Rnd 6 – Tidbinbilla – Graded scratch road race

Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/05/2014
8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Location
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

Location: This course uses the roads Tidbinbilla Road and Paddys River Rad. The race starts starts near the Tidbinbilla Reserve entrance.

Timing: Course set up will commence at 98:00am with racing to commence at 9.00am. Racing is expected to conclude at approx. 11.30am and pack up completed by 12.00pm.

Course: The start and finish for this race is near the entrance to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve,

• A ~27.6 km lap of the course would be
• From Tidbinbilla Reserve entrance, head north to turn around Flints Crossing Reserve
• head south for 13.8 km (~3.7 km past Corin Road)
• Return to Tidbinbilla entrance
• MA, MB, MC, WA to do 2 laps
• WB, WC, MD, ME to do 1.5 laps

Car Parking: Competitors will park at the Tidbinbilla Reserve Visitor Centre

On a drizzling day – when the apparent temperature continued to fall throughout the race to a low 3.2 degrees – 16 hard cyclists turned up to race.  By way of comparison…a year ago on a colder but sunny and dry morning, 101 racers turned up for the same race.

The 5 combined MA/MB set off together. Sam Hill and Daniel Hamblin, demonstrating great  sportsmanship, rode at a pace that kept the bunch working together until 5km to go – when they set off to sort out the MA placing themselves.

Sam Hill finished alone with Daniel a further 40 seconds behind.  A minute later, Rien Schuurhuis (relishing European like conditions) led Michael Rosser home. Sam now leads the men’s points competition after 6 rounds.

In MC, six riders (the biggest field!) rolled out next, doing their best to warm up in the arctic conditions.  By the second lap there were five, and on the approach to Flint’s Crossing, Julian Singson unfortunately lost a chain. Despite a solid TT effort, and further mechanical issues, he could not reunite with the bunch.

On the final lap Dean Ansell pushed it hard up the final pinch past Corin Road creating a break and splitting the final four. On the line, Paul Frankcom outsprinted Dean Ansell to take the win with Steve Rodgers and Dom Vigar finishing not far behind.

The last bunch to start combined juniors (across MD and ME) with lone masters male and female riders. The conditions and rolling nature of the course soon saw it break up into it’s constituent WB, ME and MD components.  Rob Fisher, after looking after the juniors for much of the 1 ½ laps, finally set off to win comfortably followed home Joe Beitzel and Mac Edwardson. Michelle Burns gains a valuable 5 points (and now sits equal 3^rd) after soloing on through out the race and David Castle-Burns took 3^rd place in MD.

And special thanks to the marshals who ensured a safe event for the racers: Andrew Chamberlain, Belinda Chamberlain, Jamie Nicholls, James Simpson, Tony Rowley and Chris Short.