ANTHONY Sleeman produced a tactically
brilliant ride to take line honours in the premier
division of the latest stage of the Tour of Two Rivers held in Cootamundra on Saturday.
Having not competed in any of the previous three stages Sleeman, who lives in Temora but is proud to ride under the Coota Club banner, was one half of a daring breakaway that kept the remainder of the elite A grade riders at bay for the entire 58km journey.
It was a successful day for the host club with Denny Louttit, who has just returned to competitive riding, winning a sprint finish to claim D grade honours, Shaun Williams and Mark Ward finished second and third in C grade to keep their hopes of overall tour
victory alive, while Hamish Nott also showed great speed in the dash for the line to finish third in B grade.
When the A grade field was sent on its way just after 1.30pm it didn’t take long before the attacks started.
Unlike handicap road racing which most riders in the region are more accustomed to, the mass start brings with it a different set of tactics as it becomes a battle within rather than a challenge of chasing down bunches in front.
Just after the field had passed outside the town
limits, Wagga’s Simon Haworth, who was sitting in second place in the general classification prior to the stage, made his move.
“It wasn’t my plan (to break away so early), but I’ve ridden with Simon for five or six years now and it’s always in his style to go early in these types of races so I made sure I was in touch as we headed out the road.
“He’s the strongest rider at the moment and always rides well in graded events so I just thought if he goes I’d go with him and see what happens.”
Sleeman and Haworth put the hammer down
immediately, knowing they had to put a gap in their rivals quickly if the breakaway was to be successful.
“We went as hard as we could possibly go,” Sleeman said.
“I didn’t have my heart rate monitor on but I was watching his and he was going at his max, sitting
constantly in the 180s (beats per minute) and I just thought if I’m not getting dropped and he’s going as fast as he can go I might be able to stick with him.”
For the next 30 minutes the pair maintained their advantage without increasing it, but by the time they finished the Gundagai Road, Old Gundagai Road, Killrush Road loop and were preparing for the lap around suicide, they knew they had the race in their keeping.
“For the first half hour I thought they were a chance of pulling us back because they were staying at a
similar distance from us, but after that we couldn’t even see them,” Sleeman said.
While they were enjoying each other’s company and the opportunity to race at a solid speed around the final lap, Sleeman and Haworth’s thoughts quickly turned to the finish.
“Even though we were still a long way from the
finish he started riding pretty hard and I was just
holding onto his wheel,” Sleeman said.
“He’s quite a good sprinter so I knew I had to have a crack at him before the downhill run into the finish so I waited as long as I could and attacked him on the last little climb.
“He had used up a lot of energy so I was lucky enough to grab a break and hold onto it.”
As Sleeman raced down Florence Street to the finish line he was cheered on by the small but loyal band of spectators that included his wife Jane, who herself had ridden over from Temora on the day, and his son.
Haworth’s second place finish saw him gain some ground on A grade leaders and fellow Macca’s Classic teammate Daniel Uden, while Coota’s Joel Finucane, who finished eighth on Sunday, has snuck into the top 10.
Williams retains his lead in C grade and Ward jumped from fourth to second, with the final race to be held at Wantabadgery on Sunday November 22.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter