After absolutely glorious weather for the last race, the weekend saw the Mount Gambier Cycling Club members on a new and unfamiliar course, as well as contending with some strong winds to make it more interesting.
It just goes to show there are many things one cannot control in an outdoor event.
A couple of late scratchings (one because the wind blew their bike over and damaged brakes) meant a juggle of the original handicaps before the 13 riders prepared to tackle the Moorak loop.
The course chosen for this week’s race was one the club hopes to be able to use for the upcoming Junior Classic on May 17, while the senior riders are taking part in the 100 Mile Male Classic or 110km Women’s Classic.
Sunday’s race was held over four laps of the course, with enough lumps each lap to sap the energy of many riders, and a cross wind to contend with as well.
First cyclists away were young rider Amelia Milne, along with Mike Bakker riding as encourager and chaperone.
They were given a 13 minute head start over Amali Judd, Spek Peake, Troy Mustey and Tegan Kuhl, followed three minutes later by Phil Stasiw, Chris Neave and Miles Kroon.
The final group contained Ethan McKenny, Rob Mann, Dan Whitehead, Malcolm Tirabassi and Craig Andrae, who were given their starting orders after a further six minutes, some 22 minutes after Amelia and Mike began their loop.
The first lap saw most of the competitors fresh and riding strongly, with Amelia and Mike arriving at the start/finish line just a couple of minutes after the scratch bunch had begun.
Craig was the first to find that his legs were just not ready for the effort of keeping up with his companions, but chose to continue on around the loop to provide some assistance to our young riders.
Amali also found the pace just a little tough after a long ride the day before, dropping off the wheel of Troy and Tegan as the first lap was ending, and was joined by Spek Peake for most of the remaining laps.
As the second lap finished, even more splits were forming in the bunches, with Ethan unfortunately touching the wheel of another rider in his group and crashing down.
Fortunately he was okay, but his bike was not, and he was unable to continue in the race.
This also split the final bunch with Malcolm losing touch with Dan and Rob.
They were still moving very quickly, and by the end of the second lap had caught Phil, Miles and Chris, with only Chris initially able to hold onto the wheel.
As Phil pushed forward to try and catch Tegan and Troy ahead of him, Miles was joined by Craig who worked with him and encouraged him for the final two laps.
By the end of the third lap Dan and Rob had passed all other riders, and the question was which of the two would take line honours the next time they passed the start/finish line.
As the sun came out and the wind died down slightly for the final lap, the scene was set for a quality finish.
Coming out of the final corner, Dan and Rob sprinted for the line, with Dan Whitehead only just edging out Rob Mann to take out both line honours and fastest time.
Malcolm Tirabassi arrived across the line in third place, almost three minutes later, followed by Phil Stasiw who had just managed to pass Tegan Kuhl, then Troy Mustey, Miles Kroon, Chris Neave, Amelia Milne, Mike Bakker, Amali Judd and Spek Peake.
This weekend the Cycling Club is planning on running another race meeting at Mac Park, thanks to the motorcycling club, which is a good place to either check if racing is for you, or to spectate, before the final race in the Summer Series.
