Even though it was a long weekend, racing continued for the Mount Gambier Cycling Club, with a 25km handicap race along the familiar Caves Road course.
The day starteed gloriously, with not a breath of wind and beautiful sunshine greeting the 21 senior and two Under 13 riders who signed on for the start of their respective races.
With two of the usual Under 13 riders unavailable this weekend the junior race became a family tussle for supremacy as younger brother Glenn Tye was granted a two-and-a-half-minute head-start over his older brother Sean.
Both lads rode strongly for their 10km race and it was not until the final kilometre Sean was able to catch and overtake his brother.
Sean Tye continued riding strongly through the finish line to record a time of 25 minutes 18 seconds, 13 seconds ahead of Glenn.
The 21 riders for the senior race were organised into five groups by the handicapper, with a couple of riders backing up after a South West Series race the day before and others coming back from a break in racing.
The first group to leave included Damian Buckley, Chris Hunt, Dianne Major, Louise Abraham and Jason Buckland.
They were closely followed, 90 seconds later, by the next group containing Jen Buckland,
Rick Heaver, Don Sforcina and Ainsley Curtis.
The middle group containing Elmer Buckland, John De Pree, Mick Childs and Troy Mustey waited a further two minutes before they started chase, while there was a five-minute gap before Jami Buckley, Patrick Langsmith, Harry Opperman, Phil Stasiw, Nathan Thomas and John Cranwell were able to join in the hunt.
Finally, some 11 and a half minutes behind the initial group, Nick Kidman and Niel van Niekerk began their chase for the leaders.
The leading group was caught by the closest following group within 9km of the start, but were able to work together until the turnaround point at the 12.5km mark.
All other groups continued to draw closer to the riders ahead of them, working steadily together to keep the pace high.
With approximately 10km to go a select group of Jen Buckland, Heaver, Sforcina and Curtis had broken clear of the rest of the group in the hope of being able to stay away to the finish line.
Mustey, De Pree, Elmer Buckland and Childs held their pace in the middle, slowly gaining on the riders ahead.
Kidman and van Niekerk caught and passed the group riding ahead of them, with Buckley, Harry Opperman and Thomas joining in the chase to the front.
As the leading group crested the rise before the finish line, they held an approximately 30-second advantage over the swift finishing riders behind.
As they charged for the line, it was Heaver who crossed the finish first (47:18), closely followed by Sforcina, Hunt, Buckley, Curtis and Jen Buckland.
They managed to hold off the fast-finishing Elmer Buckland, De Pree and Childs, who in turn finished just ahead of Kidman who recorded a race time of 36:09 – the fastest of the day.
He was followed by van Niekerk, Opperman, Buckley, Thomas, Stasiw, Cranwell, Mustey, Jason Buckland, Langsmith, Abraham and Major.
The riders returned to the clubrooms following the race to enjoy fellowship and morning tea, with a small memento presentation congratulating life members Barbara and Alan Dowdell on their 70th wedding anniversary.
The first race of the 2021 South West Series also took place on Saturday March 12, the 60km Greg Gleeson Memorial Handicap hosted by Warrnambool Cycling Club.
Kidman, Harry Opperman, Matthew Opperman, Craig Andre and Spek Peake took part in this race with Nick Kidman riding from the last group to finish in third place.
Next weekend, the riders will take on the Wind Farm course from Tantanoola along Canunda Frontage Road towards Lake Bonney before the race of the series returns to Caves Road.
