Race Report
By Chris
A club record turn out of 102 racers and a significant number of ladies too made for some good racing across
all 5 grades.
B and E grades were up first with myself and Bruce racing in B grade I can’t really comment too much on how things progressed in the E grade race. However the podium had particularly feminine tone with ladies taking out 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
A, D & E saw attacking races although the only break to survive to the finish was in A grade with Eddy Hollands initiating the deciding break and earning the victory in a three up sprint.
The B grade race was reasonably quick with an average of 39km/h and plenty of attempts at breakaways. Aper our usual tactic I suggested Bruce just sit in and let me cover any moves and if my legs were up to it see if I/we could stay away. I wasn’t too sure how I’d go after a couple of heavy weeks back on the bike after a virus. Bruce and his extra mass were concerned they wouldn’t be going to well either, after his performance last week (3rd in a point score criterium) I figured he must be going alright.
The race was pretty typical, but I can’t help thinking why the rush to close down breakaways some times, and it looked to be coming down to a bunch sprint. With the time approaching the 45 min limit and the pace slacking off somewhat I thought I might be able to sneak off the front. Bruce had found my wheel in anticipation of the 2 to go board and followed my attack, he kept going and I eased up in a vain attempt to cover the bunch. As we came around we then got the board for two laps remaining and Bruce had some 50 metres on the bunch by this stage. I figured he had a slim chance of staying away and so stayed near the front of the bunch with the intent to launch another attack if/when we caught him.
Sure enough we caught him with about 3/4 of a lap to go, Bruce kicked and managed to keep himself near the front of the bunch. I was swamped by the bunch all aiming to position themselves for the sprint and aimed to simply finish safely. Bruce through skill and experience and by using the guts of Christmas ’08 hung in for the sprint and scored himself a 7th place and enough winnings to buy a couple of celebatory cokes.
Nice work mate, here’s hoping we can both get a leave pass for next weekends event at Wangara.
Another well organised event and a thanks to the club volunteers for allowing us to race safely.
Also a congratulations to Mel Davies who received an O.A.M. during the Australia Honours for amongst other things services to the sport of cycling.
For those interested in racing with the Masters, you can find more info here: