3 July 2010

Noel Mathiske has again this year generously sponsored the annual PEDAL POWER CYCLES handicap. Held on the Upper Lansdowne Road from Melinga to Mount Coxcombe & return, twice for a distance of 54 km's. Paula Callaghan & Brian Louden were the limit markers with 35 1/2 minutes start over the scratch bunch. At 29 minutes was Graeme Budden, Stephen Nicholson & Kelle Nicholson. Donna Bailey, Barry Lambert, Jake Schumacher & John Hawkins left at the 19 minute mark. Robert Alley, Len Newman, Ben Hayward & Chris Bryan had 14 minutes with a fairly hot bunch at 9 1/2 minutes which contained Kellie Yeark, Tanya Cross, Tyler Nicholson, Michael Gilbert, Russell Davis & Alex Cudlin. At 7 minutes the bunch of Silas Sutherland, Ian Budden, Mal Saad, Don Worger & Kurt Sadler looked to have the goods & would be tough to catch. 5 1/2 minutes was all that Tai Piper thought he would need to take the win & with support from Michael Godwin, Greg Walmsley, Noel Mathiske & Clint Squires this looked a possibility. Chopping block had a slim 1 minute advantage, but with four riders over the three scratchies they may not be caught. Wayne Callaghan, Dan Crossingham, Troy Croker & Sean Sadler are all tough riders & Graeme Norris, Rhett Pattison & Ben Stricker would need some luck or just some good old head down racing. Events started to fall the way of the scratchies from the start when Clint squires missed the start which weakened the Tai Piper group. Silas Sutherlands bunch started with five riders but were down to 2 riders at the turn on the first lap with only Sutherland & Budden surviving. The only chance for them was to push on & catch the bunch ahead. The lead bunches did not have the start that they had enjoyed the previous week & were being reeled in by the chasers. Sutherland & Budden were making good headway, mainly through the efforts of Sutherland & had caught most of the leading riders shortly after the final turn. The scratchies had also caught chopping block & were about to bring in the Piper group just after the final turn. With the Sutherland group in site it was going to be a close finish. Sutherland & Budden swapped turns on the run home with some support from Len Newman & several riders enjoying the tow. With just over a kilometre to go the catch was made & it would be a sprint finish that would decide the winner. Ben Stricker & Tai Piper led the charge in a head to head sprint which Stricker won narrowly from Piper with Wayne Callaghan third. The top ten were:

1st Ben Stricker (fastest time)
2nd Tai Piper
3rd Wayne Callaghan
4th Dan Crossingham
5th Graham Norris
6th Chris Bryan
7th Rhett Pattison
8th Silas Sutherland
9th Alex Cudlin
10th Jake Schumacher

Thanks to Steve Richardson & Janine Watson for Traffic control duties, Sue
Hart for sign-ons & to all competitors for making it a great race. Ian

MANNING VALLEY CYCLE CLUB