Track Cycling Feilding Results for 1st February 2011

Photo courtesy of Kirsty Kaihau

Eventful was the word to describe tonight, if a little understated. The largest crowd of the season enjoyed close competitive racing with tight finishes high speed and regrettably concluded with one cyclist watching a stellar constellation all of his own. We had 37 riders plus supporters filling the terraced seating. We all enjoyed a warm night with bright skies and a westerly breeze. The Wanganui contingent of 5 riders plus supporters made the trip again and they all added colour to their respective races. The programme started with graded 7 lap points races followed by 3 to 4 lap graded handicap races then the nights racing came to an unscheduled conclusion at the end of the age, C and B grade 3 up 200m sprints. The abrupt end to racing was as a result of Jordan Castles leaving his bike seat a little earlier than he would have liked. Both Josh Kendall and Jordan Castles wanted a rerun of their earlier race that Jordan had won. They rolled around to the 200m mark and hit the go buttons, Josh took the early lead with Jordan out of his saddle building speed for a planned overtake before the line but Josh was not going to fade and he fought back to ensure he did not surrender the lead. At the line Josh had prevailed by half a wheel and then witnesses say Jordan stopped pedalling causing the constantly rotating pedal of the fixed wheel track bike to conflict with the stationary leg so lifting the stationary leg and causing Jordan to be bucked off the saddle in spectacular fashion with a 360 degree flip onto the track. In moments his father was at his side and a support crew of spectators and parents kicked into gear. The ambulance was called as a precaution. I am pleased to report that Jordan was sent home at 1am after being cleared of any broken bones. While the nights racing concluded before the long handicap races we did still have great racing with all racing being extra competitive and finishing with riders separated by fractions of wheel widths. Ian Gray was complemented by many for his skilful judgement in setting the handicaps. While Matiu Kaihau is the strongest cyclist on the track and a national representative he was pushed tonight by Jaycob Humphreys. In the first points race clash Matiu had a comfortable win in the first sprint but the second sprint was won by only half of a wheel as Jaycob tried to roll over Matiu on the finish straight. The next race was the 7 lap handicap race with Matiu on scratch and Jaycob on 30 metres. Jaycob was able to bridge a gap to join three other riders and together they were able to set a hot pace and worked together to gather up the rest of the A graders and make Matiu’s task of catching them, as difficult as possible. Matiu did not have the assistance that riding in a group provided and instead had to display his skill and fitness to fight solo to catch this group. Matiu joined the group with 3 laps to go and took his place in the group and rolled through, in this process Jaycob positioned himself on Matiu’s wheel. With a lap to go Matiu found himself at the front and kicked, the group struggled to match him and a 10 metre gap soon appeared. At the 200 metre mark Jaycob started to move away from the group and used the final turn to build his pace and launched a full attack down the outside of the finishing straight. The two judges present had difficulty separating them but the victory was awarded to Jaycob.

There will be an extra nights racing on Thursday the 3^rd of February to accommodate the club’s individual pursuit championships. As the pursuit is a time comparison event it is essential for fairness that they are completed on the same night and in the same conditions.

These are the results:

U15 boys and U17 girls 6 lap points race

1^st Campbell Stewart 10 points

2^nd Ruby Perry 5 points

3^rd= Michella Drummond 2 points

Robert Stannard

C Grade 7 lap points race

1^st Julio Kaihau 10 points

2^nd= Kelsi Eccles 5 points

Andrew Bengston 5 points

B Grade 7 lap points race

1^st= Jordan Castles 6 points

Shaun Matena

3^rd Julio Kaihau 5 points

A Grade 3 lap handicap

1^st Matiu Kaihau 10 points

2^nd Jaycob Humphreys 6 points

3^rd Megan Blatchford 3 points

 

U15 & U17 3 lap handicap

1^st Liam Barber

2^nd Robert Stannard

3^rd Ruby Perry

C Grade 4 lap handicap

1^st Andrew Ward

2^nd Jo Ellery

3^rd Kelsi Eccles

Masters 4 lap Keirin

1^st Victor Possee

2^nd Mark Signal

3^rd Jo Ellery

B Grade 4 lap handicap

1^st Cassie Cameron

2^nd Peter Wenborn

3^rd Jordan Castles

A Grade 5 lap handicap

1^st Jaycob Humphreys

2^nd Matiu Kaihau

3^rd Steve Stannard

 

200m 3up sprints

Heat 1

Campbell Stewart 1^st 15.96

Robert Stannard

Micheala Drummond

Heat 2

Liam Barber 1^st 16.95

Kelsi Eccles

Brittany Ingram

Heat 3

Cassie Cameron 1^st 15.59

Ruby Perry

Katie O’Neil

Heat 4

Jordan Castles 1^st 15.58

Josh Kendall

Andrew Bengston

Heat 5

Victor Possee 1^st 16.23

Mark Signal

Jo Ellery

Heat 6

Shaun Matena 1^st 14.80

Andrew Ward

Peter Wenborn

Heat 7

Ross Castles 1^st 14.60

James Hutton

Tamara Ross

Heat 8

Barry Gilliland 1^st 16.60

Rachael Southee

Heat 9

Josh Kendall 1^st 15.10

Jordan