Written by Willunga Hill at 00:21 17/6-2018
Its been an adventurous mixed bag for Willunga Hill in the first quarter of Season #45.
Our aim for the season was to move back up and re-establish ourselves as a fixture in Div 4. In that sense, we've had a very successful start, with over 350 points already and sitting on the Div3/Div 4 border. This has been mainly due to Etera Harding's success in the Monte Rosa Tour where he won Stage 2 and briefly led the race, before fading to 5th with an off day and a crash on the final time decisive stage, Stage 4.
On the other hand, we took our young future sprint captain, Wayne Sanders, and put him in top form for a four race stint as sprint captain. He had off days in every single race, managing 10th twice, 12th once, and a 7th in the U23 sprint race he'd been specifically set up to win. So four off days out of four while in TF for a total gain of 2 points and $500. Sanders added insult to injury by having super legs in his first race after TF had gone, and scored 8th in his first Div 4 race as captain.
The old man of the team, Shane Austin, meanwhile has had something of a mini-revival now that he is ready to retire. First, a 2nd place the day after his birthday saw him gain his first result in over a season, and he backed this up on Day 22 by winning his first race with the national team since Season 42 (which he also won). By doing so, he joined the two most successful NZ riders in OCM, Tamati Lima and Ruru Leonard, as the only NZ riders to have won 3 races in the world tour. (Austin is, in fact, the only Kiwi to have won a CoN race.) Austin has been given a month off to recharge his batteries with the intention of giving him one last TF opportunity in the next season or so. We understand he is presently in a hut somewhere in the Tararua Ranges.
So its certainly not been dull up on the Hill of late. Management hopes for more "interesting" (but still positive!) times in the near future!
Subscribers: 11
| |
Comments
No comments yet.
|
Other Team's Press Releases
|
|
|