Uriarra Homestead – 1st April

An absolutely glorious day weather wise with a light breeze blowing in the from north greeted 42 riders for an out and back course at Uriarra.

A Grade

The A graders decided to make an appearance this week. Maybe Lookout Hill the week previous didn’t suit their style? Starting towards Blue Range spur they wasted no time covering the first half of the course in 14 minutes. As they came past us halfway into lap 1 they had whittled down the lead bunch to 4 riders. Coming past the finish line to complete lap 1, I noticed an attack as they headed up the small hill past the finish line. This was evident as they came past a 2nd time heading towards Uriarra for the last time with Marc Vroomans and Peter Marshall holding a short lead to the chase group of Christophe and Paul Welsh. Coming into the sprint, Marc Vroomans cranked it up from just before the intersection to just pip Peter Marshall on the line. 3rd place went to Christophe Barbaret.

B Grade

5 at the start line and they stayed together for most of the racing with only 1 dropping off the back after the pace picked up slightly. From my calculations they completed the 1st lap slightly faster than A grade. Heading towards the last turn of Uriarra it looked all even and was anyone’s race. Once again it came down to a sprint finish with Michael Foulds edging out David Dickson with Peter Young just behind in 3rd.

C Grade

A big field of 12 riders in C which I combined with the 3 x D graders to make a group of 15. Coming past the judges for the first lap they were mostly all together with the D graders also sitting pretty in the pack. But as the race wore on it was newcomer Jarrod Cook who amped it up with a strong 2nd lap to split the field and rode strongly to record a 23 sec win ahead of a sprint group where Chris Nolan took 2nd just ahead of Warwick Wilson. However there were 5 other riders all within 10 seconds coming across the line so the riding up the last straight must have been a great contest.

D Grade

The D graders did a sterling job to mix in with C grade for most of the race. They tailed off once C grade picked up the pace but also found the odd C grader to team up with to keep the pace high over the 2nd lap. Once again it would take a colossal effort to overcome Bryan Holloway and only Des Brown could put him to the test over the latter stages of the race. However Bryan got the better of Des on the crucial final uphill leg to take the win 11secs ahead of Des with Daniel Grillo coming in 3rd.

E Grade

Another good field of 11 riders. But the heat was on from the get go with only 7 riders in the lead pack going towards Uriarra for the 1st leg. Coming into the 2nd half of the race it got narrowed down to just 4 riders with several dropping off. It was once again anyone’s race as they came past us with only the Uriarra leg to race. Another sprint finish with Jannette Koehler edging out Alex Sommariva and Tony Sheehan.

F Grade

4 riders began with Ian Morton and Howard Moffat quickly establishing a good lead. Unknown to us, Ian had a greater plan in store today and had calculated how many points he needed to take the season point score overall on the last race of the Summer season. He took line honors just ahead of Howard Moffat who stuck with Ian the whole way with Graham Hendrie taking 3rd place.

G Grade

Halfway through this race I would have had my money on Bernie to streak away for the win as he had established a small break on Bruce Jones. However on the last turn leg, Bruce had caught Bernie and was tracking his wheel coming into view for the final sprint. On the line, there was nothing to split them. They sure make us on the line work hard to judge who is the winner and the jugding from the tea and coffee section had scored Bernie the winner by the thread of a tyre ahead of Bruce.

A BIG thank you to the following:

  • Ian Albery for manning the turn point up on the Blue Range spur
  • Chris Short for ensuring everyone turned safely at the top of Uriarra Crossing
  • Owain Tilley for the complicated and often dangerous Uriarra homestead intersection. The police are paying a visit to one driver who is well known to a few of us who thought it would be a good idea to ignore Owain, give him a mouthful and perform a U-turn in front of some riders.
  • Simon Whitehead for the sports med duties, time keeping and keeping me company on the finish line.

Ben Davis
Race Referee

Download detailed race results [PDF]