The down pour started on Friday with Duncan McFadyen(70-75) and Bruce Galloway(50-55) both claiming top spots in their age grade 24km time-trials at the 2009 Masters Games. Seventy-five year old McFadyen, from Havelock North, blitzed the field as he took his time-trial title by more than two minutes from Ellis Goodyear from Wellington. This Ramblers’ stalwart has shown again that there is still a lot of racing left in him.
Galloway had to get a monkey off his back, as he crashed earlier in the week in the three day tour time-trial. This day nothing stood between the Napier master and his destiny, as he claimed gold in the race of truths.
The Masters Road Race was run on the Saturday from Brunswick on an undulating circuit. Again both the Ramblers’ masters had it their own way, McFadyen leaving his field behind to ride away solo to his second gold of the Games. For Galloway his second gold came after a hard fought battle with Wanganui local Pat Johnstone. Both riders took it to the line with Galloway claiming victory by the smallest of margins.
The overall comment about this magnificent event from McFadyen was that the Games atmosphere was like no other, with athletes from dozens of different codes mingling at the Village as the organizers put on daily entertainment that went on till late evening.
At Waitangi weekend the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Open Track champs were held at Taupo’s Velodrome in Arthur Dellany Sports Park. The competition was hot for the 13 riders representing the Ramblers Cycling Club, but the clouds burst with a total of 31 medals won.
The Central Hawkes Bay Town of Waipukurau has sprouted more potential track stars besides Olympian Westley Gough. During this three day long event, Sam Clarke and Regan Gough both from CHB, showed their wares on the bitumen oval.
Clarke kicked off the weekend with gold in the 500mtr time-trial ahead of Fraser Gough and a second place in the 200mtr sprint seeding round just ahead of Taradale’s Tim Lutter.
Regan Gough and Kerry Harford both dominated their age grade fields, winning all their events outright.
In the Under 17 Boys 5km Scratch race the Bay boys put on a great display of teamwork. From the gun they put up a barrage of attacks, shielding their escaped mates from persecution. During this offensive of epic proportion Duncan MacKenzie’s 2km dash for freedom made it all the way to the finish. As the Dartmoor son revelled in his glory he was quick to acknowledge all the work done by his club mates at the front-line.
With this ever growing team of cyclists, the long-term future of track cycling in Hawkes Bay looks to be in good hands. In the short-term, with the National Track Champs in Invercargill only three weeks away, time will tell if last weekend’s form is enough at national level.
