Cyclists gathered at the corner of Sherwin and Attamurra roads for the second race in the Mount Gambier Cycling Club’s Summer series.
The race was a 25km handicap on the familiar flat farmland course along Attamurra Road.
Four junior riders, some who were more familiar with riding on the velodrome than on the road, greeted the commissaire, were assigned their chaperones, and began a 10km out and back course in one minute intervals.
First rider away was Glenn Tye, followed by Molly Opperman, then Sean Tye and finally Charlie Jenkin.
With their chaperones helping the riders with the finer points of road riding, riders learnt the appropriate ways to swap turns and ride in a bunch.
Molly arrived at the finishing line in first place, with Charlie out-sprinting Sean for second place and Glenn finishing in fourth place.
Following the juniors, the 20 riders competing in the senior race received their handicaps and final instructions from the Commissaire before each group began their race.
First riders away were Jason Buckland, Dianne Major and Graham O’Gorman, followed five minutes later by Ainsley Curtis, Dave Delaland, Michael Dethmore and Jen Buckland.
A further four minutes elapsed before David Tye and Bruce McLaughlin were allowed to begin their chase, followed a further two minutes later by John Cranwell, Spek Peake, and Phil Stasiw.
The largest group was next to leave, four minutes later, which consisted of Colin Weatherill, Patrick Langsmith, Gerard Coote, John de Pree and Matthew Opperman, followed three minutes later by Jami Buckley, Nick Kidman and Niel van Niekerk (a total of 18 minutes handicap to the first group).
While the wind was relatively calm, the riders enjoyed a tailwind out to the turnaround marker. The wind picked up as the riders made the turn back toward the finish line.
Each of the groups were working well together to the turnaround, but the headwind on the return leg made it difficult for those feeling the pinch to hang onto their grouping and they slowly fell away from their bunch.
The first group away managed to hold on to their lead until the final 2km, when they were overtaken by the group containing Jen, Dethmore, Curtis and Delaland.
They were never headed and contested the sprint, with Delaland sprinting to the line ahead of Jen Buckland and Dethmore.
Curtis and Jason Buckland crossed the line ahead of Stasiw, Peake, then O’Gorman, Major, Cranwell and McLaughlin.
Langsmith won the sprint from his group, followed by Opperman, Weatherill and Gerard, then Buckley (who claimed the fastest racing time), Tye, van Niekerk, de Pree and Kidman.
The next race in the Summer Series is a 30km handicap race on Caves Road with sign on at the clubrooms at the Blue Lake Sports Park.
