De Castro Takes Line Honours

Sharon de Castro’s consistent efforts paid off when she took line honours in Cuddon Cycling Marlborough’s event on the Northbank Road last Saturday afternoon.

The open grade 40km handicap event started at Forrest Estate Winery on State Highway 6 and covered a course up the Northbank Road and returned to finish just before the main road. De Castro and Marie Higgison off the 22m limit mark broke away from their co-markers and never looked back. The two frontrunners teamed well with the sprint to the line going to de Castro from Higgison with a clear margin of 4 minutes back to their nearest rivals. The 12 strong 6 minute group managed to stay clear of the backmarkers to take the rest of the minor placings. Pete Halligan took third place in heading off Todd Neal, Brett Burns, and Rhonda Murphy. The 7 strong 1 minute break bunch rode with conviction to catch the 2m 30m group on the return journey and in doing so managed to snatch time off the scratch group by a mere 1 second. Ray Dunstan took the time honours from Brett Walker, Paul Newman, Marcel Mulder and David Craig.

The junior under 17 grade rode a 20km handicap event on the same course. It was again the front markers that provided the action by coming home just over 2 minutes clear of the scratch bunch. The 18 minute group of Nick Blakistan, Piers Landon-Lane and Lydia Barnett teamed well with Blakiston finishing well to win by 4 seconds over Landon-Lane and Barnett. Richard Anderson had an excellent debut to road racing when he took fastest time honours from his scratch co-markers Callum Streeter and Ethan Roach respectively.


Open grade- 40km handicap, S de Castro (off 22m) 1, M Higgison (off 22m) 2, P Halligan (off 6m) 3, T Neal (off 6m) 4, B Burns (off 6m) 5, R Murphy (off 6m) 6, B Streeter (off 6m) 7, M McManaway (off 6m) 8, S Frost (off 6m) 9, B Ackroyd (off 6m) 10. Fastest time, R Dunstan (1m) 59m 57s 1, B Walker (1m) s.t. 2, P Newman (1m) s.t. 3, M Mulder (1m) s.t. 4, D Craig (1m) s.t. 5. Fastest Women, R Murphy (6m) 63m 45s 1, M Hughes (6m) s.t 2, W Borst (11m) 68m 52s 3.

Junior under 17 grade- 20km handicap, N Blakistan (off 18m) 1, P Landon-Lane (off 18m) 2, L Barnett (off 18m) 3, R Anderson (off scr) 4, C Streeter (off scr) 5, E Roach (off scr) 6, H Barnett (off 4m) 7, C Saunders (off 6m) and L Landon-Lane (off 6m) 8 equal, D Cresswell (off 7m) 10. Fastest time, R Anderson (scr) 32m 12s 1, C Streeter (scr) s.t. 2, E Roach (scr) s.t. 3.