The weekend just past held host to one of the bigger events on the South Australian cycling calendar, being the Walaroo weekend of the AusCycling South Australia Super Series.
Both races are particularly tough – with Saturday holding a road race with a generous helping of gravel roads, while Sunday is a short, intense criterium with four ninety degree turns in quick succession.
Saturday’s race was a tough day at the office for our Cat 2 Mens team, with four not completing the race due to gravel related mechanical, gravel induced crash or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time on the gravel. @adam.bowey and @richard_crombie found themselves at the final, with Adam the instigator of the race winning move… but due to team numbers found himself having to perform the lion’s share of the work for his colleagues in the breakaway.
In Cat 3 Mens, the race was more fruitful for the team, with Paul Pearce coming in seventh and Juan Molina sneaking in with the front group for 19th.
Sunday was more fruitful – while the criterium was only 40 minutes, the quick succession of corners made moving around in the bunch difficult. This made the race one of attrition, rewarding those brave enough to be on the front and penalising those at the back with a savage concertina effect. A last lap crash put our resident sprinter Nick Clark out of position, however he dug deep on the back straight and managed to come back through the field to take fourth, while Adam Bowey took sixth.
Over in Cat 3, the ever consistent Paul Pearce took 10th, leaving the weekend with two top tens. A fantastic result.
While the weekend held a mixed bag of results and from a pure performance standpoint was somewhat bitter sweet, what the results don’t show was a weekend of very fun, challenging racing and hanging out on the bike that was enjoyed by all.
A big note of appreciation to all of those behind the scenes who pulled this race together – we are fortunate to have such quality racing that pushes our limits in terms of both skills and fitness, as well as simply having an excuse to get away for the weekend.
Finally – thank you to Hayden Archie (Turn 8 Photography) for his photographic contribution not only to this race, but many across the South Australian racing calendar.
