Jones Wins “First Up” From A Spell

Oppressive conditions greeted Warragul Cyclists again on Saturday afternoon as riders contested the third race of the summer criterium series. Twenty four riders raced in three grades.

Eleven riders contested the A grade race. Yeatman and Pettingill were always willing to make the pace while Callan Barker was the only rider to try to initiate a serious breakaway early in the race. All moves up the road were short lived as the big field would let no-one get too far away.

Everyone was watching Brenton Jones as he was most capable of breaking the race apart. Brenton is in the middle of Year 12 exams and has had a break from racing but like a good racehorse, he seemed to be travelling well “first up after a spell”. As if on cue, he put the pace on up the King Street hill with three laps to go and immediately had most of the field in the red zone. Pettingill was the only rider to be dropped but many others were not far away from losing contact.

Brenton took pity on the field and let everyone stay attached for the final sprint. Yeatman started on the front but with 600 meters to go to the finish, Rob Monk took off which allowed the big boys to get warmed up. First to pass Rob with 200 metres to the finish was Brenton Jones who, at full gas, was not going to be caught. Darryl Anderson fought hard to get Brenton’s wheel which means he had the momentum to take out second spot. Thommo ground out another podium finish to take third. Then followed Tristan Murat, Paul Yeatman and Rob Monk.

In B grade the youngsters, James Lalor, Jarryd Jones and Matt Kennelly were allowed to do most of the work while more experiences campaigners like Neil Walker, Chris Jones and Dave Baillie sat in for the ride. It did the old boys no go at the finish though as Lalor, Jarryd and Kennelly fought out the sprint. Matt made it two wins in a row and earns a promotion to A grade by taking the win from Jarryd who just pipped James on the line. Then followed Neil Walker and Jason Dastey.

The C grade bunch contained four riders including first time at Warragul rider Lachlan Jordan. Wayne Tunks and Ken Whittaker were managing to get a few brakes on the other riders which caused Cy Monk to put in some hard efforts to chase them down. Lachlan found these changes in pace a bit tough and dropped off the back of the bunch. The second half of the race was fairly held back with all riders wanting to save their energy for the last few laps. Lachlan Jordan sat back in with the bunch after being lapped. Much to the riders’ delight – after 40 minutes of hot weather riding – the starters rang the bell. Cy Monk saw this as his chance and attacked on the King Street hill. Ken Whittaker managed to close the gap before any damage was done and it ended up being a bunch sprint. Ken Whittaker led out from the corner with Cy Monk sitting on his wheel. No one wanted to go so it was left until 250m away until Cy went for home. Ken was ready this time though and was able to get over the top of him with Lachlan Jordan and Wayne Tunks coming in soon after.