Headlam holds on for Victory

Photos courtesy of Greg Long

Another good women’s field rolled to the start line for Round 3 of the women’s C Thursday evening series, with a slightly extended race of 17 minutes plus 2 laps in front of an enthusiastic audience on the cards. Like last week, the first couple of laps were at a very steady pace with few of the stronger riders willing to pull the bunch along so early in the piece. Beijing paralympian Janie Armstrong was keen to get a tempo up, but couldn’t convince the riders to come with her, and finding herself slightly off the front alone, she dropped back to the bunch.
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 a lap and a bit to go Rowena Headlam attacked solo from the front and formed a shaky looking 20 metre gap. The riders who still had the legs after the early surges jumped to follow – Koerber, Steer, Kate Vandenberg, Susannah Hiron and the fast improving Maddy Marshall. Remarkably Molineaux was also up there chasing, despite being dropped earlier.

As the final lap wore on Headlam’s lead grew, held, then decreased as the lactate started to build and her legs grew heavy. Out of the final corner and up the slight hill to the finish, Vandenberg and Hiron were practically on her wheel, but Headlam didn’t acknowledge their presence – she simply put her head down and drove the last 100 metres with her final ounce of energy to hold them off for a classy victory. Hiron sprinted home for second, followed by Vandenberg and Koerber.
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.

Top Ten Results Womens C Round 3


1. Rowena Headlam
2. Susannah Hiron
3. Kate Vandenburgh
4. Amanda Koerber
5. Merryn Steer
6. Maddy Marshall
7. Kate Molineaux
8. Linda Rigby
9. Elizabeth Lowe
10. Carly Rickerby
11. Kylie Biilmann
12. Emily Clark
13. Megan Mackenzie
14. Shalan Bray
15. Sarah Goodwin
16. Helen Kehoe
17. Katherine Huckstep
18. Christine Palmer
19. Jane Armstrong
20. Annabell Pearson
21. Carol Paice
22. Helene Blackwell
23. Frances McNamara

Report: Simon Dwyer

All photos courtesy of Greg Long Photography
http://www.greglong.photostockplus.com/