Victorious Haden digs deep on hill

BIG EFFORT: Young Finnegan Murphy ascends the hill.

THE HILL climb on the Francis-Montgomery Rd course sorted out the winners from the runners-up during the Wanganui Cycling Club's championships on Saturday.

All grades contested their season crowns over various distances on the 9.2km lap course.

In the open grade over 99km, Jason Sturzaker and Glenn Haden accelerated away from their rivals on the Montgomery Rd hill on the second lap.

Chasing them in vain was a strong group including Andrew Osmond, Gareth Wood, Hayden Trotter, Sam Edwards, Shanan Whitlock and Phillip Groves. Sturzaker and Haden continued to take time out of the Osmond/Wood group each lap.

On the last lap, with Sturzaker cramping on the hill, Haden seized his chance and cleared out to take the win clearly in 2h 13m 50s, with Sturzaker second, and a big gap to Wood in third, sprinting ahead of his co-markers.

The women's race over six laps was won by the in-form Catherine McMurray, with her 1h 41m 16s time dominating her rivals, with Ellie Bowen second (1h 45m 44s) Heather Johnston third (1h 58m 30s) and Debbie Cain fourth (2h 3m 14s).

The under-17 mixed race was two laps and after a great battle, Ethan Gillespie was judged the winner after recording the same 33m 18s time with second-placed Kyle Hoskin, both clear of Mia Gemmell (37m 43s) in third and Finnegan Murphy (39m 2s) fourth.

The Masters 50-year plus race was over six laps, having the largest field of the day.

It was looking tight on the first lap with 10 riders making up the front bunch and staying together.

Then on the second lap, Pat Johnstone exploded off the front on Montgomery Rd hill with Darcy Forrester, Rob Gemmell, Stephen Snell, Rob Manson, and Paul Forrest chasing hard and gapping the rest of the field.

Johnstone showed his class with his solo break, taking time out of his rivals on each lap.

A third group of Allan Luff, Brian Hayward, Ross McNeil and Tim Chambers were also chasing hard.

Johnstone won by nearly five minutes.

After an awesome ride, there was a sprint for the line with Forrester, Gemmell, Snell, Forrest, Manson taking second to sixth place " recording a time within one second of each other.

The next group was headed by the sprint king Luff, followed by Hayward, McNeil and Chambers.

The National Club Road Championship was held last month in Alexandra, where club members Luff and Johnstone both won medals in their age groups.