December 12/99 11:02 am - Illawarra CC Race Results 12/12/1999

Posted by on 12/12/99
 

In a stark contrast to the near perfect race conditions of the previous week, last weekend the riders had to contend to a stiff southerly and cool conditions. But that did not deter the 36 riders from turning up for the criteriums at Warilla.

The racing was started by D grade riding for 15 minutes plus 3 laps. The young and upcoming riders of Jaclyn Kejda, Rebecca Borgo and Josh Wall gave the masters rider of Ian Cooper a pretty hard time during the race with constant attacking riding. In the final lap Kejda was able to break away from the others and win by a handy margin from Wall and Borgo.

There were many attacks in the C grade race and early in the race three riders got the gap. Phil Cuifo, Adrian White and Matt Jones worked well together and were able to maintain the distance to the pursuing group for the entire race distance. By the end of the race they had built a lead of 47 seconds back to the bunch. The favoured rider to win was the track rider Jones but on the last lap Cuifo made a break and had a good lead into the final 200m. As Cuifo eased up at the line he was almost beaten by Jones, White came in third.

The B grade riders' set a fast pace right from the start with Andrew Telford and Dave Gray constantly attacking. Ernie Hall made what looked like the decisive break, with several laps to go, into the strong headwind in the back straight. Lionel Covington jumped the bunch and joined Hall with the two sharing the pace for the final laps. Covington lead for the last 2 laps and looked the winner into the final straight but with a metre to the finish line the big sprinter Mick Kejda hit the front. Terry Wall rode well and took out third place.

The A grade race always provides plenty of action and Sunday's race did not disappoint. Frank Tortorici attacked as the starter said go, but the bunch was too attentive to let him go. Mick Lockyer made a couple of strong breaks but each time was brought back by the vigilant bunch. Peter Jones, being the best sprinter in the bunch, rode strongly and attacked a few times with 8 minutes and 3 laps to the finish. As Jones was caught with 3 laps to go Brendan Cato showed his class and potential by breaking away and lapping the field. The sprint for second place was quite lively with Tortorici just edging out Barry Neall.



Next weekend's race is on Saturday afternoon at 3.00pm, it is the 4 person Christmas time trial followed by the Club presentations and party at Don's farm. Volunteer marshals are required.Results: