The Empire Strikes Back

Main Event sponsored by TIME

Multiple British Time Trail Champion and Olympian Stuart Dangerfield in his first race for a year has blitzed a super quality field to take out the inaugural Anthony Spurgeon (Snr) Memorial race.  Dangerfield rode away from a six man break away on the final lap of the race to win by over a hundred metres.  Whilst it has been a long time since Stuart turned a pedal in anger in a race, he has been a common sight tearing the legs off his fellow club members on training rides over the past few months.

The start of the race brought out some of the biggest names in Sydney and Australian cycling to vie for the Time frame up for grabs and do their bit to support the Leukemia foundation.  Big hitters lining up included Pro Tour rider CJ Sutton (Cofidis), Paul Rowney, Peter Fitzpatrick, Nash Kent, Richard Lang and of course the son of Anthony Spurgeon “Spurge” the king of Heffron.  On a humid overcast day, it did not take long for the pace to pick up and a break of about eight riders move off the front.  This would turn out to be the winning move and a group of made up of Stuart Dangerfield, David Early, CJ Sutton, Peter Fitzparick, Nash Kent, Brad Mills, Luis Trubea and Richard Lang established a sizeable gap over the remainder of the field. 

The chasers gave it a go but it was clear that the group was not to be caught and the remainder of the field slowly gave up until the breakaway was being chased by two lonely riders.  A few impromptu primes were offered to spice up the race and it had the desired effect as the Nash Kent, CJ Sutton, Brad Mills and Richard Lang fought it out for a bit of drinking money.  With two laps to go it was all together it looked like it was going to be a bunch sprint. By this time Nash Kent had dropped out and the money was on CJ Sutton or Richard Lang to win it in the dash. 

Both Early or Dangerfield sensed that their best chances were not in a bunch sprint and on the last lap Dangerfield relied on his years of time trialing experience to push into the wind on the back straight and go for it.  A moments hesitation ensued and by then Dangerfield had established a gap that he was able to hold all the way to the line with enough time to remind the crowd who the winner was.  In the dash for second, CJ Sutton showed the form that has seen him snapped up by the new US powerhouse team Slipstream-Chipolte.  Richard Lang took third followed by Brad Mills and Peter Fitzpatrick.

Results

1st     Stuart Dangerfield
2nd   Chris Sutton
3rd    Richard Lang
4th     Brad Mills
5th     Peter Fitzpatrick
6th     Luis Trueba

 
1st Prime donated by Albion Cycles $100
Won by Nash Kent
 
2nd Prime donated by Mr Alan Jarvis $50
Won by Richard Lang
 
3rd Prime donated by Dominic Caravello $50
Won by Brad Mills

Other Reports

Graded Race

Veterans Race

Return to the Anthony Spurgeon (Snr) Memorial Race Page

For more images of the Anthony Spurgeon (Snr) Memorial Race 2007 go to Cycling Images Online

Pro tour rider CJ Sutton

Anthony Challinor never stopped chasing

The winning break extends their lead

CJ Sutton takes second place over Richard Lang

Stuart Dangerfield with an impressive winners trophy and a new Time frame for his efforts