Sydney Road Championships Parramatta Park 8 June 2002

Seven of the guys raced including, myself (John Buckton), Chris White, Neil Morris, Steve Bligh, Aaron Castles, & Matthew Tabone.  The girls?  Well they must still be recovering from the Tour de Femme. 

The Sydney Road Championships were held at Parramatta Park on Saturday 8 June 2002.  The Vet 3/4 race was well represented with myself, Steve Bligh, Neil Morris and Chris White.  We were very disappointed with the Golden Boy's efforts.  Yes Chris White only managed a Silver medal this time.  The team of 4 worked well together and I flew the RBCC flag early in the race with a breakaway for a lap before being  eventually swallowed up by the peleton which was moving along fairly swiftly at a 40kph average speed over the 40 kilometre distance.  As I went around the circuit early in the race I thought, " What is all the fuss about this little hill".  I have to tell you though, about the 12th time up it, I thought it was the Pyrénées.  A big thank you to Neil Morris who pulled me up it on that troublesome 12 accent as the legs failed and I started to lose touch with the bunch.  Neil got me back on.  Thanks for that Neil.  Sorry to Chris and Steve as I also had trouble with that damn hill on the 14th accent and had nothing for the final sprint after climbing it for the last time. Neil was near me so I think that he was a little shattered as well.  Acknowledgement has to go to Steve Bligh, who had a huge hit out in the final couple of hundred metres of the race with our Elite Jersey wearing veteran right on his wheel.  It was this sensational lead-out by Steve that got Chris flying to the line.  Unfortunately a couple of the sprinters managed to time it so as to just pip him on the line.  The results saw Chris third across the line but second Masters 4 home.  In fact the old blokes gave us young blokes a bit of a hiding with 4 of the first 5 places going to Masters 4 riders.

Mark Robertson, our Club Captain, gave his all in the Masters 1/2 race.  There were 4 riders away and Mark and another couple of riders worked hard to get them back with 2 laps to go.  Alas, like me, the hill took its toll on Mark as well and he had no legs to contest the sprint  finishing out of the placings.  Chris Jenkins had a very hard time keeping with the phenomenal pace of the U 19 race.  Chris is a little out of form having lost a lot of training time to his recent nagging leg problems.  Thankfully though those problems are solved and he will soon be back into top form.

Aaron Castles and a very unintimidated Matthew Tabone raced the Elite Mens.  You have to take your hat off to Matthew who was not going to concern himself that he had lined up against Peter Milostic, Eddie Sallas, Rod Magee and ex junior world champion Sean Hopkins to name but a few.  Unfortunately the fast pace and the grind up the infamous hill took its toll on Matthew early in the race when he pulled the ligaments in his knee.  Aaron went on to finish the race but unfortunately out of the placings.