6 Jan 2010
Christmas is over for another year & with the new year is the Taree Summer Festival & Manning Valley hosted the Summer Festival Criteriums on the Kolodong circuit last Wednesday afternoon. Visiting riders for the event were Nicholas Chevally & David Stroot, along with Tim Norris & Owen Belton, currently home from the USA. Along with the local riders there were 15 starters in the premier grade. Young guns, Peter Lewis, Stephen Lewis & Josh Blick were looking to make their mark against older cool heads in Glen Mathiske, Dan Aldridge & Lloyd Ninham. With the overseas boys looking to work together to stage a breakaway, it was up to the experienced guys to keep the attacks in check. When the race settled, Glen Mathiske made a brave attempt to escape, but with a class field, the attempt was doomed. In a bunch sprint, Tim Norris sprinted head to head with Peter Lewis with Tim coming over the top in the final metres to take the major prizemoney from Peter Lewis in second & Nicholas Chevally in third. Lloyd Ninham finished fourth & Rhett Pattison in fifth. Glen Mathiske was unlucky & threw his chain as the sprint opened up.
B grade was a little down on starters from the previous weeks with only eleven starters. With a couple of the big hitters away it became a more even event. Russell Davis was the new boy in the grade, having been promoted from C Grade & would find B Grade a tough challenge. But accept the challenge he did & finished in fourth place. Paul Nixon was probably the favorite for the race after his dominant win in the final Crit before Christmas, but nobody was counting on the finish from Sam Alley who blew away the field to win, leaving Nixon in second & Sean Sadler finding his way onto the podium in third place. Russ Davis fourth & Silas Sutherland in fifth. A fitting reward as he was easily the most aggressive rider in the field, trying to keep the pace high all race.
C Grade raced for 25 minutes & two laps & the pace was on early when Troy Unicomb & Clint Squires made a claim to the money by breaking away. This lasted a couple of laps when the gap was shut down by Ian Budden leading the bunch. Unicomb attempted to breakaway several more times without success. During the latter stages, A Grade passed the C Grade pack & some of the riders took some assistance from the faster bunch to get a good lead over the chasers. With two riders away the rest decided to race on for the minor placings & in the final lap, Kurt Sadler lost his chain, putting his chances of finishing on the podium to zero. Troy Unicomb finished ahaead of Clint Squires to take what he thought was the victory, but they were both relegated to finishing behind the bunch by the Chief Commissaire. Graham McGechan who had won the bunch sprint for third, found himself the winner with Stephen McInerney second & Steve Richardson third. Ian Budden fourth & Kurt Sadler fifth.
D Grade was taken out by Wilfred Alley, but not before a close tussle in the final lap which saw Ben Hayward lose a spoke in his front wheel after some close jostling for position. Wilf Alley & Richard Parvin escaped the turmoil to fight out a close sprint with Wilf just getting the better of Richard. John Hawkins finished third, Tyler Nicholson fourth & Kelle Nicholson fifth. An interesting dicussion took place afterwards amongst the Nicholson family with Dr Stephen doing a great job of referee.
E Grade was dominated by Oscar Watson-Sutherland in a display which probably has earned him a promotion. Attacking early & riding solo for the win he easily left the bunch in his wake. Matthew Blick was best of the rest to take second place & Graeme Budden in third, finding a little bit of training does wonders.jack Renneberg was fourth & Stephen Nicholson fifth. Most improved ride of the day went to Paula Callaghan who finished in sixth place just behind the first five riders. Well done Paula.
Lastly but by no means least is our junior riders. A Three lap handicap was led out by Krisha Dowsett from the limit mark. Next away was Michael Dowsett & Isaac Cross from the 2 minute mark. Bayden Macintosh-Clinch, Kobe Pattison, Adrian Green & Jordan Blick started from the five minute mark. Marcus Worth rode from the Six minute mark, Lachlan Cross, Baxter Pattison & Daniel Sewell from the seven minute mark & comprised the scratch bunch. Michael Dowsett must have been doing a bit of training lately & rode past sister Krisha & equal starter Isaac Cross to win by 41 seconds from Krisha & Isaac Cross finishing third. Marcus Worth rode well for fourth & Jordan Blick finished fifth. Fastest time went to Daniel Sewell from the scratch mark. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the Manning River Summer Festival Criterium such a success.