The 9th annual Armidale Criterium was held on Sunday, in conjunction with the Autumn Festival. The criterium entailed top quality cyclists, doing laps around the city’s CBD, racing anti-clockwise around Dangar, Rusden, Faulkner and Moore Streets. There was a $2,400 prize pool.
There were riders from Armidale, Tamworth, Coffs Harbour, Gunnedah, Grafton, Inverell, the Hunter and from further afield. They competed for prize money across four grades.
The course, in the picturesque centre of Armidale, is short, but features fast corners and a leg wearing incline on Dangar Street which, as always, added interest to the final sprints. This year, the cyclists copped a head wind along Rusden Street. The A Grade winner, Craig Evers of Grafton said that the head wind was tougher than the Dangar Street gradient.
The races were conducted as time-based (rather than lap-based) events around a short circuit, with riders given a warning when the time had expired. Once the time is up, the riders then complete two more laps of the circuit to determine the winner.
The A Grade race was a strategic event, wherein the cyclists rode the circuit competitively for 40 minutes (with cash prizes for a few sprint laps) and then raced for the last two laps.
The NKS-Lexus team (formerly Waki-Lexus) lined up to defend their team title from 2011, with Grafton’s Craig Evers hoping to repeat his winning individual performance from 2011. The race started briskly with NKS-Lexus setting a scorching early pace. Reece Edwards from Coffs Harbour had an unfortunate crash on Rusden Street at the 23 minute mark, putting him out of the race. By the 29 minute mark, three riders had made a decisive break from the chasing pack, with a 20 second lead that put them out of sight of the bunch. Craig Evers (Grafton), Michael Curran (NKS-Lexus) and Dan Alcock (Coffs Harbour) gradually built a commanding lead, taking all three intermediate sprints. Their pace broke the bunch into two smaller packs at 32 minutes but despite chasing hard, the three leaders were never caught and contested a sprint on the final lap, with Craig Evers victorious over Michael Curran (2nd) and Dan Alcock, in third place.
In between the running of the A and B Grade events, an extremely mixed field pounded the pavement in the New England Mile running race (two laps of the block). Armidale 22 year-old, John Shirley won, with a time of 5:43.
The 2012 Armidale Autumn Festival Criterium results A Grade Individual results:
1st: Craig Evers (Grafton), 2nd: Mick Curran (NKS-Lexus, Newcastle), 3rd: Dan Alcock (Coffs Harbour).
A Grade team results:
1st: NKS-Lexus (Newcastle), 2nd: Tamworth, 3rd: Inverell.
Intermediate sprints:
Sprint 1: Michael Curran (NKS-Lexus, Newcastle) Sprint 2: Michael Curran (NKS-Lexus, Newcastle) Sprint 3: Craig Evers (Grafton) *B Grade (35 minutes plus 2 laps)*
1st: Eron Hennessy, 2nd: Matt Hey, 3rd: Dylan Sunderland
Intermediate sprints
Sprint 1: Dylan Sunderland (Inverell)
Sprint 2: Dave Monroe
*C Grade (30 minutes plus 2 laps)* 1st: Alistair Lane (Coffs Harbour), 2nd; Bruce Phelps (Grafton), 3rd: D.J. Morrison.
Intermediate Sprints
Sprint 1: Bruce Phelps (Grafton)
Sprint 2: Bruce Phelps (Grafton)
*D Grade (25 minutes plus 2 laps)* 1st: Troy Hardaker (Coffs Harbour), 2nd: Ian Lavery (Grafton), 3rd: Sophie Wallace (Armidale)
Intermediate Sprint: Ian Lavery
*Combined under 9 and under 11* 1st: Mia Tindale, 2nd: Sam Bible, 3rd: Tom Bible, 4th: Ryan Harris, 5th: Will Schmude, 6th: Ellen Kirk
*Combined under 13 and under 15* 1st: Darcy Galliano, 2nd: Nick Kirk, 3rd: Lachlan Harris, 4th: Alex Kirk.
Story: Gary Fry
