NSW State Masters Road Championships 2017 – Report by Dave Raymond

The state masters might be an event only for old guys and girls, but you can be sure that pretty much the best riders in the state in their age category will be there. This ensures each race is very competitive and highly esteemed.

Eight Illawarra riders raced this year at Orange across three days.

Saturday was the Road Race. The course is very challenging, not unlike the ICC long course with a bit more elevation. There is a key climb 6k from the finish which is similar to Marshall Mt steep side but at least you get a downhill run at it before going up.

Best result of the day was Kirsten Bennett winning the WMAS5 race:

Other ICC riders included Simon Meredith in the MMAS4 race. If you look at the results you can see how strong this and other fields were.

A brief race report from the MMAS5 race:

Tip for next year: be up the front in the neutral zone. The neutral zone was 20kph but there’s some steep pinches in there which at 20kph means it should be called the red zone if you start at the back.

Keith Bennett, Rod Latham, Dave Raymond were the Illawarra riders in the race. Let’s just say that it was a good learning exercise. The ICC guys rode strong all race and were in the right position on the climbs. However, a seemingly innocuous move drifted off the front on one of the flats and this turned out to be the break that would stay to the end. Some hard chasing by the guys got close but with lack of help from other riders they couldn’t close the gap.

The ever-impressive Mark Morgan finished 7^th in the MMAS7 race.

Criteriums were on the Sunday. The course must be one of the best around. Wide road, long sweeping bends and fast. Not so much fun if it’s wet which it was for the last race of the day. All ICC riders finished in their respective bunches with Mark Morgan sprinting to 4^th in his race.

There were still a few club riders who stayed on until the time trial on Monday. It was a challenging course, with 2 uphill’s on the way out, a middle flat section but exposed to the winds, then a faster return trip with a tough last km. Mick Santalab had a super impressive ride considering he experienced a couple of mechanical issues. Simon Meredith raced his $600 Kestrel bike for the first time and rode very well.

Results from all three days:

http://my2.raceresult.com/72255/?lang=en

http://my2.raceresult.com/72257/?lang=en

http://my2.raceresult.com/72258/?lang=en