With the weather forecast for showers it did not look hopeful for the 5th running of the Laskey Cycles Manfeild 6 hour challenge. However the forecasters must have got it wrong as although it was overcast there was hardly a breath of wind as all cyclists headed out for the first lap of the Manfeild 3km course following the pace car.
Teams and solo riders had come from across the North Island to see how many laps they could complete in the given 6 hour period. As soon as the pace car pulled off at the end of the front straight the tempo jumped with a large bunch drawing off the tail riders at speeds over 45km/hr. But this was only the first lap of many so as people settled into the work ahead the speed dropped to a manageable pace. This year saw riders on tandems as well as a bike with a reclining seat on the front so a family could take the younger members out on the circuit.
The Crazy Crew even had a rider with a leg in plaster – that is what is called determination.
The transition was set up in front of the garages in the pit lane so spectators and team members that weren’t on the track riding were always at hand to cheer on their team and other riders.
The continuous feed of results to the big screen kept teams busy trying to figure out when the competition was going to enter transition zone as for the top teams it paid to enter transition at the same time as those riding in the lead bunch with them.
Teams were told early on that when they entered transition they were to slow down as if they hit the end barrier they would be receive a time penalty meaning that the new rider would have to wait a predetermined number of seconds before leaving the transition zone.
A light shower at the five hour mark certainly didn’t put a damper on proceedings and was only long enough to dampen the course and not spirits of riders on the course.
The overall winning team was Laskey Cycles team made up of Matiu Kaihau, Luke Mudgway, George Roberts and Regan Gough. They completed 90 laps, 2 laps ahead of Gregory Marfell from New Plymouth and Jim McMurray from Tirau who completed the 6 hours as solo riders. Jim McMurray took out the prize for the fastest lap in 3 mins 36.797 secs.
Results
Female Team Mothers 75 laps
Male Team Laskey Cycles 90 laps
Mixed Team Laskey Cycles -Laskey 81 laps
School team PNBHS Attack 87 laps
Solo female Glenys Taylor 70 laps
Solo male Gregory Marfell 88 laps
One of the major prizes – a flight in the Helipro helicopter went to one of the younger riders from Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School Noah Lloyd from team Rainbow Pandas.
A total of 33 solo riders and 22 school, 4 all female, 21 all male and 26 mixed teams with each team consisting of up to 4 riders meant there was a lot of cyclists that had a good workout and will all come back to challenge themselves and their mates again next year.
For full results and photos Click here