11 July 2010
Manning Valley Cycle Club held its annual One Day Tour on the weekend in memory of former Club supporter & volunteer Rex Clinch, whose family has strong ties with the local cycling club. The Tour consisted of three events, an Individual Time Trial and a Road Race held at Central Lansdowne and then a Criterium at the new cycle track at the Taree Recreation Centre. This is the very first time the Club has used the facility which proved to be a great success with all competitors rating the track highly.
27 competitors contested the Tour over 5 grades with points awarded down to 5th place for each event. For the first time points were also on offer for the ‘King of the Mountain’ during the second lap of the road race.
While numbers were down overall, A grade fielded the greatest number of competitors all season with 9 riders signing on. Dan Aldridge dominated A grade placing first in all three events, claiming the KOM title and winning the Tour comfortably. Dan recorded the fastest time trial of the day averaging almost 42km/hr over the hilly 10.8km course giving him a time of 15min and 21sec and a whopping margin of almost 1min over his nearest rival. Daniel Crossingham proved he can sprint as well time trial by claiming second in both the time trial and the road race giving him 2nd overall. Graham Norris is starting to regain his form after a month’s break overseas riding consistently throughout all three events to claim 3rd place overall.
Grant Melzer started the B Grade tour with a win in the time trial. Using his triathlon experience, he powered against the clock to take the points over the ever improving Mick “Shimmy” Godwin, with Jason Parker rounding out the podium. The road race started at a steady pace, with the riders all watching each other, before the KOM sprint. A solid attack by Melzer had Michael & Anthony Cross in trouble, struggling to maintain the pace. Numerous attacks on the climb did little to upset the remaining three riders, with Mick Godwin taking the KOM sprint easily. Further attacks on the final lap finally unloaded Parker, with Mick Godwin unchallenged for the win. This set up a thrilling final stage at the new criterium track with Melzer and Godwin both vying for overall honours. Melzer needed to watch Godwin, however the final stage was more suited to the sprinters. Persistent attempts to break the field up were unsuccessful and after leading coming into the final bend Melzer was overtaken by Michael Cross who lead the sprint out, only to be pipped at the line by the fast finishing Godwin. Godwin secured the overall win in B grade from Melzer, with Jason Parker making a solid comeback to racing to hold onto 3rd place overall.
C grade numbers were down this year with only 5 riders braving the cold start. Clint Squires could do no wrong all day and won all three events and the KOM sprint without raising a sweat. After winning the time trial by almost 30secs from Tanya Cross, Clint Squires continued to dominate race proceedings by attacking on the climb of the final lap with only Steve McInerney able to respond. In the final kilometres Squires also managed to shake off McInerney to ride solo to the finish. Tanya Cross couldn’t quite bridge the gap to the break handing McInerney second place. Clint Squires recovered from a puncture in the criterium after taking a lap out to win the bunch sprint from a fast finishing Russell Davis and Ben Haywood in third. Tanya Cross finished fourth to give her second place overall with Steve McInerney close behind in third.
D Grade was a battle of the juniors with Tyler Nicholson and Jake Schumacher racing neck to neck the entire day. These two guys are improving every week and likely to be promoted after recording faster times than some of the C-graders in the time trial. In the end Tyler was just too good using his sprinting prowess to win both the criterium and road race giving him the overall honours. Kelle Nicholson rode well to finish third overall after Vanessa Croker unfortunately had to withdraw from the Tour due to injury.
Graham Budden won all three events to claim the overall honours in E grade. While Max Eden actually won the criterium race, he had not raced the previous two stages so was not eligible to claim points towards the overall title. Stephen Nicholson secured 2nd overall while the oldest competitor in the Tour Bill Biddle rode strongly all day to finish third overall.
MANNING VALLEY CYCLE CLUB