The Francis line circuit never fails to bring a few challenges with it. It is a course where riders understand they will face the wind coming at them from every which way at some stage out on the road. Tonight, it was a hardy few riders – some might say fool-hardy – who turned out to attempt to deal with very chilly south-southeast wind conditions. 

Traditionally this is a fast, flat circuit that favours the sprinters or riders who can hang on and then take off out the front to rapidly get up that final small lump to the finish line. As a Graded Road Race, you are only racing against the riders in your start group, so bunch tactics can also come into play and not everyone will be prepared to take equal turns on the front. 

Usually in Graded Road Races there’s no love in war and cycle racing and sometimes it’s not about winning but all about beating your mates! In contrast to that idea, both A and B Graded races this evening were ridden more like a Handicapped Road Race. 

In A Grade a couple of riders were dropped very soon after the first turn, but all the other riders decided to sit up and let both riders back into the bunch. Everyone was then able to roll through taking their turn on the front.  In the end line honours in A-Grade went to Finn Roberts, closely followed by his Dad, who rode the whole race in his small chain ring – spin training extraordinaire!

In B-Grade a similar race unfolded. B-Grade came down to a hard-fought sprint with line honours going to Roger Foote closely followed by Rex Dowding. The race for minor places were also strongly contested in B-Grade.

Very many thanks to race management who kept us safe. Tonight, there were nearly as many in the race team as riders on bikes.

Note: PNP have today put out a notification that Centre Champs have been postponed at this stage. For those who have entered or are intending to enter Nationals – keep an eye on the NZC website as they have indicated they will update this on 19^thMarch.

Only two more Tuesday night races for this season – next week is an ITT up Matahiwi and the final race is a Mass Start around the Pakas from Johnstone Street.

Rememberto register for our Cycling Section AGM and Prizegiving through the ACM website.

Full resultscan be found:

http://acm.kiwi.nz/running/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/FrancesLinex2GRR-2.pdf

Tonight’s handicapped road race used the Upper Manaia Road to Kaituna and return course. With another testing breeze in play, this race turned into a bit of a smash fest for many of the riders, particularly in ‘A’ and ‘B’ Grade. These two groups obviously decided right from the off, that they didn’t feel like working together tonight.

With pressure on right from the start, some riders in these two groups were spat out the back door very early in the race. Most riders from ‘C’ and ‘D’ grade had noticed that this was a handicapped race and did manage to work and stay together until they were around the turn. Then a couple of the riders from ‘C’ grade were successful in hooking onto the charging front end of ‘A’ Grade, at least for a while.

Line honours tonight go to our visiting rider, Madi Hartley-Brown, who was first and fastest man, followed a few seconds later by Gareth Price and Mark Langlands in third. First and fastest woman tonight was Kirsten Goodin.

Special mention tonight for great rides from both Finn and Caleb Roberts. As junior riders they are having to use restricted gearing, and have to spin at a frenetic pace to stay on a bunch that is flying downhill.

On the short course our junior riders found the conditions quite tough and ended up racing an individual time trial. Short Course line honours went to Jaimee Blackburn once again this evening.

Congratulations to all those who contested Rice Mountain Classic at the weekend – it’s one tough race – Erik D’Arbois, Stephen Yeats, Richard van Lent, Josh van Workoem. Also remember that we still have riders out there on the Tour of Aotearoa and you are able to track how far they have got on-line.

For those of you who have been thoroughly enjoying racing, and are wanting to extend your season there are a few opportunities outside Tuesday nights for you to stretch your legs:

14^thMarch      – Tui Bush Tour – Mangatanoka

21^stMarch       – Gentle Annie – Taihape to Hawkes Bay

5^thApril           – Wellington Centre Champs being run by PNP

11-13^thApril    – Australasian Masters champs – hosted in the Wairarapa

17-19^thApril    – New Zealand Age Group Club Nationals hosted by Waipukurau

3^rdMay            – Hope Gibbons Team Time Trial hosted by ACM – register now here:

2020 Hope Gibbons Team Time Trial

The other date to put into your calendar is our AGM and Prizegiving – Saturday 9^thMay at Wairarapa Club. To register for this please complete the form you will find at:

2020 Cycling AGM & Prize Giving

As always thanks to our race management team, and also thanks to the Allen’s for hosting the after- race refuelling session.

For full results:

http://acm.kiwi.nz/running/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/KaitunaHRRResults.pdf

Tonight’s handicapped road race around the Upper Plain circuit was fast and furious right from the get-go!  On an almost perfect summer evening, thirty-nine riders presented themselves to the starter for this predominately flat course with two junior riders and one senior completing two laps and everyone else racing for 3 laps. 

There was a handicap of three minutes between each of the bunches, and tonight the handicapper has to take credit for ‘getting it spot-on’, resulting in the whole race coming together on the final lap. As is expected on these occasions riders who were feeling strong managed to hook onto the back of the faster riders as they came through. Overall line honours tonight went to Simon Butler, who put both Mark Langlands and Tom McCallum to the sword in the final sprint. Simon also takes out the honour of being fastest man on the night.  Emily Lutyens outsprinted Donna Burkhart to take line honours amongst the women riders. Emily also takes out the honour of being fastest woman on the night.

On the short course, congratulations go to Karen Blade, who was the fastest rider overall on the short course. Also, congratulations to Kate Speedy who pipped Jaimee Blackburn in the sprint to take line honours amongst the junior girls.

After all was done and dusted, the riders were an animated bunch as they discussed the tactics that they had employed and whom had managed to get onto whose wheel, and which riders in their bunch didn’t take a turn on the front! Many riders were heard to state, ‘that was great, I enjoyed that’. For a few unlucky ones, tonight there was the sad story of only managed a few kilometres before I punctured!

As always, many thanks to Brent Sowry and his race team who make it possible for these races to take place safely. It was a big team of folks out there tonight. Also, very many thanks to Andrew Linton and Kirsten Goodin for refuelling riders and officials.

Next week is the final Club Championship race – the love it or hate it Hill Climb Champs up the one and only Admiral Hill.

Finally, good luck to Tom McCallum as he heads north to contest the Elite National up in Cambridge. Go hard Tom.

Full results from tonight can be found at: http://acm.kiwi.nz/running/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Upper-Plain-circuit.pdf

Lap times: http://acm.kiwi.nz/running/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/LapTimesSkeetsx3HRR.pdf