Road: Scott Townsend wins the Collier

John Collier junior handicap

Chris Liston writes:

Siblings take Collier Wins

Lyons siblings Kate and Angus claimed victories in the F and E grade John Collier handicaps, respectively.  The races were held at Kingston in cool, fine conditions.  Kate Lyons returned to road racing and was limit rider in the F grade 12 km handicap. She showed that she still had form, working the undulating course to stay away from her in-form clubmates. Coming to the uphill finish, Lyons was alone. Clancy Dickson placed second, working through the field from second scratch.  In the absence of Dylan Bilston, Declan Dickson became the scratch marker and was crossing the gap to his brother. He placed third, and took fastest time.

In the E grade 28 km U17 and U15 handicap, Patrick Cosgrave had worked his way to the front, relegating limit rider Emily Oliver to a minor position. But Cosgrave missed the left hand turn to Kingston, opening up the race. Oliver was being chased hard by Nicholas White and Angus Lyons.  Lyons had put in a well-timed and determined attack to rid himself of Josh Liston and Conor Dickson on the climb out of Smeaton. Lyons, Liston and Dickson, the scratch riders, crossed a five-minute gap to collect Craig Firman and Dominic Geoghegan at the 18km mark, and move through as a trio shortly after. Firman and Geoghegan had moved away from Madeleine Plastow early in the race, and missed the presence of Emma Bilston who did not start.  Angus Lyons capitalised on Cosgrave’s misfortune and powered to the lead, taking a win with an average over 35.5 km/h.  Oliver came in second, with White third, and Liston and Dickson a minute off the pace.

Returning to the road race season, Connor Carey put paid to his days in G grade. The unknown quantity, from an estimated mark at scratch, blew away his rivals to take a win and the fastest time.  Matched riders Daisy Pickersgill and Bailey Cody from limit were slowed markedly by the undulations of the Blampied road. Grace Mader and Rochelle Liston rode steady races to come in from midfield and place second and third respectively.  Connor Carey's fellow scratch rider Tyson Cody was off form following a few days of illness that put paid to his race.

Junior results:
G Grade 6 km Collier Handicap
1st Connor Carey (f/T)
2nd Grace Mader
3rd Rochelle Liston

F Grade 12 km Collier Handicap
1st Kate Lyons
2nd Clancy Dickson
3rd Declan Dickson (f/t)

E Grade 28 km Collier Handicap
1st Angus Lyons (f/t)
2nd Emily Oliver
3rd Nicholas White

Senior race

Scott Townsend scored an emphatic victory at today's senior John Collier handicap at Kingston.  In a repeat of last Sunday's cool but near-perfect autumn conditions, Townsend used his world-ranked kilometer time trial power to blow away his rivals on the uphill finish, after driving his 10-minute (3rd scratch) bunch into the lead on the third and final lap.

Over 40 senior riders greeted the starter, club president Volker Hegert.  Wendy Ross, the lone limit rider, was first to leave, chased by two bunches with a total of a dozen riders.  The fourth group to leave, the 16-minute bunch, looked dangerous, with strong men Clive Silcock, Tavis Baker, Jason Haire and Shane Butler, last week's solo winner Sam Edwards, the consistent Peter Canny, rising star Liam White, and last year's Brookman winner Chloe McIntosh, climbing her way out of a bout of over-training.  This group had a five-minute start on an evenly-matched group of seven regular B-grade riders.  One minute behind them was the third-scratch pursuit team of Peter Kiel, Scott Townsend, Stuart Grigg, Shane "Jedi" Cody and Ben Clark.  The word from the riders before the race was that if this group started fast and combined quickly with the seven in front, the resulting combination would be hard to beat.  Townsend's track power, combined with endurance from his brutal road training sessions with national champs hero Damien Turner, was agreed to be the key to the required fast start.  Behind them were the heavy hitters, last week's fastest rider Damien "King" Keirl, young guns Ciaran Conaughton and James Crafter, super time-triallist Grant Gilbert, and the unstoppable John Polkinghorne.  Last to start were three of BSCC's handful of true elite riders, Pat Shaw, Rhys Gillett and Andew Weightman, the club's other time-trial monster.

Townsend took command of the third scratch group, and with a combination of powerful turns of pace, encouragement and bullying, drove them off the mark at a ferocious pace.  The larger B-grade group a minute in front started solidly, but Townsend's men, with smaller numbers, caught them not long after Blampied on the first lap, scarcely 10 km into the race.  This jaw-dropping feat came at a price, but the two groups combined well, and under Townsend's command, the chase continued.   The relentless pace on the drag back to the start at the end of the first lap, set by Townsend, the always-courageous Peter Kiel, triathlon strongman Shannon Gration, Charlie Stebbing, and evergreen Peter "Engine" Walker, ejected Stuart Brien.  Soon afterwards Shane Cody was claimed by a mechanical failure, and Stebbing himself fell victim to stomach cramps.  Nonetheless, the juggernaut rolled on, and caught Peter Canny's bunch before Blampied the second time. 

Meanwhile, the scratch bunch did the same calculation, and realized that their only hope was to catch the larger second scratch bunch quickly.  This is exactly what they did, with a blistering ride from Shaw and Gillett that left strongman Weightman hanging on for dear life, and which Shaw, after the race, described as one of his strongest rides in a handicap race. The two groups came together in about the same place that, further up the road, the Townsend machine mowed down Canny's group.  The backmarkers continued their heroic chase, but their fate was sealed: nothing would stop the machine.  On the third lap, Townsend's group caught the leaders on the fast section between Blampied and Koorochiang, and took the lead.  The combined group was too large to work effectively, despite some pointed "coaching" from some of the veteran riders, so Townsend put his foot to the floor on the rise coming into Smeaton the last time, and blew away half the bunch.  Surprisingly, though, the first rider over this climb was not Townsend but Liam White.  The truth of the race was beginning to emerge.  The front group was whittled down further when White, realizing that he would not beat Townsend in a head-to-head sprint, attacked again on the dip out of Smeaton.  This formed an elite selection of White, Townsend, Keil and Gration, but wily veteran Les Bilney, from the 11-minute group, showed that his form is returning when he and Ben Clark dragged themselves, and a handful of other riders, across the gap.

As the now-exhausted riders turned onto the grinding, uphill, headwind finale, it was clear that it would be a race of attrition, and most were sure that they were racing for second place.  Clive Silcock, in trademark style, attacked several times on the rise, dislodging more shattered riders.  Townsend hit the front a long way out, and his first acceleration blew all his rivals away, except for the feisty White, who challenged him one last time before he, too, was swept away. 

Thanks to Mike Colville for the photo.

Hard man Peter Kiel, who matched Townsend turn for turn all day, was rewarded with a gritty third place.  Tavis Baker, Jason Haire and Shannon Gration were the next to collapse across the line.  A few minutes later, Pat Shaw turned on the gas and splattered the remains of the backmarkers' group across the road behind him to take the fastest time.

Thanks to chief marshal Phil Orr, and marshals including Waren Faneco, Rohan Allen, Aaron Blomeley, Vic Snibson, and Scott Keating. 

Junior results and report will follow soon.

2010 John Collier senior handicap, 85 km, at Kingston: final results

1,  Scott Townsend

2.  Liam White

3.  Peter Kiel

4.  Tavis Baker

5.  Jason Haire

6.  Shannon Gration

Fastest time: Patrick Shaw.

First woman rider: Gail Oliver. 

***********

This Saturday is one of BSCC's two big annual "feature" road races, the John Collier handicap.  Racing starts at Kingston at noon. That's right: the start time is noon, rather than the usual 2 PM.  Entries close with 80,104,105,108 on Friday at 5 PM. The senior race is 85 km, three laps of the Kingston-Smeaton circuit.  There are also junior races.  For all the details, go to the on-line calendar and click on Saturday May 22. 

The Collier family has been sponsoring a BSCC race for many years.  By the early 1980s, the race was well established and run as a handicap over several courses starting and finishing at the Miners Rest tennis courts. It was fiercely contested in those days by a number of riders whose names will be familiar to today's members, including Adam and Matthew Smith and their father Frank, Greg Nunn and his father Ian, Dennis Shaw, Doug "Bronco" Armstrong, Barry Robinson (Ryan "Ripper" Robinson's father), Daryl Keirl (Damien's father), Geoffrey and Neil Braszell (Ash's father and uncle, respectively), the mysterious Peter Taylor - spoken of in hushed tones to this day by Mars riders - and won on several occasions by the late Peter Townsend, Scott's father and Jonny's uncle. Come out on Saturday and be part of Ballarat cycling history! 

Corrections? Questions? Comments? Contact the web lackey

back

show all articles