41 riders across two senior and two junior divisions, were greeted by warm, sunny weather at the Woodlands School for the start of the race.
There were no A graders as they were in Timaru for the “Benchmark Series race”.
The race was the third in the South Port point’s series and competition was keen for the wearing of the series leader jerseys in each of the senior divisions.
In the B grade, there were attacks from the outset and by the end of the first lap, a strong group of Steve Rhodes, Steve Brough, Andrew Holden and Derek Tan had established a break of about 50 seconds over the chasing group. Series leader Neil Familton was at this stage back in the chasing group.
The breakaway group managed to stay clear with Andrew Holden taking the win from Steve Brough and Steve Rhodes with Derek Tan finishing fourth, with this placing giving Tan enough points to take the series leader’s jersey off Neil Hamilton.
In the C grade, there were fourteen riders with two or three from the junior division dipping their toe into the senior grade for the first time. The junior riders found the going a bit tough and most only completed one lap.
At the end of the first lap Allan Milne and Conor Erwood had a small breakaway over the rest of the field but in the end they were caught with Hunter Gough taking the win from Jack King and Conor Erwood. Hunter was already the series leader going into the race and his win on Saturday now means that he has a handy lead over Andy McIntyre with only one race in the series remaining.
There were fourteen riders in the two junior division races – one group rode over the 32km lap of the Woodlands circuit with the younger group riding 17km on the same circuit. The younger group were supported by an adult riding with them, helping them to understand road riding etiquette.
A great day of racing was had by all. The juniors really enjoyed their day and learnt more about the sport of road racing. A big shout out to all of the people who made the day happen, especially Lindsay Jones for the traffic management, Robin Criglington for doing the entries and looking after the money side of things and to the parents who helped out with marshalling as well as to all of the participants.
We look forward to next week’s race at Rimu.
Marty Lohrey
RACE MANAGER