Cycling Healing Tour of South won by Jack Swart

Press, 13 September 1982, Page 23

Cycling Healing Tour of South won by Jack Swart

By

RAY CAIRNS

Only very bad luck could have stopped Jack Swart gaining an over-all win in the Healing Tour of the South on Saturday, but the big Morrinsville cyclist made sure that he caused no problems for himself.

On the greasy Lyttelton harbour roads on which the four-day tour ended. Swart descended gingerly at all times, in marked contrast to the hair-raising style of Blair Stockwell and Greg Fraine. two Canterbury riders who were his only company at the end. However, they had the considerable advantage of a full knowledge of the roads, their regular training territory. and they had the added spur of improving their overall placings.

So while Swart was a veryeasy winner of the Gebbies Pass hill climb, he was overtaken in a trice by the almost maniacal descending of Fraine and Stockwell, just as they also left him comfortably on the drop into Sumner down Evans Pass. However, they were also generous enough to make no concerted attempt to stay clear of Swart to the finish, and if there could be one gentle criticism of Swart, it is that he perhaps should have recognised their gesture by letting Fraine. say. win the stage. For Fraine. aged 19. was desperately chasing third

place in the tour. Stockwell by then having alreadygained enough time to take second from Roger Nevatt, of Palmerston North.

But Fraine fell just 5s short of also hauling in Nevatt: second place in the stage would have been enough to take third on a count-back, first would have made it clear-cut. "Just missed out on everything." Fraine said afterwards. for he was also onlytwo points behind Roger Sumich. of Auckland, in the Laurie Dawe Cycles "king of the mountains" section. Stockwell having stormed well clear in the final stage also.

But it was a most worthyride by Fraine. beaten only b'v two Commonwealth Games riders, ahead of two others. Ron Cheatley. the Games road coach, for his part, was satisfied with the haul by his riders. First and third would not have done, he said: first and second was satisfactory, and he shirked nothing in his praise of the splendid, and positive, efforts of Fraine and Nevatt.

Though the first stage of the day was relatively colourless — it was entirely on the flat, round the Ellesmere area -- it was enlivened a little for the first half by a three-man break by Paul Miller (Christchurch). Blair Cox (Taranaki), and Stephen Carton, the Wellington member of the Games team. They

sped off right at the start, and the frequency of the town sprints enabled Carton and Miller to move up dramatically in the Hoon Hay Cycles’ sprint ace section, won in a count-back bySwart from William Rastrick (Christchurch). The latter was unfortunate enough to crash into a car round the harbour road, but bv then Swart was well up the road and well on the way to gaining the one point he needed at Sumner.

There were redoubtable efforts by the less-fancied riders. Nathan Dahlberg, a Palmerston North lad of just 17. was a comfortable B grade winner: Paul Hoskin, a Dunedin professional, made a bold showing with his sixth place: and Graham Howie, of Invercargill, was a willing force on the hills, belying the fact that he has only been back on his bike for three months, after a seven-year lay-off from the age of 15. There was sympathy, too. for the least-experienced Rick Lauder, who was conducting his own personal battle with Greg Hume, another Christchurch schoolboy, with Lauder leading by a second going into the last stage. But he punctured on Evans Pass, without a support car in sight, and lost 20 minutes walking up the hill before borrowing a spare tvre. .

Abbreviations used in the results are Waikato (Wai). Wellington (Wn). Taranaki (T). Christ-

church <Ci. Ashburton (Ash). Palmerston North iPN). Auckland (Akl. Dunedin iD). Invercargill II). professional (pi. Stage seven. Hornby-Elles-mere-Halswell. 82km. - S. Carton (Wn) 1. R. Sumich (Akl. 2. both 2:3:18: B. Cox (T) 3. at 19s; W. J. E. Rastrick (C, 4. J. H. A. Gleary (C.p) 5. B. R. Kircher (Ash) 6. A. P. Fuller (Ci 7. J. J. Swart (Wai) 8. R. Nevatt iPN) 9. G. J. Fraine (C) 10. all at 225.

Stage eight. Halswell-harbour-Fcrrymead. 60km.— Swart 1. B. G. Stockwell (Ci 2. Fraine 3. all 1:32:34; Sumich 4. P. Hoskin (D.p) 5. P. J. Miller (C> 6. G. Howie (I) 7 Carton 8. N. Dahlberg (PN) 9. Nevatt 10. all at 1:52. General classification.— Swart. 14:28.24. 1; Stockwell, at 3:38. 2; Nevatt. at 4:00. 3; Fraine. at 4:05. 4; Sumich. at 5:54. 5; Hoskin, at 6:54. 6: Miller, at 7:01. 7; Dahlberg, at 7:42. 8 and 1 B grade: Carton, at 7:57. 9: P. A. Clare (C). at 11:15. 10; Howie, at 12:04, 11 and 2 B grade; W. Hillary (D.p) at 13:28. 12; S. McDonnell (Ash.p). at 14:17. 13 and 3 B grade: W. McLellan (I), at 14:59. 14 and 4 B grade: Cox. at 16:31, 15 and 5 B grade; A. Mortimore (Wail, at 21:03, 16 and 6 B grade: G. Hume (C). at 23:53. 17 and 7 B grade: Kircher, at 33:37. 18; Cleary, at 33.46. 19: R. J. Lauder (C). at 43:49, 20 and 8 B grade. Laurie Dawe Cycles "king of the mountains".— Stockwell. 103 points. 1: Sumich. 81. 2; Fraine. 79. 3: Swart. 53. 4; Howie 25. 5.

Hoon Hay Cycles sprint ace — Swart. 17. 1: Rastrick. 17. 2; Cleary. 12. 3: Carton. 11. .4; Miller. 11. 5.