Nicholson - back and ready to race

RACE REPORT
40 km Graded Handicap, Merbein Cemetery, Sunday 7 February 2010

Nicholson - back and ready to race

Mildura-Coomealla Cycling Club staged a 40km graded handicap race for seniors and a 32km handicap race for juniors at the Merbein Cemetery circuit on the morning of Sunday 7 February 2010. Thirty-eight riders faced reasonable conditions with a 20kph north easterly breeze blowing and temperatures ranging from 26 to 30 degrees for the event.

The junior handicap race was staged at the same time as the senior race with riders interspersed between the senior groups. Limit riders, Bevan Henderson, Martin and Lachlan Ryan were first away. Newest Club member, Sean Schilling, set off at one minute on second limit riding a restricted 3 lap distance of 24 km. The third limit pair of Megan Hale and Tyler Beruldsen were released at nine minutes. Nathan Jordan and Tom Allford started the chopping block campaign at 13 minutes - a full 3 minutes ahead of the sole scratch rider, Thomas Henderson, who was handicapped to 16 minutes.

The limit group were convincingly caught by the chasers and were not able to stay with the passing groups. The other groups never came together and finished in the order they started with Sean Schilling proving too tough to catch cruising home for an easy victory. Tyler outsprinted Meagan to take out second place.

In the senior event, D grade made up the limit field with Ben Athorn, Michael Allford, Alana Hale, Kev Gregory, Ken Dean, Terry Miller and Barry Johnson in with a real chance to upstage their handicapped opponents. At the completion of the first lap, Miller lost contact with the bunch on the rise to the start/finish line. The scratch bunch, waiting for their turn to start, watched on and contemplated the effort required to run down the determined limit group. An unwell Johnson retired from the race on the second lap and after some strong turns, Dean also lost contact with his group leaving Athorn, Allford, Hale and Gregory to settle down to their own rhythm.

The depleted C grade second limit group of Chris Schilling, Rachel Hanlin, Dave Digby, Brendan Liddle and Ben Vagnarelli got underway at 8:30 minutes. Vagnarelli was forced to withdraw after the first lap due to a wrist injury sustained during set-up duties. The group worked well together but were swallowed up by chopping block in lap 3.

The B Grade chopping block ranks were bolstered this week with Tom Sutcliff and Ben Nicholson joining Garry Pitt, Jeff Mitchell, Arthur Anderson, Adrian Lloyd, Barry Pollock, Tom Athorn and Andrew Ryan. The full strength pack had 13 minutes to make up on limit, however the group were confident that the big guns of Nicholson and Sutcliffe were going to provide the extra required horsepower to hunt down the two groups in front and also hold off scratch. The first lap was completed at almost 40 kph average and some of the bunch were feeling the early strain. Lap 2 saw Andrew Ryan lose contact and have to work hard to get back on as the group slowed a little in preparation of catching C grade. As the B grade train pushed through, led by Nicholson, Sutcliffe and Pitt, the C grade bunch scrambled to get on. Hanlin and Schilling managed to join in and stay there as the speed picked up yet again down the long highway straight. The combined group turned into the head wind and the pace still being set by Nicholson, Sutcliffe and Pitt had several riders in trouble. Ryan was first to depart with Pollock and Digby also slipping quietly off the back. Mitchell was the next to go declaring “the battery is flat”. Athorn bridged across the opening gap taking Anderson, Lloyd, Hanlin and Schilling with him, only to drop off on the climb up to the start line for the third time.

Meanwhile the A Grade scratch bunch of Kev Tankard, Mark Phillips, Chris Parrott, Dean Taylor, Nathan Langley, Richard Hale, Gary Henderson and Les Jordan, starting 16 minutes in arrears, were working hard to overcome the handicapper's odds. Jordan lost contact in the early laps but the remaining group stayed together and eventually started picking off the stragglers one by one. With one lap to go, the lead riders in the race still had plenty of advantage. As the scratch group charged by the splintered chopping block bunch with only Mitchell managing to hold onto the back briefly. Things were getting desperate as Tankard urged the tiring group on. The pace lifted on the last highway straight which saw Hale and Henderson lose contact and Langley holding on by his fingernails on the back.

Moments earlier the remnants of the combined B & C grade group caught the leaders on the road in Ben Athorn, Mick Allford, Alana Hale and Kev Gregory along the long straight on the last lap. The pace continued up the headwind section putting several of this now group of 12 in trouble. With A grade closing fast, Sutcliffe sacrificed himself with a huge high speed turn across the final flat towards the cemetery hill for the last time. This effort put the finishing touches on shattering the lead group and set up Nicholson and Pitt for the run home. With the lead group well in sight, Langley followed Sutcliffe's lead and put in one final assault before the cemetery hill in an attempt to bridge the gap for his teammates. The effort went unrewarded however as Nicholson and Pitt crossed the line to take first and second place followed closely by Schilling, Lloyd, Hanlin and Ben Athorn. Seven seconds later Tankard crossed for seventh place and fastest time.

Well done to the handicapper - all four grades were represented in the first seven places which were separated by just 15 seconds !

Thanks to Penny Hale, Julieanne Ryan, Ben Vagnarelli and Les Jordan for helping out with race administration and set-up duties. The next race will be a two lap ITT at the Riverside course on Tuesday 9 February. Gary Pitt and Dave Digby are on set-up duty.

SENIORS
Pos Name Elapsed Time

1 Ben Nicholson 1:12:43.2
2 Garry Pitt 1:12:43.3
3 Chris Schilling 1:12:45.1
4 Adrian Lloyd 1:12:45.4
5 Rachel Hanlin 1:12:49.1
6 Ben Athorn 1:12:54.5
7 Kevin Tankard 1:13:02.0
8 Mark Phillips 1:13:04.7
9 Chris Parrott 1:13:07.5
10 Arthur Anderson 1:13:10.9
11 Tom Sutcliffe 1:13:11.0
12 Dean Taylor 1:13:19.2
13 Michael Allford 1:13:23.1
14 Nathan Langley 1:13:34.3
15 Alana Hale 1:15:02.5
16 Richard Hale 1:15:04.9
17 Gary Henderson 1:15:05.2
18 Jeff Mitchell 1:15:18.9
19 Tom Athorn 1:16:09.4
20 Kevin Gregory 1:16:17.7
21 Dave Digby 1:17:05.7
22 Barry Pollock 1:17:09.1
23 Andrew Ryan 1:19:36.8
24 Ken Dean 1:20:20.8
25 Les Jordan 1:21:11.9
26 Brendan Liddle 1:21:12.9
27 Terry Miller 1:21:31.9
DNF Barry Johnson 0:33:22.7
DNF Ben Vagnarelli 0:08:35.5

JUNIORS
Pos Name Elapsed Time
1 Sean Schilling 1:08:43.0
2 Tyler Beruldsen 1:12:26.7
3 Megan Hale 1:12:34.6
4 Tom Allford 1:15:13.3
5 Nathan Jordan 1:15:13.3
6 Thomas Henderson 1:16:59.8
7 Bevan Henderson 1:23:06.3
8 Martin Ryan 1:23:08.0
9 Lachlan Ryan 1:24:02.3