Waggrakine Five Stage Tour

Waggrakine Five Stage Tour

The new location for the Spokes Five stage tour proved a huge success.  The results of the first stage, a 6km time trial starting in Collins Road Waggrakine more or less set the finishing order for the overall tour.

Andre Eastough continued his good form to record the fastest time (10:10) to edge out Darryl Sheilds by three seconds and Richard Quinlan by 19 seconds. Julie Firth once again showed her liking for stage racing and set the standard in the Women’s with the time of (11:09) with Kate Watson, on her new Pinarello Paris, second with a time of (11:45) and Reggie Richardson a further second behind in third.

Jonty Calder showed the benefits of his training program to lead the Juniors with a time of (11:44) with Hayden Nicholas second (12:32).

 Stage Two from Collins Road, turning into David Road and then through Park Falls to the NWC H’way saw riders bunched together for the first km until Simon Mulligan, making a welcome return to Spokes, upped the pace to cause the bunch to splinter.  By the rise after Tramway Road, the small group of Eastough, Quinlan and Sheilds had made a break, however, strong riding from Max Nowragee saw him bridge the gap by Cooper Road.  The leading group established a lead of 46 seconds by the finish with Quinlan winning a desperate sprint with Eastough to win by the narrowest of margins. 

Stage Three from NWC H’way to Drabble Road saw riders having to contend with the Park Falls climb.  This caused the group to split and saw small groups of riders forming .  Again Eastough and Quinlan powered away to the finish with Nowrogee in tow.  Eastough grabbed line honours from Quinlan, with Nowrogee third.  Julie Firth shone in this stage to finish with Peter Johnson and Johnny Barber 1 min 17 behind the winners.

New rider to Spokes Victor Broido rode well to finish just ahead of Calder and Richardson.  Good rides in this stage were also recorded by Brad Ewings, Jenny Haste, Rhonda Bradley and Darren (sorry Darren I don’t know your last name).

Stage Four, was a Sprint up Bore Road turning right to finish at the top of Stephen Road.  Eastough again showed everyone a clean pair of heels to win in the time of 2min 50sec, 11 sec ahead of Quinlan and 17 secs ahead of Nowrogee.  Reg Salmon put in a big effort  to finish fourth ahead of the rapidly improving Tom Thujis.

The final stage, a quick dash down Bore Road turning left into Sutcliff Road saw the group more or less stay together with Eastough letting Sheilds take line honours ahead of a packed group of Riders.

A big thank you to the marshals and time keepers, Duane, Kylie and Mitch Crabbe, Andrew Toovey and Terry Wellman.