05/02/1994
Six months ago Peter Bailey spent his days wrapped up in a sling, today he has gone full circle, and is a man on a mission. His B grade victory in Saturday’s Warragul Cycling Club Criteriums leaves him knocking on the door of the A graders. The B grader only narrowly won his event from the fast finishing Paul Yeatman and Graeme Hanks but he set up the win long before he saw the line.
Numerous attacks cut down the size of the field leaving Daniel Dilger, Jason Boxall, Ben Fleming, Matt Hall and Brett Williams off the back of the bunch and out of the race. With fewer riders to chase him down Bailey attacked again forcing the workhorse Graeme Hanks to chase him down. Fourth place eventually went to Scott Keeble with Stephen Fenwick, Travis Fromholtz and Ross Henry close behind.
The A grade event proved to be a race of attrition with Chris Joustra attacking, extreme heat and a small bunch testing the riders. Dale Grant was the first to crack followed later by newcomer Luke Neilson and Chris Kypriotis. This left only three riders with Geoff Thomson and Joustra jumping off the front on numerous occasions. Gaps started appearing in the threesome which gave Murray Fenwick the lucky chance to jump clear and hold on from the fast finishing Joustra and Thomson.
A return to racing by Mark Revitt-Mills left the C grade field in disarray with Russ Walker unable to exert his usual authority on the grade. Three riders finished well ahead of the strung out field as Mark powered home over Walker with a resuming Ian De Bruyne third and Stephen Twinning fourth. The rest of the bunch struggled home with Debbie Williams, Kevin Ware, Anthony Vogrig and Vic Spunner all coming through fairly closely. Ted Dunn rode the race alone after losing contact in the first lap.
Chris Knoll again proved too strong in the junior event in beating Michael Maunder, Trent Tapscott, Honeyman and Stones all riding well but unable to match Knoll’s pace. Jason Spunner was the best of the under 15 division over Michael Mumford and Matt Young.
