Early break leaves Knight in control

Cycling

Ben Knight provided the ride of the night when the Masterton Athletics and Cycling Club held a graded road race around one lap of the 55km Whangaehu circuit on Tuesday evening, starting at Henley Lake.

Starting with a group of A grade riders at two minutes, Knight broke away and posted the fastest time of the night at 1h 22m 35s, beating Jack Sowry into second place, with Hamish Hammond third.

There was a keen sprint home between Donna Burkhart, Kirsten Goodin and Julie Millar in the women's section and they crossed the line within one second of each other. Lesley Mouat was the fastest of the women with a time of 1h 30m 29s.

Most groups broke up, the result of the climb up the steep side of Dreyers Rock Rd.

Six riders, off at five minutes, stayed together the entire journey, rotating smoothly and finishing in 1h 43min 8s or thereabouts.

All but one rider finished the race, in marked contrast to last week's event when there were several withdrawals.

Times were: Ben Knight 1:22.35, Jack Sowry 1:24.12, Hamish Hammond 1:24.13, Phil Sutherland 1:25.50, Pete James 1:25.51, Mike Wilkinson 1:25.51, Dave Drummond 1:25.51, Devan Simmonds 1:25.53, Jeff Saywell 1:25.53, Earle Whitcombe 1:30.23, Derek Cox 1:30.23, Brett Tulloch 1:30.25, Russell Pickering 1:30.25, Lesley Mouat 1:30.29, Terry Blackburn 1:30.30, Lawrence Field 1:31.25, Daniel Jacques 1:34.28, Darren Southon 1:34.38, Mike Clinton-Baker 1:34.39, Brian Sanders 1:35.25, Chris Smith 1:35.26, John Chesmar 1:35.36, Donna Burkhart 1:36.57, Kirsten Goodin 1:36.57, Julie Millar 1:36.58, Mike Parker 1:39.21, Andrew Curtis-Cody 1:42.52, Simon Butler 1:43.42, Lloyd Millar 1:43.08, Brian Graham 1:43.09, Chris Bunny 1:43.09, Grant Burkhart 1:43.09, Jenna Mangin 1:43.10, Ricky Blade 1:44.11, Stan Braaksma 1:53.34, Viv Bunny 1:53.34, Emily Lutyens 1:53.38, Dave McKinlay 1:53.41, Anil Raman 1:54.39.

Next Tuesday, February 26, is a handicap road race over 40km from Wainuioru School - 6pm start - followed by a barbecue.