Race 3 of 6 in the Bikeland Handicap Series

19/09/2009

Rob Monk (of the 5 minute bunch) Reports. 

Great numbers again turned out in near perfect conditions for the third race of the Bikeland handicap series.

After two weeks on the relatively flat Cloverlea circuit handicapper Shane Stiles was faced with a tougher challenge to keep the bunches close after two laps of the hilly Shady Creek circuit. Twenty seven minutes separated the outmarkers, Renee Patrick and Jayden Manintveld from the scratch men Stiles and Sander yet every rider crossed the finish line within 4 minutes of each other at the end of the race.

Manintveld and Renee Patrick were first away and Jayden was a little too quick on the hill for Renee so he decided to set off on his own. He completed lap one in 36 minutes 40 seconds. Renee did lap one in 39 minutes 6 seconds. Chasing them were Dave Axford, Andrew Gordon and Greg Horbowicz. They had 22 minutes head start on scratch and completed lap one in 34”20’. Greg found the pace a bit much and Dave and Andrew were left to chase on their own.

With 18 minutes on scratch Colin Manintveld, Tammy Patrick, Cy Monk and Lawrence Maskill were pre race favorites but Lawrence found the going too tough on the first climb and Cy had a bad day and was dropped on the flat. This left Colin and Tammy to go it alone and they did the first lap in a time of 33”20’.

Next away with 13 minutes on scratch were Michael Blackwood, Chris Jones, Paul Kennedy, Matt Williamson and last week’s winner Zvonko Maric. Michael found the pace a bit tough but the other 4 worked well together completing their first lap in 30’46”. The climb the second time proved too much for Maric leaving Jones, Kennedy and Williamson to work together to chase down those in front while keeping away from those chasing from behind.

The 11 minute trio of Dave Bailey, Clint Hick and Joe Patrick kept together well and completed the first lap in 30’16”. A big break of 5 minutes separated this group from the 6 minute men. Col Brown, Jason Dastey, Pete Finlayson, Jarryd Jones, Matt Kennelly and Steve Muggeridge. Despite having only one minute on the group behind this group completed their first lap in 27’43 allowing the chasing Rob Monk, Brett Rollinson, Simon Baxter and Peter Annear to take little time out of them. The 5 minute quartet completed their first lap 27’ 15” and at the base ofthe climb the second time up had the 6 minute men in sight. This was  enough for Baxter and Annear to make the move to head across the gap to them on the hill. Monk and Rollinson could not go with them so were tailed off. Jarryd Jones was dropped off the group in front so he joined Monk and Rollinson in an ultimately unsuccessful chase to rejoin his group.

The two minute group of Prestige, Yeatman and Thomson would always struggle. With Sandner and Stiles on a tear, they were always likely to be caught before catching those in front. They were grabbed before the end of lap one and only Thommo was able to hold the wheel of the rampaging scratchies. Stiles and Sandner completed their first lap in an amazing 25 minutes 14 seconds (over 40 km/h).

Nearing the end of the final lap it was clear that youngster Jayden Manintveld would not be caught. He had ridden most of the race on his own but managed to stay away. He took the win by just over a minute. Dave Axford was second with Andrew Gordon in third just over a minute behind. Then came Matt Williamson, Paul Kennedy and Chris Jones. Rounding out the top ten were Tammy Patrick, Simon Baxter, Col Brown and Pete Finlayson. The time gap between first and tenth was only two minutes 35 seconds. Less than a minute later Shane stiles crossed the line in the fastest time of the day.

Next week the venue is Shady Creek again. The first three weeks of the series has seen 3 different winners, all first year members of the club. Who will be next?

Second Scratch Reports:

It was not a day for us.  Our group consisted on Thommo, Jayman Prestidge and Paul Yeatman.  We were two minutes ahead of the two
scratchies Shane Stiles and Thomas Sander.  We had some large groups to chase down and there was a nasty big hill on the course

We began the race at a moderate pace and took the hill up the Shady Creek Road at 25kph (slowly dropping to below 20 – pretty poor).  A
strong ride down the back of the hill had our entire ride was averaging 40kph.  Perhaps we were going to emulate last week’s average with
less riders.  This was not to be as while we road along Stuhrs Road we were struggling to maintain 32kph (tired legs, headwind and an ever so
slight hill did not feel good today).  It looks like the wind contributed to making the road feel a little dead.  For much of lap
one (besides the hill which Thommo lead up), we all rolled over pretty regularly and did some good turns.

With 2km to go before the end of the first lap, Thommo announced that scratch was almost upon us and to take things easy. (Not bad for them
given they missed their start time by a few seconds).  Paul thought it would be a good idea to keep the pace up and keep doing turns.
This was a bad decision as when scratch made the catch, he rode three turns and then got spat out the back.  Jayman lasted even less time,
unused to the increased intensity of a lower mark.

Thommo managed to keep up with the new bunch of three and made up 30 seconds on Paul from the bottom of the main hill to the top.  Once Paul was over the top, Shane, Thomas and Thommo were nowhere to be seen.  Jayman was also nowhere to be seen.  Paul got to practice his time trial skills hoping not to come last and to catch at least somebody, anybody!  With  the B bunch (4 mins up the road) completing the first lap in  00:27:42, the B+ bunch (3 mins ups the road) in 00:27:15 and his  own first lap in 00:24:14, not very likely! (One week we catch them with less than lap completed, the next week nowhere near it).  A numb left glute and thigh made the remaining 3/4 of the last lap a hard chase.

Up at the pointy end of the race, a junior took the points and BikeLand prizes for the day.

Final Results Race 3

Grade	Surname	First	Placing	Handicap	Time Gap
D	MANINTVELD	Jayden	1	27:00	00:00:00
D	GORDON	Andrew	2	22:00	00:01:05
D	AXFORD	David	3	22:00	00:01:20
C	WILLIAMSON	Matt	4	13:00	00:01:52
C	KENNEDY	Paul	5	13:00	00:02:05
C	JONES	Chris	6	13:00	00:02:06
D+	PATRICK	Tamara	7	18:00	00:02:27
B+	BAXTER	Simon	8	05:00	00:02:30
B	BROWN	Colin	9	06:00	00:02:30
B	FINLAYSON	Peter	10	06:00	00:02:35

BikeLand Handicap Series Race 19/12/2009

Thanks to Angela Coles and Dania Manintveld for photos (above) and Rob Monk (below).