SPORT Cycling
MiC: Tom Hawkins Coach: Tom Hawkins, Graeme Swanson, Chris Waugh Team: Thomas Audeau, Ben Crawford, Marcello Ferguson, Seb Gray, Sam Hales, Henry Hiatt, Ethan Pang, George Rookes With the 2020 and 2021 seasons heavily disrupted by Covid-19, a small group of College cyclists was hopeful of a better season in 2022. Sadly, Thomas Audeau, who had high hopes for success in the U20 category, was badly injured in a rain-affected Around Brunner race in May. This meant that the first half of his season was focused on recovering from that injury. Three additions to the team – Sam Hales (Year 11), Seb Gray and Marcello Ferguson (both Year 9) – brought a positive energy to proceedings at the front end of the season, and it was great of Thomas to come along to Wednesday racing anyway, to cheer the new boys on. All riders managed to get into competitive grades for Wednesday evening racing, and Ben
Crawford did particularly well as an U16 rider to be placed straight into A Grade. This was a good sign of things to come. The focus for Term 2 was building towards the South Island Road Championships in July in Christchurch. We were looking at fielding a strong U16 team (Ben Crawford, Henry Hiatt, Sam Hales) and a two-up U14 team of Seb Gray and Marcello Ferguson, as well as individual riders in the U20 category (including Thomas Audeau, whose recovery had been quite impressive). In cold and blustery conditions at Ruapuna Raceway, the individual riders gave everything in their time trials. Ben Crawford came agonisingly close to claiming gold in the U16 category, missing out by six-hundredths of a second to a rider from Christchurch Boys’ High School. As predicted, worse weather hit at lunchtime and, in atrocious conditions, a composite “U20” team of George Rookes, Thomas Audeau, Ben Crawford, and Henry Hiatt stuck it out to bring home bronze.
The following day was bitterly cold, but at least the horizontal rain had departed, which meant a safer riding surface for the individual road races. Ben Crawford rode a tactically perfect race, not once looking off the pace or allowing other riders to get off the front. He won the final sprint comfortably, just under half a second ahead of the second-placed rider. Thomas Audeau gave his all in the U20 race, but his recovery from injury had left his fitness a bit below where it should have been. He still gained a creditable top-10 finish. The second half of the season featured more Wednesday night success in the scratch races, with several top-three finishes, including a 1st for Sam Hales in his debut season. Ben’s focus was now on the Southern Tour in Winter Tournament Week, held as usual in Blenheim. A good all-round performance resulted in a 2nd place in the U16 general classification, 2nd in the sprint category and 3rd in the king of the mountains category. This capped off a successful season for Ben, who can
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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