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Goldstars Cycling Club
New Years Day Criterium - Gold Coast, Queensland, January 1, 2005
By Robyn & Tim Francis
The Goldstars Cycling Club ran its annual New Years Day Criterium at the Nerang Cycling Centre on the Gold Coast. Leading up to the event, we were told that perhaps we had picked the wrong day to run a bike race, with too many riders too hungover to want to race. How wrong this was proven to be, as 170 riders turned up to race, watched by about 500 spectators. It a spectactular day of racing!
We believe this is the first cycling carnival of the year, starting with the Junior racing at 7.30am. The day got off to a fairly warm start with the four grades of Junior events; some of the outstanding performances through these were from 8 year old Sean Grimes from Goldstars in the Junior D Grade. The bunch was altogether leading up to the first sprint prime when Sean accelerated and won it convincingly leaving the rest of the bunch in his wake. The C Grade race saw young Bridget Mohr from Balmoral take out the first sprint prime ahead of Brendan Hill. She maintained the lead and was able to hang onto it until young Brendan, to his credit, brought her back in the last four laps. But he had spent too much energy and couldn't hang on to her wheel; Bridget took out a fine win with Brendan second and Sarah Hickey in third place. The B Grade race was dominated by Daniel Blake-Owen who is on the comeback trail from a serious fall on a BMX bike. The Junior A Grade event was won by Kane Anderson from the Gold Coast - an outstanding performer was the only female in the race, Jessy Byrnes from Brisbane, who survived all the attacks from her male counterparts to finish credibly with the main field.
The second half of the programme was the four Combined Masters/Senior/J19 events as well as a separate Womens Event. D Grade was won by visiting rider John Hickey from Gunnedah who finally cracked it for a win after his third year of travelling to this event. C Grade was a very fast and attacking kind of race but no one had the fire power to outgun Clayton Berg from Broncos in the final half lap. B Grade got off to a flying start with many trying to break away but brought back to the pack in quick succession. It looked like it was all going to stay together for the finish until five riders broke away from the group after the second sprint prime. Mark Brady, Dave Barber, Steele Sutton, Lachlan Sanders and Kyle Bateson made the successful break around 30 minutes into the 50 minute event. Barber was the first to crack followed by Brady some 5 minutes later, leaving Sutton, Bateson and Sanders, who eventually lapped the field with about 10 minutes remaining. The field sprinted with four laps to go, leaving the three remaining riders a clear road. Kyle Bateson took the win from Steele Sutton with Lachlan Sanders third.
The next race was the first of the two major races of the day, sponsored by Marcel Bengston of MB Coaching. A large field of 19 women lined up combining women and masters riders. The race got off to a nervous start with some of the riders trying their luck off the front, the first being Di Monk from the Goldstars, but she was quickly counter-attacked by Sally Cowman who stayed away for a number of laps until she was brought back. The next to go was Candice Sullivan who looked like staying away from the group until some hard work by Sally Cowman and the eventual race winner, Bridget Evans. These two riders then got away and stayed away from the bunch, with some of the local girls - Dee Boys, Ros Powley, Di Monk, Sharon Heap and Monique Rameau - trying their luck to get across the gap. Some of the MB Coaching girls - "the Marcelettes" - tried to organise for a chase but the girls in front were setting a high tempo. With five laps to go Candice Sullivan launched a big attack, and as she came around the final bend she would have seen Bridget Evans nosing out Sally Cowman by half a wheel to take the win, with Cowman coming across the line for third. As a result she received the award for the most agressive rider of the day. Di Monk was the first masters category woman.
It was time for the main event. The organisers of the race had no definite commitment from Robbie McEwen that he would race, stating that he "would see how his New Year's celebrations went". When he turned up, not only in his new Davitamon-Lotto strip complete with Ridley bike, but he had his new team mate, Henk Vogels, with him. From that point on, the race took on a new dimension. Never on the Coast have we seen a race change fortunes so quickly. Jarren Poad must have thought the race was much shorter, judging by the way he took off out the blocks, extending the field right from the word go. That was the way it remained for the first 25 minutes - attack attack attack! A high average speed of 48km/h in 35 degree heat was very taxing on the 40 strong field, but three riders managed to break the rubber band from the field - Luke Stockwell, Henk Vogels and Dave Betts were the riders that headed out front. They worked well together, securing a half lap lead on the 800m circuit until Luke Stockwell had a flat tyre. He changed and rejoined, setting the tempo with the other two leaders again. The crowd thought that it was a foregone conclusion that these three would go on to contest the win, and it looked like they would lap the field, until all of a sudden they came around the corner.
Henk Vogels' bike was making a loud grinding sound and Dave Betts had a flat tyre of his own, which left Luke Stockwell by himself out front. Spectators were unsure of Vogels' bike problems, but he was granted a mechanical mishap by the Chief Commissaire John Morris, and Dave Betts changed his wheel, allowing them to rejoin Stockwell in the lead. But the main bunch had seen all the action and were onto it. They chased Stockwell and reduced the lead to some 150 metres by the time Betts and Vogels had rejoined Stockwell. Gold Coast riders Kane Oakley, Craig Cahill and Jon Cantwell were the first to try and bridge that small gap on their own, but they didn't succeed individually. It did, however, cause a reaction from the rest of the bunch which saw the three leaders caught with about six laps to go. At this point Poad and McEwen exploded out of the pack, opening up a gap of around 10 seconds which they held to the finish. McEwen outsprinted Poad, and a big bunch sprint for third was taken out by Jon Cantwell with Steve Storer fourth and Daniel Newnham fifth.
Results
Combined A 1 Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) 2 Jarren Poad (Ffast) 3 Jon Cantwell (Lifecycle) Women 1 Bridget Evans 2 Sally Cowman (Victors) 3 Candice Sullivan (CATS) Combined B 1 Kyle Bateson (CATS) 2 Steele Sutton 3 Lachlan Sanders (Hamilton Pine Rivers) Combined C 1 Clayton Berg (Broncos) 2 Ivan Vella 3 Mick Follett (CATS) Combined D 1 John Hickey (Gunnedah) 2 Gary Muharen (CATS) 3 Eric Hall (Goldstars) Junior A 1 Kane Anderson (CATS) 2 Sean Caskey (Ffast) 3 Byron Davis (Broncos) Junior 1 Daniel Blake-Owen (Goldstars) 2 Lachlan Caskey (Ffast) 3 Courtney Dutton (Broncos) Junior C 1 Bridget Mohr (Balmoral) 2 Brendan Hill (Goldstars) 3 Sarah Hickey (Gunnedah) Junior D 1 Sean Grimes (Goldstars) 2 Sam Morris (Goldstars) 3 Ryan Smith (Balmoral)
