Kowalski Consulting Canberra "Junior 2 Day" incorporating the ACT Road Championships.  27 & 28 July 2002.

REPORT

Day 1 started with a road race Robbie Cater rode well to finish 5th in a bunch sprint after 37.5km of hilly racing.

Brittany Orr finished 6th in a bunch sprint after a 20km hilly race.

The others RBCC team members all finished well not far behind the leading bunches in their respective groups.

Criteriums of varying distances for the respective groups were conducted on the afternoon of the first day.  Most of the team performed well, finishing either with the leading bunch or not too far behind.

Again Robbie Cater rode a great race in the Under 17 Men's Criterium and was working the front bunch hard making breakaways.  This led to many riders being dropped or lapped.  As Robbie positioned himself behind Phillips Stokes for the bell lap (best U/17 Track sprinter this year), Phillip's wheel slipped and over he went.  Robbie was lucky and managed to break and manoeuvre around Phil but both it was too late to save the sprint and he finished 6th overall.

Brittany's ride  in the Under 17 Women's Criterium event was fantastic.  She remained in contact with the top U/17 women over the hilly criterium course for the entire race finishing 6th overall.  She never looked in danger of  abeing dropped by the leaders.  The U/17 women’s peleton consisted of most of Australia’s top junior women athletes including Queensland’s U/17 women’s road race champion and also Victorian and South Australian athletes.

Chris Jenkins hard a hard day at the office with the U/19 rider finishing in front of a number of riders at the end of 67km road race.

By the afternoon he had recovered to ride a fantastic criterium and worked together with the leading bunch riding hard.  Chris positioned himself extremely  well at the finish sprint coming over the line in 5^th place.

Day 2:  The team all started with a road race of varying distances.  Once again,  our younger riders showed promise of stardom in the future.

The older riders had a great day at the office on day 2. Robbie had a puncture about 20km into his 57km race and had lost around 45sec to the leading bunch. Michael Murdoch and his bunch came flying past as Robbie got started again.  In a fantastic team effort,  Michael did all the work in towing Robbie back up to the leading bunch just before the big climbs had started.  Michael was then exhausted and unable to stay with the lead bunch up the climb.  It was a fantastic display of teamwork.  Congratulations Michael, as the whole club is proud of your efforts.  Michael's fabulous effort allowed Robbie a chance again in the race but the hard effort had taken a toll in the finish sprint and Robbie only managed a bunch finish time.  This put Robbie back down to 8^th GC and given the other  top NSW U/17 male athletes competing, and with only the time trial to go, a higher General Classification finish did not look promising for the weekend.

However in the U/17 women’s race of 37 ½ km,conducted over the same course and  with all the same hills as the Canberra senior tour,  the story unfolded quite differently.  Brti rode a great race driving the girls hard up all the climbs, tiring them out towards the finish line.  Eve Hood from Parramatta tried a very gutsy breakaway attempt about 2km before the finish.  Brittany was not going to let Eve get away with that and picked up the pace and rode the group back onto Eve’s wheel.  Brittany, still not content with the pace, picked it up again and got away from the Peleton and rode away for a lone finish, 20 seconds ahead of the peleton.

With the 20sec lead and another 20sec time bonus she was now in 2^nd on the overall GC only 7 seconds behind the QLD U/17 woman with the Time Trial to go.

The U/19 Men's road race was 99km but Chris was already spent from yesterdays unbelievable effort in the crit.  Chris rode well to finish.  After the road race Chris was feeling a little ill and was considering abandoning the time trial.   This was not to be however as a  few "encouraging words" from our Junior Development Officer, Peter Zala and Chris mustered up the last of his energy to finish the weekend and ride the 23km Time Trial.  Congratulations Chris.

In the U/17 Men’s, Robbie rode an awesome Time Trial pacing himself just right and coming home in 3^rd position but surprisingly his time had taken him from 8^th back up the ladder to finish 4^th on the overall GC.  Outstanding effort Robbie.

Brittany demolished the U/17 women’s field in the 8km Time Trial needing only 7seconds to win the tour she finished 29 seconds ahead of the second place getter and QLD champion. Brittany had overtaken her on the GC in the last race of the day to win the Canberra Junior 2 day Tour and along with that the ACT State U/17 Women’s road race Championships as well.  Congratulations to our NSW Hill Climb Champion and new ACT U17 Women's Road Race champion and winner of the Canberra Junior 2 Day Tour. 

 And you all thought the Tour de France was exciting !!

A message from your coach Peter:  A big Thankyou to Michael Murdoch who rode so well to help his team mate get back onto the leading pack & congratulations on another State Championship medal for Brittany Orr, ACT State Road Champion and 2 day Tour winner.