Cycling Robertson survives appeal

Press, 20 September 1982, Page 20

Cycling Robertson survives appeal

By RAY CAIRN'S For an agonising hour at Yaldhurst yesterday. Malcolm Robertson waited to see if he had really become the second junior to win the Sunshine Bakeries Grand Prix, the 80km amateur cycling classic from Ashburton to Christchurch. For Robertson, aged 17. was a convincing winner of the race, conducted in sometimes galeforce side-winds, only to find that he had been disqualified for allegedly taking other riders’ lines in the approach to the sprint. Robertson, for his part, appealed that he had found himself in the front and no-one' else prepared to come through. "So I went over the other side of the road, and that was what was considered switching," said Robertson. "I didn't feel it was. because it was no different from what had been going on for a lotof the race and. besides, po-one was sprinting then." A long consideration restored Robertson to the premier position. It also gave him a new frame of his choice from Hoon Hay Cycles and ' Bricom Industries. the richest first place prize in any single-stage race in NewZealand. There was not a universal acceptance of Robertson's successful appeal, but there was no questioning the superiority of his sprint, which took him two or three lengths clear of Greg Fraine and Paul Miller, with one of the few survivors of the NewZealand junior team. Stephen Harcourt, heading the rest of the bunch of 11. The winds on' the way to Chertsey made a mess of the field as the buffeting gusts

picked riders up and threw them into the gravel and weeds. Fraine was one to suffer, and so did Mark Nichols, from Auckland. back on his old stamping grounds for the first time in 2‘ = years. He crashed and was out of the race. For 60 of the Bf)km there were just 11 riders really in contention. they including’ the highest seeded of the B grade riders. Greg Hume and Ray Maguire, and Robertson. He won the Timaru to Christchurch earlier this season and is the first rider to win. in the same season, both classics. Robertson has now become a rich prospect for the Canterbury junior championship on Saturday, especially with Craig Nichols and Paul Clare not riding. Undoubtedly because of the attraction of’the first prize in yesterday's race, the Frank Grose Memorial 80km was poorly supported at Timaru on ■Saturday. Even so. it nearly provided a first for New Zealand cycling when Debbie Zanders.’ the national women's champion, failed by only half a wheel to overcome Rodney Coles in the finish. Their limit bunch — Grant Armstrong was the other member of it — was never caught, but so tight was the handicapping that only 3min separated the first rider from the eighteenth and virtual last. The scratch riders caught onlytwo other finishers but their task was not as hopeless as it has often been considered. They had the break mark riders in sight at the finish, and there was an additional significance in the race, for it gave Miller fastest time in an open race for the first

time, tie had a clear, but hardearned sprint victory from Alan Hood. Abbreviations used in the results are Timaru (T). Hornbv W.M.C. (H). Woolston W.M.C. (.W). Papanui (P). Southland (S). General Lee-Carpet Market-Super-tred (G). Frank Grose Memorial B(ikm. - R. Coles (T. 30min). 2:39:50. I. D. Zanders (W. 30mim 2. G.

Armstrong IT. 30min) 3. M. Burtenshaw (T. 16min) 4. P. Irvine (T. lOmin) 5. M. Baldwin (T. lOmim 6. B. Cowie (P. lOmim 7. G. Wilson (T. lOmin) H. W. Coles (T. Ibniin) 9. B. Ensor (T, 22min) 10. Fastest time: P. .1. Miller (P. scr). 2:12:59. 1; A. J. Hood (P. scr).' 2:12:59.5. 2; G. W. Howes IT. scr). 2:13:00. 3. Sunshine Bakeries Grand Prix.

Ashburton io Christchurch 80km.-- M. E. Robertson (H) 1. G. J. Fraine (P) 2. Miller 3. S. Harcourt (S) 4. R. Maguire (Pi 5. G. Brotherston (G) 6. G. Cox iG) 7, J. Nisbett |P) 8. Hood 9. G. Hume (P) 10. D. B. Hewson (T) 11. 1:50’45. Maguire. Hume and Richard Lauder (P) filled the B grade placings: Jack Hill (Wl. Richard Lee (HI and Geolf Bushell (W) the C grade.