Women's Challenge Round 6

KatieStacey

Katie Hannan leading out Stacey Quinn.

Despite the stormy weather during the week, strong entries were received for the second last event in the Women's Challenge Series a 44km handicap road race held at Williamstown.

The strong cross winds tested the riders ability to recover and ride within themselves, and the deceptive course which saps the legs with a combination of dead roads and constant pitches took its toll on the handicap groupings.

Previous winner Alison Lock was out to try and score a second win and was riding with Sharee Faulkner off limit, but the conditions took their toll and it was not to be.

Series leader Annabel Cox, riding off scratch with Natalie Redmond, had her work cut out on the opening kms as Natalie smashed it along the top to Lyndoch. Annabel's experience on this course came out though and she had enough in reserve to keep the pace up the climb from Lyndoch to Cocoatoo Valley. Natalie had to contend with cramping in the legs and was not able to hold Annabel's wheel, but rather had to drop back and try and ride herself back into the race.

Meriel Custance and Monquie Jones on chopping block worked like a tidy unit and caught their group midway through the first lap. Seasoned racer Kellie Hards had the strength and experience to jump on chopping block and work with them. Whilst Janine McKinnon and Nichola Wilson, formed an alliance and worked together.

Vicki-Lynne Birks kept, Nelli Noakes, Catherine Davies and Lynette Collins organised and riding a quick opening 10kms and they had the next group within their sights as the turned the corner at Lyndoch. However, that was the only glimpse they got until the last lap of Katie Hannan, Stacey Quinn, Kerri Maccini and Liz Jones as they kept the pace high.

Vicki showed that not only does she have a serious sprint but she has an amazing ability to suffer, as she got the better of the course whilst firstly Lynette, then Catherine dropped off. As the back markers caught Vicki and Nelli coming into Lyndoch for the last lap, Vicki's race experience showed as she was able to jump onto the faster group of Monquie Jones and Kellie Hards.

Annabel Cox had both the mental and physical strength to ride the majority of the race on her own and was a worthy winner. Second place went to up and coming young rider Monquie Jones who is gaining strength and confidence with every outing, Third place went to Vicki-Lynne Birks in a two up sprint finish with Stacey Quinn who came in fourth and Kellie Hards crossed the line a mere 3 seconds later and nudged out Katie Hannan to round out the top five placings.

1st Annabel Cox, 2nd Monquie Jones, 3rd Vicki-Lynne Birks, 4th Stacey Quinn, 5th Kellie Hards.

The final round in this series will be held at Victoria Park on August 18th, and winners of the series and most improved rider of the series will be announced.

Place getters Women's Challenge Series Round 6: 5th Kellie Hards, 4th Stacey Quinn, 3rd Vicki-Lynne Birks, 2nd Monquie Jones, 1st Annabel Cox.

Quote from Annabel Cox: "Great competitive handicapping made for an exciting race, had loads of fun; good hard ride, ribs were borderline cracking; thanks guys ;) A1 soup too"

Results

Annabel Cox Natalie Redmond Liz Jones

Nichola Wilson

For more photos please check out About Us/Photos.

WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL PRO RACING

Women's Challenge Series Round 4 Hill Climb

As skills and confidence rise amongst the riders, new names dominated the top spots in B Grade of Round 4 of the Skinny Lattes Women's Challenge on Saturday. The 4 km climb outside of Kersbrook is well known to riders for its ability to smash the legs and stretch the lungs as it continues to ramp upwards, and it took its toll on the 26 starters.

The competition is heating up and the top 4 riders on age corrected time were separated by a mere 8 seconds. Tash Caulfield narrowly took out the win by 2 seconds over rider Nelli Noakes. A short margin of 5 seconds then separated Nelli from 3rd place getter Margaret Boylan who narrowly held of seasoned racer Vicki-Lynne Birks by less than 1 second.

Women's Challenge Series Round 5

Cool conditions greeted starters for Round 5 of the Women's Challenge Series on Saturday as they took to the roads of Langhorne Creek for the last of the four timed events in this seven event series. The aim of this series has been to encourage women to enter into competition in a friendly and supportive environment, to set personal goals and to challenge themselves.

A strong field fronted up for the standard equipment division with some new names on the start list experiencing their first taste of competition, as well as some seasoned riders who were battling it out for majority points for the overall series.

As some of the riders have gained confidence in the series they have made the switch to clip on bars and even full time trial bikes. There has even been whisperings of building on the experience gained from this series and heading across to Masters National Championships later in the year.

In the aero division new arrival to Adelaide Nicola Wilson (formerly from Wellington NZ) got a taste of windy Langhorne Creek instead of Windy Wellington as the women faced the expected head wind home.

Results

Division A Aero: Meriel Custance 1st, Vicki-Lynne Birks 2nd, Elizabeth Jones 3rd, Gemma Kernich 4th, Lynette Collins 5th. Results based on age corrected times.

Divison B standard: Annabell Cox 1st, Janine Mckinnon 2nd, Lucy Barker 3rd, Lisa Smith 4th, Margaret Boylan 5th. Results based on age corrected times.

Times of combined divison on actual times: Gemma Kernich 30:55.55, Lucy Barker 31:40.97, Meriel Custance 32:44.83, Annabel Cox 33.15.08, Kelli Hards 33:17.24.

Nelli Noakes and Kelli Hards at the start on Saturday.

Downloads

Women's Challenge Series Round 3 Road Race

Round 3 Skinny Lattes Women's Cycling Challenge
44km Road Race

First time racers dominate the top five places in a women's handicap race at Williamstown

Novice racer Alison Lock caught everyone, including herself by surprise when she soloed across the finish line to take out line honours on Sunday in Round 3 of the Skinny Lattes CC Women's Challenge Series. Alison who started with a one minute handicap followed her pre race instructions to the letter and managed to stay away from all the rest of the chasing field. Her solid pace meant that fellow one minute handicap racer Gwen Pye, could only watch as Alison opened a gap on the climbs. Gwen kept her nerve and held of the efforts of Felicity Laing and Nelli Noaks to take 5th place.

More Articles...