Day three at Nationals brings early Success

Several plans where hatched after consuming thought provoking Gold medal Glazebrook wines kindly supplied by Mr Peter Gough master pasta chef. Both of the early plans coming to fruition with Gold to Kerry Harford in the Master 2 and Gold for Darryl Strachan combining with a Silver for Bret Hart in the Masters 3. In Masters 2 Andrew Townsend covered Lester Settle from Pegasus in an early break away in the first lap with Kerry in the box seat covering Chris Nicholson from Nelson the outright TT Winner. Neil Evans and Robert Taylor both working as domestiques work the bunch over in the early stages and paid for it later on finishing satisfied to be part of a successful plan but at the back of the pack. At the start of the third lap Kerry with Andrew combined to put the pressure on the remaining 10 riders with the majority of the peleton blown to bits. A small chasing group of 3 regrouped with the two Ramblers to contest the medals in a sprint once again dominated by Kerry.

Darryl Winning Vet 3



In the vet 3's Ben Rowell (Club Captain) devised a plan to get Bret up the road early and then Darryl to try and jump across. This worked a treat with Steve Watson attacking up the first small climb and Bret rolling through while the pack sat and watched. A milk tanker gave a small lift for Darryl to easily get across and the game was on. With both Bret and Darryl relatively unknown at this level and Ken Mac Kenzie winning the TT the pack was happy to sit and watch Ken who along with David Youngquest amused themselves making sure the pack couldn't get organised to put in a decent chase. Bret working hard with Darryl managed to get out to 3 minutes at one point with the last 31km lap to go. Great excitement on the finish line for a happy team of supporters and helpers with Kerry's sprint in the Vet 2's and Vet 3's Darryl finishing about 20 minutes later. Bret rolled in 2nd about a hundred meters behind with the pack another 30 Seconds and third taken by PNP.

Bret takes the Silver