2020 “Renshaw Pedal Project" Rockley Club:
The Feature Handicap event of the Bathurst Cycling Club Calendar “The Renshaw’s Pedal Project” 2020 Rockley Cup was held on the weekend (29/11/20) with Champion Orange Junior Xavier Bland and Bathurst’s Nic Barrett dominating the prestige event off the 18minute handicap mark.
Riding off 30min Rod Esdaile looked a great chance of winning coming into the final stages of the local classic trophy race; Rod had caught and passed Nev Krahe off 35min after he broke clear of co markers Kevin Bell, Greg Vinell and Fran Walker early in the race, and was riding strongly to the finish on Quarry Hill.
However Barrett, Bland, Crump and Cooke were pushing the 18min bunch to breaking point with strong riders Straney Roebuck Thorn and the Hansons all under pressure as they closed in on the leaders.
Back in the field the Nic North and Will Lesh were riding strongly in the 10min bunch which also included Stuey Renshaw Dubbo’s Graham Peadon and top female rider Hollee Simons and were making ground on the 16minute group (Barbetti, Reece, Corr, Shaw, James and Drew Tuckwell) which was working smooth.
Giving away 35minutes start, the scratch markers (Ryan, Tuckwell and Simon Hickey) started very hard hoping to catch sight of the 9minute Choppingblock group of Jack Cannon and Ian Grant.
But on the final climb it was clear the race was between Barrett and Bland, with the young Orange rider surging to take victory, Barrett however also going on the trophy as the first Bathurst Rider. Rod Esdaile hung on for 3rd from the very fast finishing Nic North who broke the 2hour barrier for the tough course, Jack Cannon also overtaking many riders to finish 5th in the handicap event.
Young Orange cyclist Josiah Cooke surprised some of the more experienced rider finishing 6th infront of the two scratchmarkers Luke Tuckwell and Jeremy Ryan who put in super performances to make the top 10.
Luke Barbetti and Will Lesh also impessive to make the top 10 from tough handicap marks.
Hollee Simon continued her great recent form to win the First Female Trophy she defeat Fran Walker who was the early leader of the event.
Only three riders broke 2hours for race, fastest time going to promising young cyclist Luke Tuckwell with an impressive 1h 52m 00s following by Jeremy Ryan and Nic North. Fourth Fastest was Jack Cannon with Will Lesh rounding out the top 5 for fastest time in the 2020 race.
In 2011 a third climb of Rockley Mount was added to the Rockley Cup, to increase participation a support event was added in 2016 which climbed Rockley Mount twice. The race was christened "The Little Rock" by Marian Renshaw and was raced for the 5th time on the weekend (29/11/20).
Expanding that concept a little further in 2020 it was decided to add a 3rd race on the day called the Pebble Cup which climbs the dreaded Rockley Mount one time.
Three times Rockley Cup winner Mark Windsor was the victory of the Renshaw Pedal Project Little Rock in 2020 recording a course record of 1hr 21 02. Last year’s winner David Hyland was second in front of Gary Theiss and Peter Hickey with 2 times winner Rosemary Hastings 5th.
The inaugural Pebble Cup going to Joanne Renshaw with Tracey Robinson 2nd & Robyn Partridge 3rd.
RESULTS - 2020 Renshaw Pedal Project Rockley Cup
1 Xavier Bland Orange (18mins), 2 Nic Barrett (1st Bathurst Rider) (18m), 3Rod Esdaile (30m) 4Nic North (10min), 5Jack Cannon (9min), 6Josiah Cooke Orange (18mins), 7Luke Tuckwell (Scr) 8Jeremy Ryan (Scr) 9 Luke Barbetti (16min) 10 Will Lesh (10min). Then- Patty Crump, Tony Shaw, Peter Wilson, Dave Reece, Stuart Renshaw, Drew Tuckwell, Nicholas Corr, Hollee Simons, Nev Krahe, Greg Vinall, Fran Walker
First Female – 1Hollee Simons (2hr 11m 07s) 2Fran Walker
Fastest Time – 1Luke Tuckwell (1hr 52m 00s) 2 Jeremy Ryan 3Nic North 4Jack Cannon 5Will Lesh
RESULTS - 2020 Renshaw Pedal Project Little Rock Trophy: 1Mark Windsor (scr), 2David Hyland (25min) 3Gary Theiss (25min), 4Peter Hickey (33mins), 5Rosemary Hastings (33mins) - Fastest Time Mark Windsor (1:21:02)
RESULTS – 2020 Renshaw Pedal Project Pebble Cup: 1 Joanne Renshaw 2Robyn Partridge 3Tracey Robinson