Merbein Cemetery

Family celebrations for the Allfords

Mildura-Coomealla Cycling Club staged a combined graded scratch road race on the Merbein Cemetery course on the afternoon of Saturday 12 June 2010. Three separate races were conducted – a combined A/B graded scratch race held over 56km, a combined C/D graded scratch race held over the same distance and a junior scratch race held over 32km. Cool conditions greeted riders with a temperature struggling to get over 13 degrees and a 15kph breeze from the south.

The combined A/B grade group of 16 riders were released by the starter first. Taryn Heather was the first to launch of a series of hill attacks starting on the first lap. Her attack on the cemetery hill approaching the completion of the second lap was the undoing of Athorn, Anderson and Pitt. Andrew Ryan was unlucky to puncture at about the same time and withdrew from the race. Schilling called it quits after 4 laps. This left Edwards and Mitchell as the only remaining B grade riders in the pack. The group remained together for the rest of the race despite attacks from Henderson, Phillips, Heather and Hale. Sutcliffe did plenty of work on the front even though he was rear-ended by a car during the week and was suffering a dose of the flu - top effort Tom! It was clear that the pack would remain attentive to riders gaining too much advantage through attacking moves, at least for most of the race. The exception came late in the last lap with Phillips breaking from the front on the second last hill with about 3km to go. Surprisingly the pack did not respond as responsibility fell to the sprinters to do the bridging work. This allowed sufficient advantage to be gained which saw Phillips cross the line in first place untroubled by the chase group. The sprint for second place started with a rapid acceleration from Tankard which provided the perfect lead out to Taylor who claimed second place ahead of Tankard. A special congratulations goes to Clinton Edwards who managed to not only complete his first race without a puncture but was also the first B grade rider home.

The combined 15 strong C/D grade group got underway 2 minutes after the A/B group. Not long into the 1st lap Jones and Curry lost contact with the group. Robbins was unlucky to puncture at the start of the second lap. With the exception of Ben Athorn and Thomas Henderson, the remaining D grade contingent succumbed to the C grade pace. The lead group pressed on with Priest the next to lose contact at the midpoint of the race. Attacks came from Pollock, Clifford and Hanlin but the efforts proved unsuccessful in breaking the group up. Allford kept his head down making sure he survived the hills. Young guns Henderson and Athorn rode strongly and kept the pressure on their more senior counterparts. As the group crested the last hill before the finish line riders positioned for the sprint finish. Henderson took off but was denied a first place finish by sprinting machine Allford who passed him on the line by the narrowest of margins. Clifford crossed for third.

The junior group were sent off last for their 4 lap scratch event. Part way through the second lap the group split with Tom Allford, Nathan Jordan, James Burge and Alana Hale settling into the lead group. Several attempts were made by all riders to get away with each shut down promptly. James withdrew after suffering a flat tyre in lap 3. The three leaders battled on with the outcome decided in the final sprint. Nathan was the first to blink and went for the line early. Tom chose to hold back a little longer and was able to charge past Nathan to steal first place in a well timed move. Alana left the boys to it and cruised home in third place.

Thanks to Penny Hale, Tom Athorn and Terry Miller for helping out with race administration and set-up duties. The next race will be a 75km graded scratch (30km for Juniors) event on the Kulkyne Way out and back course next Saturday. Dean Taylor and Gary Henderson are on set-up duty.

RESULTS

SENIORS
Pos Name Elapsed Time

Combined A & B Grade (56kms)
1 Mark Phillips 1:30:01.5
2 Dean Taylor 1:30:12.2
3 Kevin Tankard 1:30:12.5
4 Richard Hale 1:30:12.6
5 Gary Henderson 1:30:12.9
6 Tom Sutcliffe 1:30:13.0
7 Les Jordan 1:30:14.0
8 Clinton Edwards 1:30:14.4
9 Rob Akkermans 1:30:16.2
10 Taryn Heather 1:30:16.5
11 Jeff Mitchell 1:30:17.1
12 Tom Athorn 1:32:58.5
13 Garry Pitt 1:32:59.4
14 Arthur Anderson 1:33:00.3
DNF Chris Schilling 0:53:11.8
DNF Andrew Ryan 0:13:40.6

Combined C & D Grade (56kms)
1 Michael Allford 1:38:08.1
2 Thomas Henderson 1:38:08.1
3 Ryan Clifford 1:38:08.3
4 Dave Digby 1:38:11.0
5 Ben Athorn 1:38:11.3
6 Barry Pollock 1:38:18.0
7 Kevin Gregory 1:38:18.0
8 Rachel Hanlin 1:38:36.2
9 Dave Priest 1:45:23.8
10 Mark Fabich 1:50:56.9
11 Ken Dean 1:51:34.8
12 Miller Terry 1:52:22.4
13 Harry Robbins 1:30:13.4
14 Anne Jones 1:41:32.4
15 Alison Curry 1:47:12.2

JUNIORS
Pos Name Elapsed Time
1 Thomas Allford 1:03:51.5
2 Nathan Jordan 1:03:53.3
3 Alana Hale 1:04:08.0
4 Megan Hale 1:08:34.3
5 Bevan Henderson 1:12:07.0
6 Martin Ryan 1:21:42.7
7 Lachlan Ryan 1:06:30.7
DNF James Burge 0:49:11.5
DNF Sean Schilling 0:46:33.5