Leongatha Junior Tour 2018

Leongatha Junior Tour 28-29th April…

Leongatha Junior tour

Leongatha Junior Tour

The club promoted the Junior Tour event over the weekend with racing at Kernot on Saturday followed by racing at Poowong on Sunday. The 104 entries for riders from around the state in the Under 17, Under 15, Under 13 and Under 11 age groups had perfect weather on Saturday and still great riding conditions on Sunday, Sunday brought a couple of light and short showers which barely wet the road and with the sun peeping through between clouds it was still a great autumn day.

This year the most remote entrant was Chelsea Symons from Mildura racing in the Women Under 17. She made the most of the effort by taking out the stages and after 2 tours leads her division by 3min 38 sec to the nearest rival – Isla Bradbury from the St Kilda Club. These 2 have a commanding break on the next riders Hayley Jenkins from the Brunswick club. In the B grade section, Camtyn Bayley of the Hawthorn club leads.

In the Men 17 A grade division, The field of 24 raced hard on both days. There were plenty of attacks over the hills and on Saturday, local Oliver Mclean made a break with about 3kms to go but was chased down just before the line leaving him in 5th place. On Sunday he was with the leaders but was having gear troubles. With the steep climb from the bass river into Poowong that was not what was wanted and left him again just of the pace in 6th place and 6th place in the series so he has some work to do over the coming events. The Men 17 A grade is led by Jesse Norton (Ballarat/Sebastopol) from Patrick Eddy (Bendigo) and Henry Dietze of Brunswick all on the same time.

In the Men 17 B grade the club had Tom Fitzgerald carrying the club colours. However, Saturday saw Tom take a tumble and lose skin and time. On Sunday he also missed the move on the climb up to Poowong. Cooper McCormick of the Hawthorn club leads the series from Joshua Spagnolo (Brunswick) at 8 sec whilst Kade Killeen (St Kilda) is third at 38 sec.

In the Men 17 A grade the series leader is Alexander Jones (Carnegie Caulfield) with a 1 sec lead to Tarun Cook (Blackburn) and Christopher Douglas (Castlemaine) also at 1 sec in third. In the Men 15 B grade, Peter Makrogiannnidis (Carnegie-Caulfield) leads the series by 56 sec from Kristian Aparo (Carnegie-Caulfield) with Alex Deville( Hawthorn) in 3rd at 4.18 sec. The climb into the finish at Poowong caused some splits and time gains.

In the Women 15 A grade, Jasmine Eddy (Bendigo) is the series leader. She opened up a gap into the Poowong finish and has a 49sec margin to Lucinda Stewart (Carnegie-Caulfield) with Belinda Bailey (Bendigo) in 3rd at 2.34 min down. In the Women 15 B grade, Mia Williams (Carnegie-Caulfield) leads the series.

The Boys 13 division was similarly keenly contested and after 2 events in the series, Eddie Jirovec (Brunswick) leads Max Goold (Carnegie-Caulfield) on the same time whilst Xavier Starling, (Brunswick) is in 3rd just 6 sec down. Sebastian Beitzel (Canberra) was another long distance traveller competing in the Boys 13 group. He sits 6th overall at 3.53 min behind the leader. In The girls 13 division, Charlotte Lang (Hawthorn) leads Lily Johnson (St Kilda) and Hope Harnetty (Bendigo).

Finally, in the junior Boys 11 group, the finish at Poowong was a ripper showing great determination by the riders. Maxx Nuspan ( Brunswick) leads the series by 14 sec from Hayden Vimpani (Blackburn) with Ollie Jirovec (Brunswick) in 3rd at 44 sec adrift.

Thanks to all the helpers over the weekend and thanks to the sponsors who help put the weekend on. Next weekend the Club has racing on Sunday morning at the Industrial estate for a 9am start.

Lindsay