Metropolitan and Country Road Championships and Southern Cross Junior Road Open

A clear sunny day greeted racers from all over Sydney and country NSW for Waratah Park’s biggest annual cycling event. A perfect start saw over 160 junior racers compete for the Metropolitan and Country Road Championships on Saturday and the Southern Cross Junior Road Open on Sunday. The racers came from all over Sydney and country NSW. A Special invitation was also extended the Midlands Cycling Club from WA which proved to be fierce competitors who added a new dimension to the weekend’s racing.

Southern Cross proudly presented a team of 16 juniors to compete for the Metropolitan Championships. Our team included 6 debutants (P Trovas, J Trovas, C Goldsmith, Z Zala, L Ellson, and H Mitchell) and we bagged 6 Metropolitan Championship medals against Sydney’s best:

JM11 T Cornish 1^st, C Goldsmith 3^rd;
JM15 Peter Cridland 3^rd;
JW15 H Kelly 3^rd;
JM17 T McManus 3^rd; and
JW17 L Triggs 2^nd.

Coach Jenny’s iron fist ensured the Southern Cross tent was buzzing with the sound trainers and giggles all day. King of the Kids – Frank entertained and challenged NSW's best juniors bike handling skills with an ever-changing obstacle course.

Racing on Sunday saw a repeat of the carnival atmosphere and Metropolitan and country racers battled it out in combined racing. Once again our team performed brilliantly with numerous placings:

Road races

JW13 S Davidson 3^rd;
JM13-A T Cornish 2^nd;
JM13-B C McInnes 2^nd;
JM15- B P Cridland 1^st; and
JW17 L Triggs 3^rd.

Criterion

JM11-A T Cornish 2^nd;
JM11-B C McInnes 2^nd, J Trovas 5^th;
JW13 S Davidson 2^nd;
JM15-A Preen Sprint P Cridland 1^st;
JM15-B E Pignatelli 4^th;
JM17 Tiriam McManus 4^th; and
JW17 L Triggs 2^nd.

Our Club Patron Frank (King of the Kids) raised the stakes by offering $250 to all racers who won each of their three races over the weekend. The incentive generated some fierce competition and three talented juniors eah won an additonal $250 prize money. Congratulations to JW15 Josie Talbot from Macarthur Collegians CC, JM15 Harrison Carter from Bathurst CC and Elissa Wundersitz from Midland CC.

Sunday, 1 November

We would like thank all those that provided sponsorship for our Engadine to Wollongong charity ride. The support has been great. Here is a little note to describe how the day went.

Four from Southern Cross did the ride. As well as myself, Josh and Thomas we also had Will Jefford. We also meet Tony Graf along the way. This year because Thomas did the ride from Engadine Josh and I rode with him.

The weather was great. No breeze and just a comfortable temperature for bike riding. We left around 8.00 am and rode through to Stanwell Tops (Bald Hill) via the Royal National Park arriving around 9.00am. The ride through the Park went very quickly with the bush vista and sounds of the native birds and running water.

We rode in a single file with Josh at the front and I was at the rear. The hills were no problem for Thomas and Will making short work of the few climbs. The sky was so blue and we could see for miles down the coast. Just a perfect day. We stopped to take some photos at the southern end of the Sea Cliff Bridge and then continued on arriving at 10.15am.

Josh and I finished the day by riding home.

All in all a great incident free day that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Gordon Cornish

Southern Cross Cycle Club