East End Street Race Proves Decisive Across The Series
Our first foray into resurrecting the East End Street race of old was a great success, with 330 riders navigating the technical crit course on Rundle Rd and East Tce across the day’s 13 grades. Indeed, in most of the Series grades this round has proven to make or break a rider's Series hopes, whether they're in the SCODY General Classification, Mischief Brew Sprint Classification, Pangkarra Foods Age Categories, or the Adelaide Bike Fit Young Rider Class. Even some of the Team Champion rings look to be unlosable in some grades, and there is still at least one round left for every category!
The morning’s grades saw some excellent racing throughout, with consistency the theme of the Junior races seeing wins from Wil Holmes, Ava Wilson, Hunter Wood, Paige Squire, Luca Schmidtke, Freya Miller, Sam Crossman and Ada Hartland across the Junior grades.
Simon Campbell, Toby Simpson and Paul Pearce took the podium in the Cat 3 Extras race, the individual extra riders getting the chance to race despite the Cat 3 Teams grade already being full with team entries.
Carly Bryant (IND) beat out Jemma Zielonka (Norwood CC) for the Cat 3 Women’s win with Flic Salkeld (MOOD Racing) in 3rd. Bryant and Zielonka are locked in a 2-point battle for the SCODY GC, while Zielonka’s NCC team have a handy 32-point lead in the Teams Class. PACC”s Vicki Birks can’t lose the Mischief Brew Sprint Classification, while Bryant will take home the Pangkarra Foods Over 45 Classification no matter the outcome at Unley.
Ryan Boyd (JKT Centurion) was too good for Aidan Lampe (MOOD Racing) and Andrew Thompson (Norwood CC) in the Men’s Cat 3 Teams race, and Boyd takes an unassailable lead into the Unley Oval Reserve Criterium with the winner’s jersey all sewn up. So too is the Adelaide Bike Fit Young Rider Classification, and the Mischief Brew Sprint Classification as well. It looks like his JKT Centurion team has the team rings locked in on top of that, in a big win for Boyd and the team in their first year of competition. Phil Crick (ADX Depot) takes a 5-point lead into the final round at Unley in the Pangkarra Foods Over 45 Classification.
In Masters Cat 2, a crashed-then-recovered Barnaby Grant (ROKiT Racing) handled the final sprint to the line with aplomb, beating out the ADX duo of Todd Rolton and Nick Underwood in second and third. Tom Baxter took 4th spot and hangs onto a 4-point lead in the SCODY GC over Rolton and 6 points over Underwood, the dual-pronged attack of the ADX team certainly a strong position to come into the final round with. ADX take a 97-point lead in the Teams classification into Unley, looking to come away with the rings. Nick Steel (ROKiT Racing) has had the Mischief Brew Sprint tied up for some time now, but added 6 points to his total anyway on the weekend to enter the final round of competition with a 14-point advantage, while Jason Tattersall’s (USG Racing) early lead has proved enough to tie up the Pangkarra O50s category in Masters Cat 2.
The Cat 2 Women’s race was an all-Junior podium, with the next generation of women’s racers here in Adelaide certainly alive and well. Elisabeth Green (Butterfields) took the W over a storming Summer Nordmeyer (Norwood CC) and Mirella Willis-Hell (Butterfields), with Summer moving to 3rd on GC. She has NCC teammate Emma Mardon 10 points ahead in second spot, but Liz Schoen (Team Scyon) is 39 points ahead of Nordmeyer in top spot. Schoen’s Team Scyon Racing hold onto a slim 7-point lead in the Teams Classification, while Nordmeyer has pulled level with Schoen in the Mischief Brew Sprint Classification with just two sprints to go and level with Ella Simpson (NCC) in the Adelaide Bike Fit Young Rider Classification too. Liz Schoen still has the Pangkarra Foods Masters Category all sewn up and Scyon teammate Jodie Batchelor has won the Pangkarra Foods Over 45 Classification with one round remaining.
The Cat 2 Men’s race was a cracker of a race yesterday, with an animated race eventually taken out by NCC Blue’s Alex Jarvis who jumped at the bell and held the bunch off to the line by the narrowest of margins – it’s a good thing he didn’t sit up and look behind him any sooner! Tom Cornish (IND) was best of the rest, with GC hopefuls Declan Key (IND) and Josiah Whittaker (NCC Red) in third and fourth. Whittaker clings dearly to a 2-point lead in the GC over Key. With the countback rules geared towards number of wins, then placing at most recent round, Key will need to either clearly beat Whittaker on points or win the Unley Criterium. For Whittaker to take the GC, he needs to finish within 2 points of Key because any situation except the two above will net him the Series win. The Teams Classification is hot too, with Butterfields just 4 points ahead of NCC Red so that too will be decided at the line on November 20. Butterfields’ Sam Golding takes the Mischief Brew Sprint Classification, and Declan Key can’t lose the Adelaide Bike Fit Young Rider Classification.
A fiery Cat 1 Masters race saw Graeme Moffett (Team Cervelo) ride away from the bunch with Nick Aitken (ROKiT Racing) before Donny Pascale (Bicycle Express) bridged to them alone. The three rode together until Aitken rode back to the bunch, and Moffett would take the win over Pascale for line honours. GC leader Josh Eden (Keystone) finished one place behind his nearest rival, Villawood’s Michael Ward, to hang onto a 3-point lead in the SCODY General Classification, with JP Jacobs just 10 points down in third spot. Bicycle Express seem to have an insurmountable lead in the Teams Class, and Pascale has the Mischief Brew Sprint Class all tied up. Moffett can’t lose the Over 45 Pangkarra Foods Category, but all eyes will be on the GC going into the last round.
The Elite Women’s race was a masterclass from Lauren Perry (ARA Pro Racing) who found herself in a break with riders from most of the other teams, then rode smart to take the win in a sprint from that bunch with Dharlia Haines (SASI) and Eloise Vaughan (KOM – TACTIC) taking the second and third steps on the podium. Libby Young (Butterfields) was the last of the break finishers in fourth, with a late move from Brit Petersen (KOM) for fifth and another from Nat Redmond (IND) for 6th before the bunch came storming in led by Chloe Moran (ARA). With Ash Ankudinoff (KOM) in the points too, she takes a handy lead of 18 points over second-placed Amber Pate (SASI) in second and 19 points over Ruby Roseman-Gannon (ARA) in third. Perry is sitting in 4th place, 35 points down on Ankudinoff but only 16 points off the podium. Roseman-Gannon, Ankudinoff and Pate are all in contention for the Mischief Brew Sprint Class, on 13, 12 and 10 points respectively. Kat Chung-Orr (KOM) leads the Young Rider Classification, her only threat Hannah Seeliger (Butterfields) who is three points behind her with two rounds left to race. Ash Ankudinoff has the Masters Classification all tied up with a 9-point lead over Libby Young.
In the Elite Men’s race, a three-rider break of Cooper Sayers (Villawood), Lachie Glasspool (Olivers) and Griff Knight (Focus Pedla) held a solid advantage for much of the race, Sayers scooping up both intermediate sprints in the process, but when Sam Welsford (ROKiT Racing) decided their time was up, he turned on the afterburners on the front of the bunch and closed the gap down in under two laps of the 950m circuit. In the process, the back of the bunch was shredded on the technical, corner-y Western end of the course, and the race for the line was on in earnest. Welsford would prove too good for individual rider Cam Scott and third placed Pat Eddy (ACT Academy) with Oiver Anderson (Villawood), Brendon Davids (Olivers), Tristan Saunders (Butterfields) and the race’s main agitator Cooper Sayers (Villawood) close behind. Welsford continues to add to his lead in the GC, now 14 points over Eddy in second and 17 over Scott in third. With two rounds to go and GC points up for grabs in the final Points Race, it’s certainly still anyone’s race. Another win for Welsford in two weeks at Unley Oval would make it very difficult for either Eddy or Scott to take the Series win away from him.
Full Results and current Series Standings are available to view here.
All non-Elite grades have just one round of racing to go – the Unley Oval Reserve Criterium! Saturday November 20 will decide these Series winners, and will be one big day of great racing and podium celebrations all round! Make sure you get out for this one and make it a big party at Unley Oval. Then, the Series culminates in the Elite Points Race at Pakapakanthi, Friday November 27 from 6pm. Riders will compete for GC points every 4 laps with 8 sprints up for grabs in each race – a smart rider could overcome a pretty massive GC points deficit with 20 GC points for a lap up on the field!
All photos Andy Rogers / Fame & Spear Photography