Meldrum wins cycling

Press, 28 May 1979, Page 24

Meldrum wins cycling

Wyn Meidrum won the Amanda Wiiks Memorial 70kih race at Hornby on Saturday. ft j •e Papanui veteran, whose Uxx.j other open-cycling race win was the Shirley classic late last season, was in the 23strong front bunch. The race was a group handicap, and it became apparent early that that bunch contained the winner. But even those who survived the first bunch would hardly have expected to be as much as 6min ahead of the middle bunch (off 9min) at the finish. One of the veterans of the 20min groups said: “It was like a points race, those first couple of laps,” and certainly at that point, half-way, the break markers had pulled back only 3min of the llmin they were chasing. Strangely, the middle of the three bunches fell apart morei dramatically than did the front! markers. Ten of them were still there at half-way — only eight breakmarkers remained of the 17 starters; eight of the 13 scratch riders were there — and there were still seven for the final few kilometres, easily the most fancied, Roger Fowler. But soon after Meldrum had slipped the field, with less than 4km to ride, Fowler blew, and he eventually did not even bother crossing the finish line for what would have been seventh place. One man w’ho might have been able to do something about Meldrum’s break, another veteran. “Micky” Milner, found himself short of support, and Meldrum won 12sec clear of Robert Forrest, Ron Kennedy, and Milner. Only three of the break markers remained together, Craig Adair outfinishing comfortably.

Trevor Gibbs and Paul Dooley. Russell Nant certainly began his return to amateur riding the right way. rhe former Commonwealth Games track rider blasted clear <>f the scratch bunch in the sprint for the fastest time, and took with it the Canterbury open championship. The nature of the race ensured that scratch was never threatened for fastest time, and Nant’s result was the reward for his effort on the road as much as for his strength at the finish.

Toni Horne, who took secondfastest time, had his own win yesterday morning. He won the open hill climb, from the foot of Hackthorne Road to the Sign of the Kiwi, by a margin of half a minute. Mark Nicholas emphasised the fact that the strength of Canterbury cycling lies with its juniors by easily taking second place, as did Brian Fowler by

taking third place. Another firstyear junior. Brendan Bagot. was a good fourth. One of the best performances came from another 16-year-old, David Fenton. He beat experienced cyclists with his tenth placing in a most creditable 17min 32sec — he was riding high-pressure tyres — and was the easiest of handicap winners The right sort of talent is chasing these juniors along, too, for in winning the novice climb — just from the Sign of the Takahe — Mark Childs was 6.ssec quicker than Fowler was In the inaugural event last year. Completing a successful weekend — he had won his Hornbj club’s time trial championship the day before — Childs was a comfortable 17sec clear of Paul

Clare and Andre Van Duiven. lOi-Ked together, with lan Cooper a further 7sec back. Ine consistent Ken Law won the handicap section, by the narrow margin of Jsec from Clare and Graham Schist. Abbreviations used in the results are Papanui (P), Hornin' W.M.C. (H), wool stop W.M.C. (W), Mairehau (Ml, Kangiora <R>. Amanda Wilks Memorial Shield, 10km.—J W. Meldrum (P, 20min), 1:52.42, 1; R. J. Forrest (P, 20min) 2, R. M. Kennedy (W, 2umin) 3; G. M. Milner (W, 20min) 4, all at 12sec; B. Chamberlain (W, 20minj 5, at I9sec; R. Prince (W, 20min) 6, at 47sec; C. R. Adair (P, 9min), 1:47:25, 7; T. C. Gibbs (P, 9min) 8, P. Dooley (H. 9min) 9, M. Sanders (W, 9min) 10. Fastest time and Canterbury open 70km championship—R. D. Nant (P, scr), 1:49.35, 1; T. R. Horne (P, serf 2, P. James (W, scr) 3, all same time Open hill climb.—Horne. 14:32, 1; M. P. Nichols (Hi, 15:04, 2; B. Fowler (W), 15:37, 3; B. Bagbt (P), 16:29, 4; G. Cumming iHi, 16:48, 5; C A. P. Deller iW), 17:03, 6; K. W. Reid (Pl, 17:04, 7; S. Bamford iWI, 17:21, 8; Dooley, 17:28, 9; D. Fenton (W), 17:32, 10. Handicap.—Fenton <5:45) 1, Horne (serf 2, Bagot (1:45: 3, B. Kendall (P, 3:50) 4, Forrest (3:40) 5. Novice hill climb.—M. Childs (H) 7:40, 1; P. Clare (H) and A. Van Duiven (W), 7:57, equal 2; I. C. Cooper (H). 8:04, 4; G. F. Fuller (Ml, 8:06, 5; C. P. Nicholls (H) and G. Schist (Hi, 8:12, equal 6; V. R. Harvey iH). 8:13, 8: K. Law (Hl, 8:24, 9; G. Visser (R), 8:26, 10. Handicap—Law (2:15) 1, Clare (1.45) and Schist (2min) equal 2.