17 July 2010

A massive 79 riders turned out at Central Lansdowne on Saturday in perfect weather conditions to race the first round of the Interclub Challenge between Manning Valley & Port Macquarie Cycle Clubs.

 

5 grades were run on the day and points were awarded to the first 8 place getters.  Unfortunately the Manning Valley riders were outnumbered 2 to 1 which enabled Port to claim the majority of placings and gain a hefty lead over Manning Valley in the overall point score – 196 to 98.

 

Fourteen riders including 9 Manning Valley riders contested the A-grade event over a distance of 66kms.  The race involved numerous attacks by both clubs however none were successful ending in a strung out sprint finish.   After struggling to stay in contact with the main field during the latter stages of the race Dan Aldridge fought back with the help of his loyal team mates to take the victory.  Dan showed once again he is one of the best sprinters in the area by putting daylight between himself and 2nd place getter Jason English from Port Macquarie.  Blake Polverino also from Port Macquarie was 3rd while Daniel Crossingham was the next best finisher from Manning Valley grabbing a well earned 4th place.  Other Manning Valley riders to secure points for the club included Tai Piper in 5th, Graham Norris in 6th and Stephen Lewis in 8th.  This was the only grade where Manning Valley outscored Port Macquarie – 46 to 31.

 

B grade raced a distance of 53kms with a quicker average speed than A grade travelling over 36km/hr.  This was largely due to the efforts of Manning Valley workhorse Wayne Callaghan and Port Macquarie rider Scott Mollyon who broke away from the field early in the race and managed to stay away.  Wayne, who did the majority of the work in the break, was unable to match the fresh legs of his break away companion at the finish, who took the win easily.  Sean Sadler was the only other Manning Valley rider to put some points on the board claiming 8th place.  Mick Godwin, Jason Parker and Justin Woollard all failed to finish while Anthony Cross, Greg Walmsley and Noel Mathiske weathered the storm to finish with the main field.

 

A huge bunch of 23 riders contested the 40km C grade event including 11 keen Manning Valley riders.  The race was largely a game of ‘cat and mouse’ with all riders marked closely and unable to get away.  Apart from a couple of withdrawals due to mechanical failure, very few were dropped which resulted in a tightly contested bunch sprint finish.  The sprint started a long way out with Port Macquarie rider Dave Marshall sneaking off the front early.  Manning Valley’s in-form rider Clint Squires took up the chase but couldn’t quite the bridge the gap having to settle for 2nd place.  While Manning Valley filled the majority of the minor placings with Phil Mitchell in 6th, Tanya Cross in 7th and Ben Haywood in 8th unfortunately Port stole the bulk of the points in C grade. 

 

D grade was an all Port Macquarie affair with no Manning Valley riders appearing in the top 8 handing Port Macquarie the full 50 points on offer.  While Tyler Nicholson, Len Newman and Brian Lewis all rode well to finish they were severely worked over by the 9 Port Macquarie riders who countered their every move.  Hopefully Manning Valley can bolster its numbers in D grade in the next round of the challenge and deliver some retribution.

 

E grade was won by Manning Valley veteran Graeme Budden with junior Kelle Nicholson finishing a close second in the 13km dash to the line.  The other Manning Valley contenders also rode well with Stephen Nicholson finishing in 8th, Paula Callaghan in 9th and Belinda Crossingham making a creditable return to racing to finish in 10th place.

 

Thanks go to Lloyd Ninham, Gary Piper, Rob Alley, Sue Hart, Darren Mahoney, Wilf Alley and Steve Richardson who all assisted in making the day a huge success.

 

Only a few brave riders backed up to race the Hill Climb Championships the following Sunday morning at Rainbow Flat.  13 riders contested the championships which involved a difficult 6km time trial over Koorainghat Mountain.  Rhett Pattison was the surprise package of the day beating race favourite Graham Norris to take the title in a time of 11 mins and 32 seconds.  Dan Aldridge also shocked a few to finish 15 seconds behind in 2nd place in front of Graham Norris a further 22 seconds back.  Jason Parker won the B grade title, Clint Squires C grade, Tyler Nicholson D grade, and Stephen Nicholson E grade.  Full results are attached.

 

Thanks again to Lloyd Ninham, Kirsty Steep and Harold Greenhalgh for running the event.

 

MANNING VALLEY CYCLE CLUB