F&A Tonelli Handicap
F & A TONELLI HANDICAP (Frank Tonelli)
Frank Tonelli was one of the stalwarts of the club in its formative years. He contributed time, money and expertise as the club struggled to get going and together with Barry Cole, Henry Beaverstock and others, is owed a tremendous debt of gratitude. Frank was one of the real characters and stayed in F grade for years, leading out every sprint and coming in 3rd or 4th in many races.
The 2011 edition
Our many thanks to Race Director Linda Stals and her willing assistants.
Considerable relief was shown at the starting line at finding out that the race would only do two laps of Lake George, instead of the feared three laps. The ride back from Shingle Hill to the intersection with the Old Federal Highway took its usual toll with many of the grades splitting up, the notable exception being D grade. Mike Spoljaric and Mayumi Delbridge completed the first lap of Lake George well ahead of all of the other riders. Next came Pauline Thorn and Jing Huang. G grade was working hard to stay ahead of the other riders. Shortly afterwards, Ray Hooper and Bob Kent made the turn and it was starting to look like all of the grades would reach the turn around point in the same order they started. That was until Ian Downing showed up. It was interesting to see that D grade was still largely riding together as a bunch. And well done to Kim Malcolm for being able to hop onto the back of D grade, at least for a while. Mike Spoljaric and Mayumi Delbridge were able to stay ahead of the other riders, crossing the finish line in first and second position, a minute 40 seconds ahead of the next rider. Ian Downing came across the line in third place with a time of 01:06:36, the fastest time. Well done Mike, Mayumi and Ian. G grade had a successful race, filling four of the top 10 positions. D grade's strategy of working as a bunch payed off as they had 9 riders in the top 12 positions.
The race director would like to thank the marshals; Ally Roche, Don Desmet, Michael Carr, Richard Bourne, Barbara Bayliss, Michael Fawke, Chris Short and Henry Beaverstock. Their support ensured the race ran smoothly.