Sweaty racing at Trafalgar
Race two of the Battle of Trafalgar criterium series was raced in hot and humid conditions on Sunday morning.
B and D grade enjoyed the coolest conditions of the day. The D grade race stayed together for the first 30 minutes with first time racer Ashley Dilger hanging in there well.
Peter and Lea McLean put the pace on mid race and first Ash then Felicity Waddell were detached from the bunch. Annie Pryjmak held onto the McLean train the longest and she finished in third place. Lea was too quick for Peter in the sprint to the line but Peter says he conceded the race.
The B grade race was a fairly pedestrian affair for the first 20 minutes with no-one too keen to animate the race.
When George Tambassis, Graeme Parker and Mark Mason established a gap warning bells sounded in the chasing pack. Simon Baxter, Jason Tubner and Michael Salerno spent plenty of energy bringing them back.
After the catch Rob Monk, who had contributed nothing in the chase attacked. He was brought back by Baxter but immediately went again and this time Parker was on his wheel.
The two combined well for the remaining seven laps and held off the chasers to take the win. Monk was gifted the win by Parker, Baxter managed to escape from the chase group to take third. Tambassis was fourth and Jason Tubnor fifth.
An evenly matched C grade bunch seemed to struggle to do anything but follow each other around. Bryce Edhouse was always keen to get up the road but the rest of the bunch were happy to let him tire himself out while they shared the workload to keep him close.
Tex Walker let others do most of the chasing. Bryce went for the death or glory breakaway at the bell.
He still had a good gap rounding the home turn but the sprinters would not let him have his day in the sun. Jarrod Croxford turned himself inside out to reach Bryce and Tex went past Jarrod to take the win. Bryce hung on for third. Danny Dilger is getting fitter each week and finished fourth. Josh Akarsu was fifth.
The A grade race was dominated by Daniel Furmston. He attacked and soloed for five of the first six laps. Matt Parkinson who looked like a man who’d visited one too many wineries in Adelaide, chased Furmston back but Furmston wasn’t done. He immediately got up the road again; this time with Harry McLean. The pair worked well together and would not be caught for the remainder of the race.
The ever combative Sir Chris Joustra, recently knighted in the Australia Day Awards, decided that a co-ordinated chase was not the way to go. He attacked the pursuing bunch and spent most of the race between the lead pair and the chasers.
Brett Kennedy appears to be returning to some form although he looks like he and Parkinson may have been on the same hydration regime. Kennedy nearly made it across to Joustra but the pack eventually came back together with three laps to go. Joustra was not done with though and he attacked again. This time Kenny made it over to him. Furmston won the sprint from McLean to take a welldeserved win. Kennedy rode away from Sir Chris to take third. Joustra was fourth and Tom MacFarlane won the bunch sprint for fifth.