English riders prove superiority: 4 golds

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 8

English riders prove superiority: 4 golds

i. By

R. M. CAIRNS)

England convincingly — crushingly — last evening pushed Australia from its disputed position as the Commonwealth’s leading cycling nation.

England’s quartet of Michael Bennett, Richard Evans, lan Hallam, and Willie Moore shattered its own (Sarnes record in thrashing Australia in the 4000 m team pursuit, and then Stephen Heffernan won the gold medal in a classic 10-mile race that brought the curtain down on Games track cycling events at Denton Park.

England won a real battte of wits in the 10mile race.

The second and third plactngs to Murray Hall (Australia) and the man of the Games, lan Hallam, of England, left their two countries each with seven medals, but with England clearly dominant with its four golds. This was the way it should have been as, in a repeat performance of the Edinburgh race, England and Australia staged a great battle at the front of the massive bunch. The England team riding was brilliant, as Hallam and Mick Bennet sacrificed themselves for Heffernan. The latter rode away with seven miles still to ride, and was caught only by the New Zealand champon, John Dean. Good lead For lap after lap Heffernan and Dean wheeled away and steadily built up a lead of 200 metres as Hallam and Bennet frustrated every attempt by the three Australians to catch the pair way out in front.

The slowing-down tactics were decidedly distasteful to the Australians; time and again they flicked an irritated back wheel at the troublesome Englishmen glued there. Their cycle-handling skill kept Hallam and Bennet from crashing, and their unselfishness was rewarded when their team-mate held on from a six-man finishing bunch which covered the last 200 metres in ll.osec. Hard enough Dean by this stage had had enough, although if the race had been a lap shorter he would have had a silver medal. But Heffernan was the stronger man; he had worked Dean over with less than two miles to ride, yet had sufficient in hand when the big bunch pounced. The best of the New Zealanders was Paul Brydon. who rode a heady race near tlie back of the bunch for the first five miles, but who with three miles to ride was up among the Australians and the other senior partners.

When the sprint started, Brydon — as he often is — was a little far back for his best interests, but he burrowed his way through the inside, and battling up the straight looked full of sufficient running to take the silver medal. But Bennett and Kevin

Nichols (Australia) closed on Brydon in the final few

desperate metres, and the Rangiora 22-year-old was boxed back into sixth place. Absorbing It was undoubtedly one of the most absorbing 10-mile races seen on a New Zealand track, and it was a most fitting climax to the cycling series.

The English quartet who' has served Britain so well in recent world championships and the Munich Olympics, shattered their own Games record in thrashing Australia in the final for the 4000 metres team pursuit. Within an hour of the vic-1 tory in the 4000 m team pursuit, which was four seconds outside the New Zealand record, the Midlands tandem pair of Ernie Crutchlow andj Geoff Cooke won England’s! third cycling gold medal of! the Games—with two highly impressive races against the) relatively inexperienced Aus-! tralians, John Rush and! Danny O’Neil. N.Z. medals New Zealand finally broke) through to medal success with the bronzes in each of’ the team pursuit and tandem —the countrv’s first successes in these races at the Games. If it was any small comfort for the New Zealanders, they again rode more than three seconds faster than Australia lin the team pursuit. “That is how they were meant to go last night.” said their coach (Mr Wayne Thorpe). “What they did tonight, they did relatively easily: thev were never under any pressure.” Mr Thorne said that the only satisfaction from the event, “as far as I am concerned anyway,” was that his team twice went faster than Australia, the silver medallist. “We were only five seconds Too noisy For eye lists New Zealand's four road cyclists in tomorrow’s 114mile race are having trouble sleeping in the village and may not stay there on the night before the race. The team manager (Mr Des Smith) said yesterday that the four—Vern Hanarav. Barry Ulyatt. Lyn Cooper and Gary Bell—may sleep outside the village on Friday night. “There is too much general noise in the village,” he said. “I want them to have a proper sleep.”

[slower than England, and ; they are meant to be perhaps the best in the world,” Mr ■Thorpe said. “We were 12sec behind them at Munich, so I the improvement is there.” Predictable | Both team pursuit results 'were entirely predictable, ,and so was England’s win in the tandem. When they stormed across the line more than a length clear of Australia in the decisive matching, the delight of the English team was reflected by Cooke throwing his arms delightedly | in the air. A taciturn character, Cooke has had a long career studded with a variety of disappointments and a large inumber of different partners. | His latest, Crutchlow, is an i accomplished handler of the [front of this frisky machine, ■ and the pair had no equal for ! speed. In Paul Medhurst, New Zealand had an equally accomplished tactician, but he and Phil Harland simply lacked efficient speed to threaten the top two ranking teams. But they easily

accounted for Wales in their final ride for third, and extracted due revenge for New Zealand’s defeat at the hands of the same country at Edin- | burgh.