Friday 24-10-2008
First day of the road races at the Club Nationals we reaped two more medals to add to our allready impressive tally.
After missing the decisive break from John Dean and Ray Robinson, our Masters 6 Alan Black was left to fight for bronze, and he did this with ferve. Alan sprinted to his podium place, leaving his name sake John Black to ponder what if. Roy van Panhuys ended up checking out the Wanganui drainage system, finishing at the tail end of the field.
Sue Tunnicliff went one better than last year, this time taking the gold in the Masters 5 Women race. Sue started in a combined 3/4/5/6 Masters Women field, were she only had to concede to Masters 3 winner Liz Williamson.
First prize for work effort in the Masters Men 5 should go to Ian Frazer, he constantly tried to break the pack with stinging attacks on the gentle slopes of the Montgomery circuit. To no avail, as the pack regrouped every time, leaving the lesser gods to pick the fruits from Ian's Labour. The final bunch kick was won by a rider who has been sitting at the back the whole day, no work and all the glory.
Team tactics from a combined Auckland-Waikato Under 17 Girls pack nullified all Ashleigh Neave's attacks and attempts. Their Jaffa/Mulloo plan backfired big time, as in the end none of them ended up on the podium. Giving the "sit in the pack" sprinters a dream ride to the finish were they just had to contest the last 200mtr and collect the medals.
Our Under 15 Boys raced their hearts out trying to stay with the pack, but they were out-gunned by some very mature looking 14 year olds. With a few more years left in this grade our boys will definetly have another chance to crack the big one. Well done William Green, Logan Bean, Tim Lutter, James Fulford and Regan Gough.
In the end we had a day of elation and frustration, but at least the weather was fine, light winds and warm sunny conditions. With camp cook Peter "Pirate" Gough again brewing up a great meal of pasta and salads, accompanied by a fine cheeky Hawkes Bay red, everything ended up on a high.
