Rastrick triumphs in gorges race

Press, 14 September 1981, Page 20

Rastrick triumphs in gorges race

By

RAY. CAIRNS

William Rastrick secured his most irhportant road cycling result when he struggled away from Hornby with all the handsome trophies hanging on the historic Round the Gorges race on Saturday. Rastrick. from • the 6min (break) mark won the race in the most desperate of finishes from Blenddyn Wills; he took fastest time, too: and almost naturally, he was fastest junior as well. But although that is a result on which Rastrick will be able to dwell for some years to come, it was not one of the most momentous of “Gorges." Certainly 60 were entered, but a third of those did not start, and only 20 finished on what was a relatively comfortable day. The only big prob-lem was a fairly -stiff Breeze from Oxford, through the Waimakariri Gorge, and it was there that a large leading bunch split.

With the 38min limit, it was soon evident that the break bunch would go through the field, and thereafter the main interest lay in whether the scratch bunch would catch those in front of it. By Oxford, the survivors from scratch — Brian Fowler, Simon Kennedy and Toni Horne — had caught 2V>min of their 6min chase. i But then their task became harder, because they had lost the industrious Alan Hood and Paul Clare, the latter to cramp, and surely and steadily, the break-

markers started retrieving the deficit. By Darfield. they were only half a minute down in the race for fastest time; at Kirwee. it was parity: by Aylesbury, the break riders held a 40s advantage and they continued to build on that until they held a handsome 3min by the finish. But the last 10km also took a heavy toll. A bunch of 19 was whittled down to 10 by the, finish, three of those — John Stace. Peter Coates and Steve Bamford having crashed — and only Rastrick and Wilis were the main contenders. The back-markers, however, had their day in the Penny Farthing Cycle Shops’ Town Hall criteriums yesterday morning. Fowler won the most desper-ately-contested of races from Graeme Miller. Miller, subjected to a heavy onslaught of team riding last year, this time suffered from refereeing decisions. Twice he was relegated to second, behind Fowler, for having taken his line in the charge to the tape, and but for that. Miller would have won by three points instead of losing by one. They were the only two in the race, because Murray Steele, who had such a tumultuous race last year, crashed after a third of the distance, bringing Clare down too. and third place went to a distant Horne.

But the Miller family of Blenheim still took the eye with Alan, the youngest, riding away to

annihilate the novice field. He won with 45 points: Craig Fentons . six ' was the next-best, though that could be partly explained by dropped and lapped riders taking the minor points. Trevor Taylor was a comfortable winner of the B grade. Abbreviations used in the results are Papanui (P), Invercargill (I). Woolston WMC (W). Hornby WMC (H). Timaru (T). Dunedin (D). Blenheim (B) and Mairehau (M). Round the Gorges 150 km.— W. J. E. Rastrick (P 6min). 3:42:27. 1 and fastest time; B Wills (I. 12min). 2. A. J. Strang (W, 12min) 3. M. A. Childs (H. 12min) 4. G. I. Tumo (P. 6min). 3 42:28. 5 and 2 fastest time; M. J. Degarnha'm (P. 6min). 3:42:28.5. 6 and 3 fastest time: W. McLellan (I. 6min) 7, G. T. Smallridge (W. 19min) 8. J. I. Ryder (T. 6min) 9. P. Miller (P. 6min) 10. Town Hall criteriums— A grade 60 laps: B. A. Fowler fW). 81 points. 1; G. J. Miller (B). 80, 2; T. R. Horne (P). 22. 3: S. Kennedy (D). 10. 4; Rastrick. 5. 5. Time. 53:59. B grade 30 laps: T. Tavlor (D. 25. 1; S. Hall (B). 16. 2: P.‘ Coates (P). 14. 3; Smallridge. 11. 4: D. Fenton (W) and D. Patterson (W). 9. equal 5. Time. 28:51. Novice 24 laps: A. Miller (B). 45. 1; C. Fenton (M). 6. 2; T. Clyne (M). 5,3: D. Lovett (M), S. R. Hendren (M) and R. Bruce (H). all 2, equal 4. Time. 22:43.