Cycling Southland Senior Club
Waianiwa Graded Road Race Results and Report
Great weather for fast and furious racing! Well that was how it was supposed to be, the 47km course was flat with some nice long straights. Only be the strongest riders could get away on a course like that. Three grades started at 2min intervals.
A-grade (9 riders) were first away, they started in typical super-fast fashion Shane Fletcher rode strong early on with Marcel Baird and Simon Croom sharing a lot of the work. 20-25km into the race it appeared to ease up a little with not many wanting to do the work. Some were happy to sit in and fight out the sprint. It’s not normally the done thing and as some said every man has his day. “What goes round comes round”.
B-grade (17 riders) started a little more conservative a steady pace with everyone working together, at one stage it was thought that they were going to catch A-grade. Geoff Van Dam looked strong early on he made a couple of breaks but nothing significant. Ray Robinson also attempted to break away just before Drummond he almost got clear but the peleton chased him down. For some reason they too decided to have a spell and lost sight of A-grade.
C-grade (23 riders) were the most organised bunch today rolling through together at a good healthy pace. No attacks to mention, the mission I think was to make up as much ground on the B-grade riders ahead. Young Laura Heywood and Sarah Tomlinson looked comfortable throughout the race. 5km’s out they had B-grade in sight Allan Milne, Mark Blackler and Tim Maynard put the hammer down and dragged the bunch up to B-grade at 1km to go they made the catch it was all on now!
Sprint time, forty riders barrelling along for a sprint finish was an exciting sight (tough for judging) but action a plenty. It could of all gone pair shaped when 100mt out Aaron Sinclair appeared to pull not one but both feet! Only good bike handling skills save a huge crash, well done Aaron!
Results:
A-grade
1st Brehan Cairns
2nd Kirk Hamilton
3rd Matt Dodds
4th Robert Huisman
5th Josh Haggerty
B-grade
1st Luke McPherson
2nd Nick Kergozou
3rd Mike Culling
4th Andrew Lienert
5th Sophie Williamson
C-grade
1st Mark Blackler
2nd Tim Maynard
3rd Laura Heywood
4th Matt Malcom
5th Tony Hammington
Hat’s off for Mary Marshall and Nicola Stevens who rode and extra 25km after missing a corner, good work ladies sorry we couldn’t get to the corner in time!