Kelly Cycle Coaching had a very successful weekend at the Mansfield Tour de flavours races held on both Saturday and Sunday.

With over 30 KCC athletes racing either the criterium or road race or both, it was a busy weekend for us.

Saturday’s Bendigo Bank Criterium

Our ParkTrent B grade men, Sean McIver and David Randall featured in the front of the race, attacking often and chasing moves.  A crash midway caused a split and McIver was unable to rejoin.  A rider jumped off the front and soloed to the finish.  The rest of the field jossled for position for a bunch kick. Randall started his sprint from the final corner (which was a little far) and ended up coming 5th.

In our women’s ParkTrent development squad,  our 3 C grade riders stepped up to race in the B grade event, as the event had two categories for the women, A grade and B grade.  With a very small field of 7, KCC told the girls to race aggressively and use the event to develop their criterium racing skills, rather than merely rolling around together as a small peleton.

Eloise Vaughan (C grade) attacked on lap two and got a 70m gap.  Nadia Combe (C grade) waited a lap and then hit out after her.  She drove it on the front for 2 laps but wasn’t able to get away and was quickly reabsorbed into the pack.

Next Jordyn Hassett had a go and after 1.5 laps crossed to Vaughan.  But the effort made her blow up and she headed back into the peleton.  Combe fought to hang on after her effort but to her credit stayed in the bunch and recovered, as did Hassett.

Next Snibson attacked and after 2 laps crossed to Vaughan.  The two of them swapped turns and shared the workload all the way to the finish, with Snibson just pipping Vaughan on the line.

To the ParkTrent development girls credit, they had listened carefully to Helen Kelly’s advice (from 13 years of crit racing) and this was to think aggressively, not defensively, and always look for opportunities.  She told them to look for a lull in the speed, and that is the time to attack, rather than wait just for a bunch kick.

So with 4 laps to go, Bec Stephens attacked. Stephens got a 60m gap and did a great job to hold this gap to the finish. Stephens has recently stepped up from C grade, so this was a great move by her and a demonstration of her improved confidence in criterium racing. First Year U19, Hassett still hurting from her bridged effort to Vaughan (plus several Year 12 SAC’s over the past two weeks), jumped before the roundabout and finished ahead of the fast finishing Combe to take 4th.  Well done ladies.

In our masters divisions, we had Tim Scarborough (Anchor Point) race, whilst in C grade we had Hamish Haynes and Ewyn Carter.  Carter was the victim of a crash and let’s hope he recovers quickly.

Sunday’s Mansfield to Mt Buller Road Race

We had over 30 athletes compete in the 47km race from Mansfield to the top of Mt Buller.

A grade men:

We ended up with 3 in the top 20 including the overall win.

Essendon SKODA and ParkTrent boys post race

Justin Gassner attacked midway up the 17km ascent.  With 4km to go, Angus Lyons attacked and 1.5km later had reached Gassner’s back wheel.  They swapped a few turns and then Gassner stopped pulling through.  Lyons continued to set tempo and then decided to kick hard through a hair pin to avoid taking a passenger who may outsprint him.  Lyon’s continued alone and finished 50m ahead of Gassner and Matt Clark.  This is Lyon’s first NRS win and as an U19, was a fantastic result.  Crameri and Bien (Essendon SKODA) finished 11th and 20th, respectively.  The A grade ParkTrent boys (White, Andrews, Cooper and Bush) did a great job protecting Lyons and helping set things up for his attack.  Well done boys.  The Essendon SKODA boys rode well leading the bunch into the base of the climb, to put Bien and Crameri into a good position at the base of the climb.

B grade men:

Brendan Washinton attacked 3km into the race and soloed all the way to the end, taking the win by 40sec.  Cyrus Monk waited til the base of Mt Buller and hit out to catch him.  He closed the 3min gap to just 40sec by the top.  A great ride by Monk who retained the overall B grade VRS points leaders jersey.

Our masters and open graded men who raced and climbed well included Jim Holland, Paul Mapperson, Ewyn Carter, David Willett, Gerard Grant, Hamish Haynes, David Randall, Sean McIver.

B and C grade Women:

The B and C grades raced together and ParkTrent had 5 development girls compete.  The selection was made at the base with 3 C graders and Stephens (B grade) going clear.  They held their gap to the finish with Stephens taking her first VRS B grade win.  Congratulations Bec.

A grade women:

KCC had 3 riders compete in A grade, Carley McKay (Bicycle Superstore team) who rode on the front all the way to the base to set things up for Australian TT champion, Felcitiy Wardlaw. ParktTrent had 2 riders, Harriet Smith and Kara Richards competing.  This was Richard’s first ride in A grade and she did a great ride to finish in 10th position, whilst Smith finished in 12th.  Carley rode steadily up the climb after her work on the front, to come in about 6mins behind the winner.