Juniors (contested by 4 hard racing lads)
The boys stepped up and tackled the big course today. All these boys continue to improve each week and today they all rode strongly. 1st Nicholas Markey continued his winning form; 2nd Taylor Silk with a strong ride; 3rd Sam Haycock sneaking on to the podium again
Well done boys!
WOMEN (the inaugural women’s only race) – what a great start!!
9 women put their hand up for the big event with 2 or 3 familiar faces on the course, but mostly new comers. A big thankyou to these girls for braving the track and having a go. Well done to everyone for an exciting race. I am sure there are a number of other ladies and girls out there who would be encouraged by the race and would be willing to have a go. So keep spreading the word.
1st place went to Rachael Hamblin. In the middle group Rachael went from the gun. She quickly made ground on the other girls in her group catching the front runners in the closing laps winning the hard fought sprint at the end. Well Done Rachael for your first go.
2nd Megan Stevens and Lee Anne Orchard showed patience and worked well together to reel Rachael back in with Megan showing her track sprinting skills to get 2nd.
3rd Well done to Lee Anne considering it’s her first race too. With the back markers (Gabby, Cathy and Andrea), also working strongly together to finish just behind the top 3. With half a lap more the result may have been very different. Good ride by everyone.
D GRADE (9 riders)
The calibre of D Grade continues to improve each week and is not an easy ride any more. A break-away group of 4 formed in the later stages of the race.
1st Stephen Dummett rode strongly to take the small bunch sprint fairly easily.
2nd Gary Gormley was in his first race and did well to take second.
3rd Warwick Waters finishing third (those Esk/Hampton rides paying off).
Anthony Lingard also part of the break rolled in for 4th. A commendation also to Phillip Chapman who rode well to finish. If all goes to plan a Veterans (over 55) race may be the next addition to the program.
C GRADE (18 riders)
The biggest group of the day, with a few new faces from out of town. Josh Gadischki and Daniel Large travelled from Kingaroy and Angus Fisk and Mervyn Q’Reilly represented the Hamilton Pine Rivers club. The big pack started together and (almost) all finished together for a sprint finish.
1st Daniel proved too strong in the sprint winning by a number of bike lengths.
2nd Steve Randall was first of the locals.
3rd Nathan Sander showed his consistency again visiting the podium.
Harvey Silk proved recent trip to National Juniors were no fluke by coming in 4th in front of a good quality field. Good to see Matt Hooper returning to racing too.
B GRADE (15 riders)
After some rearranging of the fields (thanks to Joe Millican, Malcolm Krahenbring and Peter Pellicaan for jumping up to A grade) the race got underway at a steady pace. Several attempts to get way were made but were short lived. The pace slowed toward the end, so the final 2 laps were always going to be interesting. The bunch was slow to react to an explosive burst by James Orchard to put 100 metres on the pack very quickly. The pack chased hard. A grade added as an extra obstacle (remember the rule guys always stay left – overtake on the right.) on the back corner. It looked like James had it sewn up with 800 to go.
1st James only just had the legs to hang on winning by approx 15 metres
2nd Nathan Graves put a plenty of ground on the pack and get close to James
3rd Tom Galbraith gave a big sprint effort right to the line to sneak over for third in a field with plenty of sprint talent.
A GRADE (10 riders)
With field expanded Matt Haswell once again stirred the pot racing off from the gun. Maybe A grade is not the grade to do this and he was quickly reeled in. The occasional break attempts were mostly reeled in and it came down to a bunch sprint. Pete Collins decided the hill into the final corner was the ideal spot to go and got a good break except for one.
1st Campbell Kerr was the only one counteract Peters charge successfully and won the sprint
2nd Peter Collins led the charge but couldn’t hang on
3rd Trent West was best of the rest beating Raf Vainikka over the line.