HANDS TAKES CHAMPIONSHIP
Tinwald Cycling Club championship titles went on the line on Sunday with the holding of the Ashburton Club and MSA, Club Championship, 64km mass start event around the Wakanui Beach block.
With early pressure being applied the race soon spilt up. The front group consisting of 7 riders settled into their work with the all the main championship contenders present.
It was Steve Hands, who's performances in previous weeks had made him odds on favourite that lived up to his billing with a blistering final sprint to see off all challengers and lift the Club championship title for 2014. Hands rode the course in 96.02.
Timaru rider, Craig Domigan rode strongly to claim the second place spoils and in doing so also lifted the veteran 1 title.
Nigel Douglas produced his best ride of the season to take third place.
Nathan Tew rode into fourth and took out under 23 honours. Tony Ward was right on his tail to lift the veteran 2 ribbon.
The chasing bunch contained two of the favoured women. The result was decided in a sprint finish with Kristine Marriott keeping out the fast finishing Rachel Thow to lift the women's championship title.
Michelle Davidson secured third place and took veteran 2 honours.
Paul Macfie finished the year off with a solid ride to take the veteran 3 title with the evergreen Dave Shurrock securing the veteran 4 championship ribbon.
Janis Crawford had to pull out all the stops in a sprint finish to claim the women's veteran 3 title.
Gene Shurrock produced the ride of the day to secure sealed handicap honours from Ross Avis and John Harcourt.
The juniors also raced for with Club titles with the under 17's competing over 32km and the under 15's over 16km.
Ben Sutton finished his days in the junior ranks with top shelf ride to secure the under 17 title from the ever improving James Skinner in second with Ryan Jackson securing the final podium position.
A solid field of under 15's went to the start line. Bailey O'Donnell showed his class with a solo ride to victory to claim the championship ribbon.
His younger brother Abe O'Donnell who will be a force to be reckoned with in coming years stormed into second place with Oliver Davidson continuing his good form taking the third place spoils.
Caitlin Titheridge continued her dominance in the girls under 15 grade to step on top of the podium.
Bella Roulston and Connie Davidson had a ding dong battle with Bella getting to the line first to claim second place with Connie in third.
Maddy Clark dug deep to secured the sealed handicap honours from Connie and Bella.
Division 2 saw Janette Hooper take the win from Andy Skinner and Rachel Russell.