
6 Gary Henderson 1:35:03.8

B Grade
7 Andrew Ryan 1:41:38.1
8 Tom Athorn 1:41:38.1
9 Rob Akkermans 1:41:38.3
10 Garry Pitt 1:41:42.4
11 Adrian Lloyd 1:43:58.6
12 Arthur Anderson 1:43:58.7
DNS Ian Beruldsen N/A

C Grade
1 Michael Shipsides 1:47:29.0
2 Rachel Hanlin 1:47:30.0
3 Greg Scott 1:47:34.4
4 Michael Allford 1:52:07.0
5 Dave Digby 1:52:08.0
DNF Harry Robbins 1:16:34.2

D Grade
6 Ken Dean 1:53:19.0
7 Anne Jones 1:53:20.0
8 Terry Miller 1:53:24.0
DNS Kevin Gregory N/A

JUNIORS
Pos Name Elapsed Time

Under 17
1 Ben Athorn 0:58:31.7
2 James Burge 0:58:34.3
4 Megan Hale 0:58:40.8
6 Martin Ryan 1:11:38.6

Under 15
3 Thomas Allford 0:58:40.7
5 Tyler Beruldsen 1:11:36.9
7 Lachlan Ryan 1:13:10.0
DNF Sean Schilling (U/13) 0:24:24.5