Essex Cup 2013

A small but determined field of riders gathered in Ashhurst for the 2013 running of the Essex Cup.  

As always the first mention will be to the people that helped on the day – THANKS to Lyn and Kevin Daly for marshalling at Highland Home corner, Kerry, John and Lyall for being tail wagon. 

With a lot of riders away at Southland for the Yunca tour it was anybodies guess how the grades were going to work out and who would be first over the line. The weather over winter has been pretty kind and today was no exception. Only a very slight breeze from no particular direction.

With the handicapping skills of Steve Stannard the first small D grade bunch consisting of Tamara Ross and Thomas Stannard was set off. The arrangement on the line was that Thomas would wait for Tamara at the top of the hills and she would be able to pull him along on the flats. Unfortunately all good plans don’t unfold as first envisaged. When Tamara and Thomas hit the gravel section, which was a bit worse than normal due to a slip that had recently been cleared, Tamara punctured and that put her race plans in the bin completely. Luckily for Tamara, Kerry and John Walker along with passenger Lyall were the tail vehicle and were able to pick her up.

The next bunch of 3 to leave Ashhurst 14 minutes after D grade were Michaela Walker, Toshi Yamauchi and Katherine Stannard. And after what seemed like a huge gap, but in reality was only another 12 mins the A grade riders departed followed another 2 minutes later by the final scratch riders Paddy Daly and Steve Stannard. They would have there work cut out for them to catch the bunch of 5 riders just ahead of them.

Thankfully for another vehicle out on the course, Ross Castle who had had a mishap, which resulted in a mechanical failure on his bike was delivered back to Ashhurst.

And it was with some dismay after clearly stating in the race briefing that if riders crossed the white line that they would be disqualified that the spectators watching as riders approached the finish line saw the start of the sprint of the lead riders. Unfortunately the lead rider crossed the white line and soon after the following rider also crossed. So although these riders will retain their points for the handicap series, they were disqualified. Only two minutes back came the next riders. And with a final burst a very pleased Thomas Stannard crossed the line to take the Essex Cup for 2013.

He was followed by Ross Rainham and Steve Stannard. Just over a minute later they were followed by Paddy Daly and Toshi Yamauchi. Paddy’s bike was incredibly dirty and he was able to advise that he had tried a bit of cross country riding just for a change.

All riders crossed the finish line within 11 minutes so the handicapping was pretty good.

The points from todays race along with the next handicap races in the series and the one that has already been at Pahiatua will be aggregated and prizemoney awarded accordingly. Riders need to be at the final event to collect. If not the money will be returned to the pool for the next series.