Northern Sydney Cycling Club added 6 new photos.

2 weeks ago

Official Report from Round 4 of Battle of the Bridge - Beware of #FakeNews Alternatives

Beauie welcomed the best of Sydney’s clubs to the final Battle of the Bridge round, with clear blue skies and not a breath of wind (Heffron take note).

Over 120 riders assembled to race for their clubs in what has become the premier race series in NSW, and probably Australia. Tensions were high as almost 40 NSCC riders were determined to regain the trophy we lost last year to SUVelo. MWCC and RBCC were also there in big numbers to show their force and pedigree to inspire their members in their fine racing traditions.

It’s fair to say that the barbs were out for SUVelo who were relying heavily on their formidable women’s strength and depth to be leading the comp entering the final round. In the end though, the SUVelo men came out from hiding behind the women and showed their depth by being on nearly every podium in the men’s grades.
With points on offer across all competing grades – to clarify, points were awarded for mens A-D, womens and U17 – it was up to the challengers to catch SUVelo.

But it was a bridge too far as the latte-sippers and Thespians from SUVelo thoroughly deserved their overall victory with club pres Andrew Duggan donning the Helmet of Kratos with a perfect fit like Cinderella’s glass slipper. Well done to SUVelo, next year we’re coming after ya.

Short race reports from each grade below:

A Grade

After a first lap where BOTB Godfather Alexis Corleone found himself up the road, the boys lit it up big time with attack after attack. NSCC were prominent with Jack Renshaw then Micko Cupitt taking turns to drive it up the road and fracture the bunch. NSCC were buoyed by the return from racing in France of Tom Green, who looks like he hadn’t been eating too many baguettes and Cemembert cheese, and Dan Newman who could turn on a great sprint.

In the end neither Jack nor Micko could make the one break that was going to stay away and it was with two laps to go that Tom Green made a sneaky move off the front, catching the bunch by surprise. On the final lap he led by 30 metres but two weeks of couch surfing since he came home, caught up with him and he was rolled as the sprinters cane over the top. Tom Bolton from DHBC showed his sprint form by taking a classy win – like all good sprinters the only time he was in the wind, was when he crossed the line first. Dan Newman unleashed a little late after appearing to get boxed in and finished a great 5th place.

B Grade

B definitely stands for burglar and the pace of the B grade field meant that a break of 8 riders was quickly onto the back of the A grade bunch. After much yelling from Commissaire Adrian Atherton, the B grade break - featuring Jason Thomas and Chris Hinds – sat up and had a respectable distance from A grade.

The race was pretty much over after 5 laps as the chasing bunch seemed content to battle it out for 10th place. A few attempts to bridge across were met with failure and they retreated back into the second group.

As they entered the final lap it was clear no one had the kahunas to try and break clear and it came down to a bunch kick where there was only ever going to be one winner - #DogSquad member Chris Hinds unleashed and won the sprint in a tight finish from Chris Parsons of RBCC.

C Grade

An early break saw 6 riders led by Rich Hart Measures from MWCC and Mark Templeton + Bill Patterson from NSCC pushing it hard to create what looked like a winning break. This lasted by 6-7 laps and we thought that was the move of the day. But to our surprise the bunch (someone must have done massive turns) pulled them back and the bunch stayed together until the final sprint. Adnan Al Dabet outsprinted the field with his colourful pink goatee beard clearly the secret ingredient to his speed. Paul Mower from NSCC got up for 5th

D Grade/Combo Race

A large mixed bunch of D men, women and U17 delivered a highly entertaining race which was very even as the front of the race kept swapping between the men, women and the juniors. Early in the race the pace split the bunch with the bulk of the field up the road. There were no massive attacks but the pedigree of the bunch showed as the riders were very smooth but strong out of the turns and clearly many were hurting as there were ugly pain faces aplenty. Briony Mattocks was wondering what this hard black surface she was riding on was all about, but she seemed to enjoy her roadie experience and was smiling throughout.

No-one could break away in the leading main bunch and so it came down to a bunch sprint. Georgia Whitehouse from SUVelo showed why she regularly podiums in B grade with a super sprint style to take a clear win ahead on Junior Jamie Dunn from MWCC and Adam Buttenshaw from NSCC.

Many thanks to the NSCC committee in helping me organise the BOTB series for NSCC and on the day, thanks to Adrian Atherton as Commissaire, and to Ran Virdi for setting up the course – also heaps of thanks to the TCs as we cannot run races without you. During the week leading up to the race we had plenty of “critique” on the race format and its running – I would remind people that NSCC and all clubs are amateur organisations run by volunteers who have day jobs. We put on races for the sport so please keep all criticism constructive in the interests of this great sport of cycling.

Podiums/Prizemoney:

A Grade
1st – Tom Bolton DHBC
2nd – Nate Bonarius SUVelo
3rd – Matt Dinham MWCC

B Grade
1st – Chris Hinds NSCC
2nd – Chris Parsons RBCC
3rd – Rodrigo Notaro DHBC

C Grade
1st – Adnan Al Dabet SUVelo
2nd – Max Wylie SUVelo
3rd – Matt Gregory Manning Valley

D Grade/Women/U17

1st – Georgia Whitehouse SUVelo
2nd – Jamie Dunn MWCC
3rd – Adam Buttenshaw NSCC ... See MoreSee Less