Racing photos courtesy of Greg LongOminous weather culminating in thrashing storms marred round 8 of the SuperCrit Thursday series.
However despite this ten hardy women enjoyed a soaking surface for their race and braved the conditions.
Kate Vandenburg out paced, out raced and out splashed the competition to eventually emerge victorious from the spray, followed by Susannah Hiron and the improving Kylie Biilmann.
With heavy clouds looming and the racing surface awash with rain, race commissaires deemed the conditions unsuitable for SuperCrit standards and called the event off.Despite a non event decision being issued for the SuperCrit, five of Canberra most diehard male racers declared that they would race an unofficial 14 lap pointscore. Wishing that there was a six pack of Coopers on offer for each sprint and $100 for the win, the five racers raced faced the wrath of the brutal conditions.
Mitchell Lovelock-Fay lay down the challenge to the riders on offer early in the event, however it came down to the final sprint into which Simon Dwyer went with a two point buffer. Lovelock-Fay took the five points, however Dwyer held off a fast finishing Brad Lovelock, holding on to his lead by the narrowest of margins. 
Unfortunately neither the Coopers nor the cash eventuated with the soaking riders hoping just for a dry towel and hot cup of tea.Thanks to the Race Directors: Sue Powell and Simon Dwyer, 15 Competitors, and thanks to the 3 Marshals performing essential duties: Graeme Drew, Reg Meisel-Dennis, Matty Menz, and photos by Greg Long.
Womens C Round 5
1. Kate Vandenburgh
2. Susannah Hiron
3. Kylie Biilmann
4. Carol Paice
5. Maddy Marshall
6. Kate Molineaux
7. Elizabeth Lowe
8. Megan Mackenzie
9. Katherine Huckstep
10. Melinda Connor
Men's Support Race - Pointscore
1. Simon Dwyer- 11 points
2. Mitchell Lovelock-Fay- 10 points
3. Bradley Lovelock- 7 points
4. Jamie Young- 4 points
5. Dan Foo- 1 point
Racing photos courtesy of Greg Long Photography
An immediate surging from some money hungry riders saw the bunch split at the start of the second lap.
20 seconds clear again and the aggressive duo looked as fresh as the first time they escaped. This time the main field reacted sooner, with Forrest, Matthew Meisel-Dennis, Angus Harding and Bomball lifting the pace.
As Genge swept through the final bend, Phelan popped out from the ideal position to surge past Genge and make his winning charge to the line. Matthews also snuck past the fading Genge to grab second, with an outstanding ride from mountain biker Ben Henderson seeing him nail fourth place. Marc Williams backed up from his late attacks to hang in for fifth.
Angus Harding, Michael Tolhurst and Scott Sparkman also made the split joining the quartet of Rogers, Skipper, Phelan and Matthews to make it a lead group of seven.
With 10 minutes left on the clock, the lead group started to sense a lap in the taking and the tempo increased yet again. By now the main pack were doing all they could to avoid being caught, yet it was not to be.
With Greg Long and his camera lurking in the clover, fame beckoned and it wasn’t long before a group of five or so riders, including Amanda Koerber and several of the Bilbys women’s team, jumped away from the bunch and got themselves organised into a threatening rhythm. The bunch driven by Merryn Steer, Linda Rigby and Liz Lowe quickly responded to the threat and chased hard, stringing the scrambling peloton single file the length of the back straight. The break was brought back in but the strong chase had caught several riders by surprise and caused several splits in the group. Kate Mollinaeux, Sarah Goodwin, Megan Mackenzie and Emily Clark were some of those caught out and had to work hard to latch back on. Eventually they brought it all back together, but perhaps the effort made them less of a threat in the finish.
With numbers slightly up on the first two weeks, despite several riders stepping up to WB on Wednesday, it seems the word is starting to get around. Three rounds so far and three exciting women’s C races with three separate winners: Christina Thorne, Helene Blackwell and now Rowena Headlam. In a measure of just how evenly poised, tough and dynamic the WC racing has been, last week’s winner, Blackwell, finished outside the top ten last night! The race is proving to be a great success and is a pleasure to run and watch each week. As we promised, we’ll reassess numbers periodically but we want to keep the race going as long as the demand is there. The SuperCrit Thursday team is pleased to announce that Women’s C will be continuing for at least another three weeks.
How it unfolded
At two laps to go, with the track now cleared, the eight leaders eased the pace slightly to size each other up. Phelan took up the front running position with Matthews sitting comfortably in second wheel. Tolhurst made his way up to the wheel of Matthews along the back straight as Skipper and Harding were tailed off the back of the group in an exhasted state.
The definitive move came from Helene Blackwell who blasted down the outside of the straight with three laps to go and quickly found herself with a comfortable lead. The chasers sensed a real threat and immediately ramped up the pace to set up a scorching race finale. Donna Smith, Maddy Marshal, Rowena Headlam, Kate Vandenbugh and a still strong Susannah left their race mates behind, forming a well organised chase line. The final lap saw Kate Vandenburgh jump and attempt to bridge to Helene, and with 500m to go she looked a chance. But Helene kicked again to maintain her gap and roll through the line for a maiden victory, followed several seconds later by a gasping Kate. Donna took the sprint for third followed by the rest of the now very strung out WC field.
Again, congratulations to all who came and had a race in round two – it was certainly an entertaining event to watch from the sidelines. It was great to see the confidence increasing as the bunch kept tight, and that those riders who were dropped early in week one held the wheels this time to stick with the bunch. Each week is a learning experience and each round will see improvements.
Team QUON's Scott Payne was loathe to allow the Bike Culture duo such a commanding lead, accelerating up at the front of the bunch to minimise the gap to the leaders.
As Cupitt was returning to the main field, Mountain biker Ben Henderson turned on the pace to rip off the front. Henderson was quickly followed by Bike Culture racer Stuart Morgan. Cupitt dug deep to find some extra grunt and latched on to the pair to form a serious and threatening move.
John Forrest and Alistair Loutit of Suzuki Uno picked the pace up as the trio stretched their lead, however as Adam Phelan and Michael Matthews began assisting the chase, Henderson and his partners slowly were welcomed back into the pack.
With 3 laps to go the front of the main field was awash with the orange colours of Suzuki Uno as they marshaled their riders in preparation of the looming and inevitable bunch sprint. Also muscling their way up were the red army colours of Bike Culture in the form of Dale Percival and Daniel Green. Also weaving his way through the pack was the consistent Justin Tomlinson in his flashy green attire.
Bell lap saw the entire field stretched out in a long line as Loutit let the horses out to gallop. Halfway up the back straight Stewart ducked under Loutit into the final curve. Stewart lined up for the finish out of the last bend and kicked hard a long way from home. A hundred metres out Stewart looked like holding on, however the straight proved to be just a touch too long and Meisel-Dennis bagged his first SuperCrit win in gasping style.
