Cyclists Battle A Strong Wind

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30539, 7 September 1964, Page 10

Cyclists Battle A Strong Wind

A strong wind affected cyclists on Saturday. Conditions were much harder than they have been over the last few weeks. Amateurs competed in the 100-mile senior and 50 miles junior Canterbury championships. Cash riders competed in the Wilson Cup race over 60 miles.

W. Kendall (Papanui) had lan unchallenged win in the Canterbury 100 mile senior championship. T. Tabah (Avon) took the junior title. Kendall won by Imin 31sec from his two clubmates, H. R. Bush and W. Thorpe. Of the 16 starters only six were left for the last lap. Five of these came from the Papanui Club and these filled the first five places, with R. Harrison (Timaru) finishing sixth. ~ ’ The course was a block of 16J miles from Rangiora through Coldstream to the Main North road across to Sefton, through Ashley and back to Rangiora with six circuits. Harrison was unlucky to have a puncture at Sefton. After changing his tyre he continued, and finished smin 18sec behind the winner. W. Thorpe, who is always willing to smarten up the pace whenever he takes a lap, put in some very fast bursts in the early stages. These fast clips caused four to drop out after two laps. At the end of the next lap three more had retired and two more fell out in the fourth lap. This reduced the field to seven—six Papanui representatives and one from Timaru.

J. Danielson (Papanui), who has performed well this season, was next to go and was dropped in the fifth lap. It was surprising to see R. Mann (Papanui), who has ridden exceptionally well this season, drift a little in the concluding stages to fourth. The Timaru riders, A. Hood and M. Hewson, forced the Avon representative T. Tabeck, in the final sprint for the junior title. Tabeck held off Hood by inches with Hewson third. This race produced a much better finish than the senior event. Fourteen of the 18 starters were up for the final sprint. Abbreviations used in the results are:—Papanui (P.), Timaru (T.), Avon (A.), Christchurch (C.>. Results were: Senior Championship. W. Kendall (P.) 1, H. R. Bush (P.) 2, W. Thorpe (P.) 3, R. Mann (P.) 4, R. E. Bush (P.) 5, R. Harrison (T.) 8. Time, 4:14:23. Junior Championship. T. Tabak (A.) 1, A. Hood (T.) 2, M. Hewson (T.) 3, A. Leppens (C.) 4, P. Wildermoth (A.) 5, G. Sword (A.) 6. Time, 2:3:53. Novice 10-Mile Championship. —G. Wood 1, K. Sword 2, A. Paviell 3, B. Wilkinson 4, I. Dann 5, R. McGrath «. Time, 27:31. ■ ' In a devastating final burst J. Williams snatched victory from J. Willcox by a very narrow margin. M. Wildermoth was third. The race was run from Islington down the Main South road to just before the Rakaia bridge then across to Leeston and back through Springston

and Prebbleton to the finish at the same place as the start. To Rakaia the riders had a following wind. Within the first 10 miles E. McCann was off break and was riding with the scratch men, who had lost J. Blacknum, trailing 200 yards behind. Both McCann and Blacknum withdrew before the turnoff to Leeston. Off the Main South road the riders met a head wind which slowed them considerably. K. Brown and J. Swanston were the only two left off scratch and at the turn-off were only about 300 yards behind the break riders. Into the wind Brown speeded up and soon dropped Swanston. He made a very determined bid to link up with the break men and got up to within 50 yards. Brown found it difficult to bridge the gap but oustanding solo riding over the next four miles brought him up. After 45 miles the leaders were A. Shaw, P. Arnst, F. Chapman and C. Willcox, who were leading a second bunch by three minutes with a similar distance to break and Brown. Over the next five miles the leaders were riding 10 miles an hour into the strong wind and over this distance were caught by A. Hoivlson, J. Williams, M. Wildermoth and J. Willcox. A. Shaw had fallen well back and C. Willcox started to drift back. Ten miles from the finish the field was in two bunches with the leaders having an advantage of four minutes over break and Brown. It was obvious that Brown would take fastest time so over the concluding stages the back markers did not continue the chase. Brown gained fastest time by nearly two minutes. Results were: J. Williams (16min), 3:22:26, 1; M. Wildermoth (llmln), 3:17:26.2, 2; J: Willcox (llmin), 3:17:26.4, 3; F. Chapman, (27 min), 3:33:27, 4; P. Arnst (27min), 3:33:28, 5; A. Howison (16min), 3:22:29, 6. Fastest time: K. Brown (scr), 3:10:3.6.