WORLD & SOUTH PACIFIC VETERAN CYCLING CHAMPIONSHIPS impact internet services exclusive coverage on the world wide web from MARYBOROUGH-VICTORIA AUSTRALIA ANZAC DAY AUSTRALIA Lest We Forget At the going down of the sun..and in the morning..we will remember them CEC CRIPPS MEMORIAL HANDICAP ROAD RACE MOORES WIN SETS NEW RACE RECORD Peter & Karen celebrate a well deserved win MARYBOROUGH-VICTORIA APRIL 25TH 2000 Anzac Day dawned crisp and very cold as a frost settled over the township of Maryborough Victoria. After a hard four days of competition there was still one event left to contest and that was the Cec Cripps Handicap, a memorial race dedicated to the man that many consider the father of veteran cycling here in australia. A late one oclock start ensured that competition would be, as it was on the battlefields, tough and bloody on the roads that formed the contest course through the undulating terrain of the central goldfield district. With six major groups in a handicap format and a very classy scratch bunch made up of the top guns from the already completed disciplines the early pace was a cracker. If the scratchies were to have any chance of winning they would have to be on a record pace. With the limit off twenty five minutes and only sixty five kilometres to catch them in the scratchmen set about the task with a ruthless determination. By the time the long climb on the Dunolly-Avoca Road had been completed the scrathmen has reeled in both division two & three. Around the corner and onto the Maryborough-St Arnaud Road and the chase was still on at a very brisk pace. Up front three groups had combined and were aware that the following group was bearing down on them at a really awesome pace. With just six kilometres to go the scratchmen were screaming down on the hapless leading bunch who by now knew that their efforts had been futile. But there was one surprise yet to be sprung and it was to come from south australias Peter Moore, who siezing the moment launched an attack and jumped accross to the bunch. Victorian and gold medal winner David Sturt crossed to join Moore with the lead bunch and on the downhill run to the roundabout they managed to gap the field. With the scratchmen and all groups now together, some riders with an affiliation to the two escapees controlled the field at speeds well beyond sixty kilometres an hour to perfection, allowing them(Moore & Sturt) to fight out a long sprint to the finish line. One thing David Sturt should have learnt from the criterium was that to give Moore a chance to wind up that big gear too early is just courting disaster and Moore gave the Victorian sprinter another lesson as he lead him out on a long chase down Park Road to the finish line. In the end Moore had a very comfortable and thoroughly deserved win by a handy bike length but to Sturts credit he gave it everything until that moment when, in a sprint, it finally comes down to defeat and accepting that second is all you're going to get. Both riders are to be congratulated for their efforts but there can only be one victor in a race and this year it was Moore's in a record time of 1hr 26 minutes & 18 secs, a whopping 8 minutes 25 seconds faster than the previous year. In the bunch sprint South Australias Malcolm Clasohm was just too good yet again showing just how great a sprinter he is coming in ahead of Terry Schintler, the evergreen Bill Mackay and New Zealands Gary Overend.

FINAL GC: 1ST PETER MOORE(SA) 1hr26min18secs 2ND DAVID STURT(VIC) 3RD MALCOLM CLASOHM(SA) 4TH TERRY SCHINTLER(VIC) 5TH BILL MACKAY(VIC) 6TH GARY OVEREND(NZ)

GROUP WINNERS: GRP1 PETER MOORE(SA) GRP2 BILL MACKAY(VIC) GRP3 NOEL KNIGHTS(VIC) GRP4 BRUCE BALDWIN(VIC) GRP5 BRUCE COCHRANE(VIC) GRP6 BRIAN FARRELL(VIC)

Impact wishes to thank the following people and organizations for their kind assistance. Ray Aldridge/Malcolm Clasohm/The Junction Motel/Central Goldfields Shire Council & the VVCC.
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