Third Year of Racing at Aldinga Beach Our Best Yet!
Well, the weather managed to hold off for the day’s racing and I think everyone got at least a little sun in their race at the Century 21 SouthCoast Criterium at Aldinga Beach on Saturday! It was a great day of racing all round with 320 of you taking to the beachfront course.
The Junior racing saw all of last round’s winners repeat the same on this week’s course, with Wil Holmes, Ava Wilson, Hunter Wood, Paige Squire, Luca Schmidtke, Sam Crossman and Ada Hartland taking wins in their respective Junior grades to retain their 99 Bikes Junior Super Series leads.
The story of the day, as it always is on this course, was the wind. Despite the orientation of the course being a cross-tail up the hill to the finish and protected across the back straight through the local houses, as the day went on it would prove near impossible to move up on the back straight and even harder to move up while the bunch was buoyed along through the finish – this was no Vic Park crit, with an easy-sit-in to protect the legs for the final.
Aidan Lampe (MOOD Racing), Vicki Birks (Port Adelaide CC), Adam Davis (SA Fab White), Summer Nordmeyer (Norwood CC), Tom Cornish (Individual), and Graeme Moffett (Team Cervelo) all took wins through the Senior categories, with conditions that favour reduced bunches or small breakaways that benefited from clean lines through the corners.
A two-rider break with both major teams represented proved decisive in the Women’s Elite race, with Kat Chung-Orr (KOM-Tactic) and Chloe Moran (ARA Pro Racing) trading turns to stay away from a heavily patrolled bunch. Moran would take the win from Chung-Orr, with Sophie Edwards (ARA Pro Racing) sneaking off the front of the bunch in the closing minutes to snag third place on the podium. Ash Ankudinoff (KOM-Tactic) took the bunck kick and a few places over Ruby Roseman-Gannon (ARA Pro Racing) so close the gap on SCODY GC to just two points – the competition for the jersey is really heating up!
Never one to be outdone, ROKiT Racing’s Sam Welsford decided he could take on the bunch alone in the Elite Men’s race. He proved correct, with a race-long solo breakway reminiscent of the very first Aldinga Beach crit in 2019 where a small break including Welsford nearly lapped the rest of the field on the 900m-course. A charging bunch got within 8 seconds by the end, but Welsford held on to take the victory while Cam Scott (Individual) took the bunch kick from Pat Eddy (ACT Academy) and Tristan Saunders (Butterfields). Welsford extends his SCODY GC lead to 17 points over Scott and 23 over Eddy in 2nd and 3rd overall.
Just a few days now until our next round, the Gawler Eastlink Kermesse! This one couldn’t be further from a street-crit circuit. Make sure you come out and catch the action!
All results and updated standings after Round 5 are available here.