Schaapveld takes cycling championship with class

Press, 19 September 1977, Page 3

Schaapveld takes cycling championship with class

By

RAY CAIRNS

The benefits of racing in Europe were never better demonstrated than by Frank Schaapveld in wintry Cust and Oxford yesterday. In winning the Canterbury 185 km cycling title — his first provincial championship on the road as it happened —Schaapveld demonstrated a greater depth of ability and reserves than he has ever done.

Schaapveld earlier looked like a cyclist of rare potential, strong sprinting, and dubious determination. But he has changed since his return from the Netherlands and there was no questioning the quality of his victory from one of the strongest of all Canterbury championship fields. There were only 15 starters — eight entrants having been driven away by the bleak conditions — but they provided a field that would have been the equal of many nationalchampionship fields. Only nine finished the event. The fact that the race was run the “wrong” way around the Summerhill block meant a dreadful haul from Cust to Oxford — a long drag on a steady incline into buffeting south-westerly winds and rain.

But for all that, the race had its moments, not the least in the second of the five laps, when Paul Jesson, Bryan Stenning, and Dave Hewson had punctures. Misfortune or not, they should not have been paced back to the field by their support vehicle and all were fortunate that their only penalties were fines. In Jesson’s case, it meant that he kept the bronze medal. It would otherwise have gone to Mike Hughes, who was sixth, and Stenning and Hewson ahead

of him. Jesson and Stenning provided one of the main breaks on the Summerhill climb, with little more than 40km to ride. The other came from Schaapveld, with under 10km to ride, coming down the same hill. He kept his tenuous lead until just before the finish, underlining the quality of his performance. The other distinguishing feature came in the sprint. John Mullan, another racer with relatively recent European experience, appeared to have his third title win well under control when Schaapveld started coming through the inside. With ability born from experience, Mullan threw out a decent check but that mattered little to Schaapveld. He battled on and Mullan, gracefully accepting the inevitable, gave away his challenge. Toni Horne won his second junior title in a plugging finish but this was one of the less interesting races. The bunch steadily whittled itself down to a basic 11 and even that suffered further reduction in the final skm, ridden into a strong head-wind.

Horne led out in the short sprint and withstood a strong challenge from Royce Dawson and Tony Duder.

Ross Bush has not had much success in the Canterbury veteran championship. He missed the start of the first race and had an injury at the time of last year’s event.

But on Saturday, Bush cleared out with 30km to ride. He won by Imin from Doug Todd and Stan Hunt and was another Imin 20s clear of the title-holder, Don Johnson.

The most entertaining of the champions was Shane Smith, defending the boys’ 35km title. He won from Mark Nichols, perennially runner-up to the national champion, and these two were clear of the field.

The aggression started in the first skm and by the end of the steady climb to the Gorges Road from Summerhill, the front bunch was down to nine. Then the shingle, and two punctures, removed from contention Nick Purcell, who had the sprint to win. . Smith and Nichols then got down to the serious business of shaking off the rest of the field. This they did, by 40s and so shattered was the field that the next two, Steve Burdon and Peter McEwen, were clear as well, although not by much, from Barry Hulbert. Smith gained his winning advantage when he jumped clear from Nichols 500 m from the finish. The latter had a battle to get on the wheel. The energy expended cost him dearly when he tried to round Smith close to the line.

Lyndon Ryder won the intermediate-novice title as expected by riding away and getting I.smin clear of Gavin Visser and Glen Fuller, Stuart Redmond, Selwyn Horne, and Dean Harvey led in the junior novices.

One of the most exciting finishes was that decided by a stop-watch. Mairehau A — boasting Smith, Nichols, and Burdon, the previous day’s medal winners, with Greg Shepherd and John Hughes — won the 20km team time trial but only by the narrow margin of 6.5 from a youthful Hornby team. The latter team of five has

four still in the novice ranks next season and must already be looking fondly ahead to the 1978 event. The junior team time trial was won, as expected, by Papanui A in the outstanding time of 55min 30s, although the course was probably a kilometre or so short of the 40km. However, the other times — 57min 20s by Papanui B, with Tony Duder riding from the scratched Woolston team, and 59min 10s by Hornby — were also worthy efforts in the conditions.

Abbreviations used in the results are Papanui <P.), Hornby <HJ« (RJ. Woolston (IV.). Mairehau (M.), Kaiapoi ,K.), Dunedin (D.), Invercargill (I.). Senior, 185 km.—F. M. Schaan, veld (P.) 1, J. P. S. Mullan (W) 2, P. A. Jesson ip.) 3, B. W Stenning (P.) 4. D. B, Hewson <?•) 5, M. J. K. Hughes (I.) 6, C. M Hogan (P.) 7. J. I. Rider (P.) 8, P. C. Coding (D.i 9. Time: 5:5:57. Junior 80km —T. R. Horne (P.) ■A P a l’ s 0? <p -> 2 ’ A - ” Duder (W.) 3, P. S. Flattery <P.) 4, B. Brunton (H.) 5. Time: 2:22:18. Veteran 100 km.—H R. Bush (P.) 1, D. Todd <D.) 2, S. Hunt (P.) 3, D. R. Johnson rW.) 4, M. Dryden (D.) 5, R. Prince (W.) 6. Time: 2:58:06 Senior novice, 35km.—S M. Smith (M.) 1. M. P. Nichols (M.) 2, S. F. Burdon <M.) 3, P. McEwen (K.) 4, B. Hulbert <W.) 5, M. Sanders (W.) 6, K. Bishop <H.) 7. B. P. Gyde (H.) 8, J. Hughes (M.) 9, G. C. Shepherd (M.) 10. Time: 60:51.

Intermediate novice, 16km—L. Ryder (H.) 1, G. Visser (R.) 2, G. Fuller (K.) 3, M. Childs (H.j 4. Time: 29:43

Junior novice 10km.—S. Redmond (R.) 1, S. Horne <R > 2, D. Harvey (H.) 3. Time: 23:32.

Junior 40km team time trial.— Papanui A (Horne. Flattery, Sawson, K. P. Basher), 55:30. 1; Papanui B (J. C. Stace, M. Fortune. G. Tump, Duder), 57:20, 2: Hornbv 1 Brunton. E. Davies, W. Kirk, J. Tabak), 59:10, 3. Novice 20km team time trial.— Mairehau A (Smith, Nichols, Burdon. Hughes, Shepherd), 33:59.5, 1; Hornby A (Gyde. V. Harvey, Bishop, Ryder. C. Miller). 34:06, 2: Woolston (Sanders, R. Koster, Hulbert, S. Woods, J. Wild), 35:39, 3.