Sunday the 6th November. What a day. What a ride. 80 kms and 3 boys hoping to come in first.
The day started off as a typical Palmy day- wet, cold, windy, so I knew it was going to be tough. Lining up at the start line I looked around and recognised a few familiar faces, and was thankful I wasn’t the only one who felt the way I did.
The countdown.. 5..4..3…
Whilst there wasn’t much wind there was a few light scattered showers that passed over during the running of the event. The course started at Hiwinui School and headed north along Watershed Rd, turning left on to the Colyton Rd. Once the riders were at Colyton they turned left again and made their way back to Hiwinui along Reids Line. First to leave the start was the under 19, under 23, senior, master 1 and 2 men. They were to complete 4 laps. Five minutes after them the under 17 men who were to complete 3 laps headed away along with the under 15 boys who were completing 2 laps. They were followed a further 5 minutes back by the rest of the masters men who had 3 laps to complete.
A grey sky threatening rain and a light to moderate Norwest wind greeted the riders to Johnston Park on Tuesday night for the first competitive track night of the season. While Mother Nature had her glum face on the outstanding turnout of 45 riders plus supporters decked out in vibrant lycra representing every colour in the spectrum helped to fire up the energy levels as potential and speculation was about to give way to reality.
The programme was adjusted as the threat of rain could not be ignored and the longer handicap races moved ahead of the scheduled one lap scratch races. The race of the night was provided by the ladies in the 6 lap handicap event. The skills of the handicapper were tested as he had riders ranging from World and National champions to absolute first timers in a bike race of any kind. Scratch riders Megan Blatchford and Kate Stewart gave limit riders Renee Wadsworth and Toni Loveridge 300 metres in the 2400 metre race. The scratch riders started aggressively as they tried to reel in the other 5 riders as quickly as possible. The other riders calmly got into their work and Renee was able to maintain her margin into lap 4 of the 6 lap race. The scratch riders joined the middle grouping with two laps to go and joined the train to gather in Renee, which they did with a little over a lap to go. Sharon Hollenstein and Tegan Rolfe kicked on with scratch rider Megan to finish 1,2,3 and a gallant Renee holding on for fourth, Kate’s early work caught up with her as she took up the fifth position.
Below are the results for week 5. We had a couple of issues on the night with our timing equipment so we were unable to recall the times of 4 riders. They have been awarded the full 2 points however no time is recorded next to their names.
Results 7th November 2011
Please note that some of your race numbers have changed. We have a full muster on Tuesday nights and so we need to double up on the allocated numbers. Please ensure you put your number back on the rack at the end of the night IN THE RIGHT ORDER. If you do not you will have a person on Tuesday night unable to find their number.