Timaru hosts cycling titles

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 17

Timaru hosts cycling titles

An important part for the Canterbury amateur cycling scene, and its followers, has, for two decades or so, been making the return trip to Christchurch from Timaru for championships. Their patience has been rewarded, however, and starting this evening, the provincial hard track championships are to be staged on the Timaru Caledonian track. It is a good year to give Timaru a much overdue championship meeting: that track bears as close a similarity as can found to the Cooks Garden track in Wanganui where this year's Healing national championships will be staged.

It is an auspicious occasion for the track, too, in that Craig Adair, Murray Steele and Brian Fowler will be making their first actual championships appearances since they won. between them, four medals at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games.

Those three are really the only seniors in contention for the'kilometre time trial, one

of the two events this evening, and for all that Adair is the Commonwealth champion, he is not in his sharpest form, with a more important target the world championships in the northern hemisphere summer. But the junior section is even more open with nothing apparently much between the group of “sprinter types”: Tim Clyne, Dean Harvey, Shayne Hendren and Darrel Kircher; the more “pursuit types" — Craig Fenton, Mark Baldwin, Dean Lovett and Phillip Gibbs; and Dean Kinzett, who falls somewhere in between. Those riders join Craig Kiesanowski as the leading sprint prospects, and a prospective winner is certainly difficult to forecast. Harvey had a most meritorious “mini-champs” win in December; Clyne and Kircher have been rising all the time. The three Games riders are all scheduled to tackle the senior sprints, and their leading opposition is likely to come from William Rastrick,

Steve Woods and Terry Gyde; with Brent Kircher, Andrew Hallaway, Greg Fraine, John Lek and Tony Strang a further group with prospects. Adair and his perennial runner-up, Fowler, will enjoy the top seeding for the individual pursuit, with Strang, Fraine and Kircher there again, but further challenges coming from Jamie Nisbet and Wayne Howes. So it’ goes on, all those named seniors also featuring in the predictions for the 16,000 m and the points race, only with the important addition of Russell Nant for those events; and the same little group of juniors similarly the best picks for the 8000 m.

There should be very keen competition for the open team pursuits, too. with four from Adair, Fraine, Rastrick, Nisbet, and Peter Coates being the Papanui A team, and a selection of Steele, Strang, Kircher, Gyde and Malcolm Robertson being Hornby A.

Both those clubs have also fielded basically junior

teams, which should acquit themselves well; Woolston has a choice of Fowler, Woods, Graham Brotherston, Steve Alexander and Hallaway; and Timaru has Howes, Lek, Warren Meggitt and Dave Andrews.

A very small group seem certain to take away virtually all the boys' medals, Jason Smith and Wayne Eyre attracting most attention in the shorter events, with Brendan Kiesanowski and Andrew Macbeth to push them along; while Ross Brimer seems the best equipped for the individual pursuit and longer races. The only other riders who might intrude on the placings are John Andrews, Chris Williamson and Julian Stokes.

The five veterans seeking the two titles are Brotherston, Gordon Duff, Basil Ensor. Ray Maguire and Tony Laplanche; while only three junior boys are listed. That many are’required for a race to be held. Ray Cairns