Hauxwell is climb champion
It was a big weekend for Warragul Cycling Club members.
Saturday saw the running of the club hill climb championships.
The event is simple, as are the riders who normally do well in it. You start at the bottom of the Yarragon Hill; the first rider to the top is the winner.
A small field set out and Matt Malacarne seemed keen to drop the slower riders right from the start.
His early surge had Paul Yeatman and Rob Monk off the back in the first 500 metres. Malacarne did the majority of the pace making in the first 2km before Brett Rollinson and Leigh Hauxwell took over.
Hauxwell and Rollinson set a tempo that no-one else could follow. Dave Smith was the last rider to be dropped from this duo. Hauxwell was worried with 800 meters to ride that the race may come down to a sprint. Hauxwell is a climber and sprinting is not his specialty.
Hawk attacked and made sure a sprint was not going to happen. He left Rollinson and took off and won easily. Brett was second. Dave Smith was third and Matt Malacarne fourth.
Connor Bagot missed the start but charged through the field to take fifth. Then followed Jason Tubnor, Rob Monk, Paul Yeatman, Col Brown and Leigh Jamieson.
Hauxwell was crowned open hill climb champion. He is a fitting winner as he is clearly the best climber in the club.
Matt Parkinson has been a pretender to this crown for the last two years as Hauxwell has missed the championship race.
Dave Smith was the masters 456 champion and Col Brown the M6+ champion.
On Sunday riders contested the final race of the club combine series. The A grade race was a torrid affair with only four of the 12 starters finishing. Daniel Furmston animated the race from the start.
He decided the best way to get in the break was to dangle off the front and encourage others to come across to him. Harry McLean and Brian Sing were keen to join him.
Shane Stiles jumped away from the chasers repeatedly and messed up any change of an organised chase group forming. When the super strong Stefan Michalicka jumped over to the leading trio it was race over for the chasers.
Stefan was just too quick for Sing and Furmston in the sprint. He took the win with Furmston in second and Sing in third. Harry McLean was the only other rider to finish.
The B grade race was punctuated with time trail efforts off the front from Paul Yeatman and Jim Timmer Arrends. Yeatman was able to escape mid race with Leigh Stott from Leongatha for a lap. With two laps to go, Big Jim took off solo and it was race on for the chasers.
Jim is a national masters time trial champion so it will always take a concerted effort from the bunch to chase him down. Rob Monk tried to keep the chasers organised but Mark Mason had other ideas. He tried to bridge to Jim. That was always doomed to failure.
Stott and Parker broke away in pursuit near the football ground on the final lap. When Tambassis and Monk joined them, it was race on. The four chasers would need to commit fully to catch Jim.
Commit they did and they needed all they had to catch him. Tambassis had the most left at the finish and he passed Jim 20 meters before the finish to take the win. Big Jim was second with Monk third, Stott fourth and Parker fifth.
A small C grade field stayed together for most of the race. Peter Macdonald was first with Col Brown second, Ross Henry third and Shean Donaldson fourth.
In D grade, Peter McLean turned the tables on last week’s winner Rod Cheyne. Donna Innes Wardell was third and Caleb Jans fourth.
The final standings for the series were:
Stefan Michalicka, Slovakia, A grade 17.
Peter McLean, Leongatha, D grade 17.
Leigh Jamieson, Warragul, C grade 13.
George Tambassis, Warragul, B grade, 12.
Peter Macdonald, Warragul, C grade 11. Rod Cheyne, Leongatha, D grade, 11 Rob Monk, Warragul, B grade, 11.