Battle Of The Bridge | Rd 3 | Beaumont Rd
A Grade
A strong collection of SUVelo riders made the journey north to regional NSW’s favourite Bus training road, aka the Beaumont Rd Criterium course. Braving the icy conditions and semitrailers who had used the road as an over night truck stop, racing got underway with early attacks from all clubs (obviously minus Randwick Botany).
Continuing their tradition of flying in mercenaries, Manly Warringah CC Secretary, Alexis Kaless, was rumoured to be livid the AOC would not release any Olympic cyclists for the race and he would have to settle with former SUVelo rider, Alex Nazarewicz on this occasion.
SUVelo and Northern Sydney CC on the other hand concentrated on animating the race, and did so accordingly with a number of stinging attacks that threatened to de-rail the Naz train. Georg Bienert established himself in what looked like a possible winning move before Balmain’s David Evans (MWCC) was called into action to bring the menacing move back.
As a sprint finished looked more and more inevitable, SUVelo established a sprint train with Moosh Brown and then Chris Miller keeping the pace high for their man Nate Bonarius. In the wash up, Nate secured a 2nd/3rd photo finish (results remain pending after NSCC posted an inconclusive picture on their website) with Naz taking a rare criterium race win.
B Grade
Despite the supposed cap of 8 riders per club per grade, Manly lined up with 14-odd riders, stacking the B-Grade field. Norths rode well as a team, with several early attacks before getting a break to stick. The break comprised 5 NSCC riders, a couple from Manly and one each from SUVelo & Randwick. Despite MWCC being obviously outgunned in the break, the smurf army in the bunch were content to let it ride away. To the surprise of nobody paying attention, NSCC finished 1-2-3, with Tai Huynh backing up his A-Grade Heffron breakaway on Saturday to win.
C Grade
No race report, but a great win from Paddy Dillon!
D Grade
No race report, but a solid effort from Paul Curjak to net 3rd in his first ever race.
Paul Curjak gets 3rd in his first race!
The final round of the series is next weekend at Heffron Park with everything to ride for.
