What we did have however was Sam King-Turner arrive in full TT gear ready to kick butt in the weekly Waikanae Crit. My view of the race was from the corner of Park Ave and Te Moana Road. With groups departing in quick succession some faces started to be familiar while I was still yet to see fastest cyclists. Soon enough they approached...the usual suspects, with “Tony B” and “AJ” leading the way. I estimate Sam passed the corner I was standing on two minutes later. (The results will confirm or dispel this).
My corner, by the way, was possibly the busiest I had ever seen Te Moana. Marshalling is an odd pastime, with a non-eventful monotonous evening a best case scenario. Any excitement will probably not be a good thing...not for the cyclists anyway. The traffic was excellent and with motorists giving cyclists room the corner went well. The only close calls were from the occasional sound of pedals scrapping on the road. Not a good look...
From my perspective there seemed to essentially be two large groups, with the leading group slowly getting reeled in by the fastest riders. Sam took just four laps to catch the group that left before him, and the next time around he had broken away with Miles Davies and “someone else”. (Sorry, I was focusing on slowing down the traffic!! I think it was Fin Brazier though).
I can only assume that the leading large bunch put the pace on at around six, because there appeared to be a lot of stragglers from lap 7 onwards. This must have left the group without the previous pace, because by lap 9 the fastest riders were through the other (previously larger) group, and clear.
Waiting until the last of the groups had passed for the tenth and final time I headed back to the finishing area. I didn’t know who had won, so needed to find out who was the fastest cyclist for the evening, and also who had completed the ten laps first. The reason for this is that Hammer Nutrition had kindly put up for grabs a $50 bundle of supplements for each of the two respective riders. It turns out that Sam had crossed the finish line first. Thus, he had won the lot. Legend...
Sam had other ideas though. Too gracious to take both bundles of Hammer supplements he decided that Miles Davies (second across the line) would collect the second bundle. In my opinion these two cyclists are the future of the club and it seems fitting that they were acknowledgement for their efforts.
There is a winner every Tuesday Crit, and every cycling event for that matter. Every cycling club also has it’s winners. But in my opinion not every club can say that they have a champion in their midst, and soon enough Sam’s day in the spotlight, at a National level will arrive. It was a pleasure to see him reel in every single other cyclist at the Waikanae Crit this evening. It was almost enough to get me back for the Crits myself...
A sincere thank you to Rachael Button at Hammer Nutrition for being kind enough to support the Kapiti Cycling Club. Brochures were handed out at the registration, and full details about Hammer can be found at...www.hammernutrition.co.nz
Cheers,
Stu Downs.
P.S. After a quieter two weeks of riding the Aka’s Double loop is still all go for Friday 31 October. At this stage I have one taker for riding the two laps (Bob??), and Julian is keen to join after Lap 1 is completed. A Friday outing may seem like an odd day for a ride, but trust me, if you do an eight hour outing on a Saturday the weekend is gone before you know it. Email me if you are keen to join the outing. Pace will be 3:45’ish per lap. So not supersonic...stu_toon@paradise.net.nz
P.P.S. Sam, Miles, and Fin. I have some good (2 meg) photos if you want them emailed through. Just let me know. (I don’t have your email addresses).
A special thank you to Corrie McCardle who was handed my camera at very short notice and kindly took an excellent series of photos.
1 comment:
hi stu sam here
great right up on the crit
thanks again for the gels i've all ready had the bar it was really good!!
my e-mail is iillgetyoui@hotmail.com
it would be good to get some of those photos thanks
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