Uriarra Homestead

Rain, wind, sunshine, grey skies… There was something for everyone at the Age Championships held at Uriarra crossing on Saturday. With the weather the way it was, all 26 riders could have thought they were racing one of the early spring classics in Belgium but for the fact that non-one was speaking Flemish! Also apologies for the initial bleat saying we were racing to Coppins Crossing. You didn’t think the Race Committee was this murderous in their course design did you?

All age groups were represented with Rosemary Robinson the lone female racer….ladies a little bit of rain won’t hurt you, come and race! First off was a combined M6, M7, M8, M9 & W3 race with the riders quickly sorting themselves out early and getting into a rhythm as they headed towards the short turn of Uriarra. Then the young guns being M1, M2, M3, M4 & M5 started in 2 min intervals on the slightly longer course heading towards the Mt McDonald turnpoint.

M2 quickly split up with Steve Crispin deciding the best method was to attack early and gain a 1min lead on the chase group of Paul Smith and Marc Vroomans after the first Mt Mac leg. M3, M4 & M5 stayed together as common sense of riding as a bunch in the at times strong winds was a better tactical thing to do. After 1 lap of the course, Paul Robey and Bernie Crowe were battling it out after the trio of Anthony Beasley, Mark Taylor and Des Brown notched it up and took off on lap 1. Meanwhile we had riders either coming off Mt McDonald, screaming downhill from the Uriarra short turn or battling up from Uriarra Crossing giving Denis Jessop at the T intersection a tough time directing cars and riders in all directions.

The M6, M7 & M8 trio of Anthony Beasley, Mark Taylor & Des Brown were first across the line and decided a sprint was a good thing to do even though they were in different age groups. Loving the competitive nature of racing! Then the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was glorious weather as Steve Crispin put in the fastest time of the day to take out the M2 age group. M3, M4 & M5 had some great sprint finishes with very little separating the top placings in all of these age groups. It’s always tough to gauge when to start sprinting on the deceptive uphill finish.

  • M1- Adam Potts 1st
  • M2- Steve Crispin 1st, Marc Vroomans 2nd, Paul Smith 3rd
  • M3- Andrew Remely 1st, Seymour Savell-Boss 2nd, Damian Copeland 3rd
  • M4- Dave Mullins 1st, Anthony Meredith 2nd, Bruce Goodspeed 3rd
  • M5- Michael McGurgan 1st, Mark Stevenson 2nd, Nick Boylan 3rd
  • M6- Anthony Beasley 1st
  • M7- Mark Taylor 1st
  • M8- Des Brown 1st, Paul Robey 2nd
  • W3- Rosemary Robinson 1st

I would also like to thank the tremendous work of the helpers on the day. Simon Milnes for finish line duties, Roger Northcote as the ATC at the Uriarra Crossing turn point, Bruce Jones at the finish line, Graham Hendrie for all the van duties, placings and timings, Kevin Hennessy for sorting out the medals, Denis Jessop as the ever vigilant ATC at the T Intersection, Tony Weir for ATC duties at the Uriarra short turn and Kim Malcolm as ATC for the Mt McDonald Turn point. The weather wasn’t great at times so each of you deserve high recognition.

 

Ben Davis