The first edition of Thunda in Tanunda has been run and won, with some incredible racing across a windy day.
The racing kicked off in the morning with the Junior races with Jett Kozak taking out the Junior D grade and Joel Gooley winning the Junior C. Seanna Liemar was the first woman across the line in C grade. The kids did an amazing job battling a huge headwind down the main straight, which really knocked them around. Following that, the Junior A and B grades set off, with bigger fields, and faster racing. In the B grade, Luca Schmidtke took the win, and Monika Seibert was the first woman. In the Junior A grade, Oliver Ward and Billy Van Hout crossed the line in 1st and 2nd, with a significant gap to the fast-closing William Brown, whose sprint took 3rd place off Alec Guglielmucci by a photo finish on the line.
The Senior E grade brought out some Tanunda locals, and it was fantastic to see some people back racing bikes for the first time in over a decade. Jye Petz established a gap in the last lap, before the bunch was brought home by 2nd place, and 1st woman, Isabella Dashorst, only 4 seconds back. Notably, finishers included 4 people in the 65-75 age bracket, proving that age is just a number!
The big guns started to come out in the D Grade racing, although an honourable mention has to go to Thien Vu, who raced his first D-grade race, only minutes after finishing 7th in the E-grade race. Thien was the winner of one of the E-grade primes, so he wasn't just sitting in the bunch, either. Matthew Schmidtke took out a popular win for South Coast Cycling Club, getting a jump out of the last corner and keeping a narrow gap to the finish line. Ally Sinclair finished first from the women, finishing inside the top 10 on the day.
Before the higher grades got to run, the Little Critters had their chance to shine, and the four kids thrilled the crowd as they fought against challenging winds around the Critters Course.
The wind was perhaps the strongest across the day during the C-grade race, and the number of riders dropped off the back and pulled off the course is testament to the challenging conditions. Jacob Casey led home the remainder of the peloton but a special mention has to go to Billy Van Hout, who came 2nd in Senior C grade after racing in Junior A grade earlier in the day. Billy also took home the second Prime Sprint prize, thanks to Ciovita Australia.
Finally, we got to the elite races, with the Elite Women Sponsored by TMK Engineering raced in the B-Grade men's field. The strong winds meant that a breakaway was always likely to win the day, but we were all surprised when a break of only two riders got a substantial gap after the first Prime. Tomoyuki Kanamori jumped off the front of the pack to take the Prime, then gave every indication that he was going to go on with it. One or two riders bridged across, but only Daniel van der Laan was able to make it stick, and the two of them rolled turns for lap after lap, whilst the main field played cat and mouse.
At one point, all 6 women were dropped off the back of the main field, but some strong turns and consistent riding meant that by the second prime, the chase group was back in the peloton. The attritional race kept seeing riders dropped off the back of the peloton and only 16 of the 29 starters finished on the same lap as the winners. Meanwhile, Daniel and Tomo were steadily powering away off the front, consistently rolling 2-minute laps. With 5 minutes to go, it was clear that the break would take the day, but the two of them didn't let up, not leaving anything to chance. Van der Laan had been looking like every pedal stroke was about to be his last, but surprised Kanamori with a long sprint out of the last corner to take the win.
Back in the pack, only olympian Sophie Edwards had been able to stick with the men, and she finished a highly respectable 11th overall to take out the Elite Women's trophy. Speaking to Sophie after the race, she said that this race reminded her of racing kermesses in Europe, where the tough courses and the physicality of the racers was similar to today.
The last race on the schedule was the Elite Men, Sponsored by Century21 Barossa, and 21 riders lined up at the start. With the tough conditions and technical corners, a breakway was likely to go, and it was no surprise to see some of the names who eventually made it up the road. Nick Aitken was one of the perennial breakaway artists, powering the break to a substantial lead, but he was joined by Jush Cranage, who won the first Prime, Tristan Saunders and Mikey Bryant, and the four of them rolled consistent turns while the bunch sat up. Initially, the Guestpix team took up the chase, but when Darryl Margrate got a flat, the gas seemed to come out of the chase. Various teams took it up from time to time, and finally, as the front group began to splinter and slow, the bunch picked up a sense of urgency. However, the urgency came too late, and it wasn't until the last two laps that there seemed to be any chance of it coming back together.
But the break had timed its efforts well, and in the last lap, it became clear that the winner would come from the remaining group of 3, after Cranage had slipped back to be reabsorbed into the Peloton. Despite a valliant effort by Nick Aitkin to drop his companians, and a convincing sprint by Mikey Bryant, the winner, by a convincing bike length, was Tristan Saunders, one of Australia's top performing domestic road racers.
The race was proudly supported by Century21 Barossa, and CJ Setlhong rang the bell, waved the flag, and presented the winner with the medals and trophy.
TMK Engineering was represented by Adam Hughes, who presented Sophie Edwards with her trophy.
The Prime prizes were all provided by Ciovita Australia, who also provided the cowbells which gave the race a fantastic atmosphere along the finishing straight.
A copy of the full results is here: https://static-austse.devworx.net.au/media/PortAdelaideCyclingClub/Results/OnlineFinalResults.pdf
Feedback for the event is welcomed, along with suggestions for next year. Please fill out the feedback form here: https://forms.gle/QxpuhSPWEt8K2ynK6