Senior Dirt Crits, Monday 7 November
Fifteen seniors, and one ring in Junior, competed at Dirt Crits in changing weather conditions.
The handicapper and master course setter, Damian, led off the field on his way to completing 4 laps (it seemed like something fishy was up right from the get go).
Ben Grundy kindly kept the race starter under cover with his umbrella as the rain started to fall.
The rest of the field set off to completed between 2 and 4 laps.
The starter was feeling guilty for making Elise Empey and James Griffin wait for so long, as some of the riders had come through after completing their first lap, so set them off early - big mistake!
The majority of riders were heading in a clockwise direction over the course, except for a white shirted rider who was riding clockwise, but on another course!
Dan Friday (Jnr) led the field home in a time of 26.15. Just over a minute later Elise Empey sprinted to the line in 2nd (27.19) and James Griffin took out 3rd place in 27.23 - told you it was a mistake to send those two off early! Here are the results.
Everyone seemed pretty happy with the course and a few were caught out by the short uphill pinch.
We look forward to seeing everyone next Monday night 5:45pm registration for a 6:00pm start - newcomers are welcome.
Great to see so many Juniors at 4:30 too - 41 this week! Look out for updates as with so many kids we might need to look at age group racing. More soon...
Handicap Road Race, Thursday 3 November.
Another large field of cyclists fronted up last Thursday for the new and challenging Howes Creek Variation course. Starting at the Lords Ground, nine groups set off on the 25km handicapped course, turning at the end of McMillan Point Drive and finishing in a tough hillclimb up O’Hanlons Rd.
Rob Skinner, Dave Moore, Tim Ross, Anthony Plummer and Peter Reaburn dug in hard from the start and caught the larger group of Daniel Hall, Allan Gerrans, Will MacDonald, Mel Green, Tim Hall and Jodie Batchelor just before Burnt Creek who in turn had just caught the team of Janine Appleton, John Eisner, Gus Muscara and Ian Conrick. At the pointy end Josh Hopwood, riding alone with a 50 second gap, caught Bruce Halket, Mauro Brega, Darren Bakker and Dan Purcell just neat the turnaround who in turn were chasing Tom MacMunn, Luke Olver, Aaron Peterson and Jarrod Appleton.
Like last week, Anthony and Tim did a heap of strong work helping to keep the big bunch clear of the pursuants. Similarly, Bruce and Jock worked hard to see Dan fresh to jump on to the inevitable Hopwood juggernaut.
The rolling hills saw half the field blow up, drop off or suffer mechanicals and at the final bend there was only Daniel, Rob, Peter, Janine, Allan and John left to contest Halket’s cruel final 400 metres, or so they thought. With a big yell of “GO”, Tom encouraged Luke to start his attack and with a solid effort he surged past everyone to take out a great win over Daniel by “about half a tyre”. Just behind, Josh was also working up the last hill with Dan hot on his wheel looking decidedly under pressure. In a classic hill finish they overtook the rest of the bunch to place third and fourth. Rob, Peter and Janine hung on for the next spots with Jarrod doing well to work up to eighth place. Results here.
Thanks again to our volunteers and the residents of Howes Creek who drove with consideration. A big gathering at the Delatite Hotel followed for presentations and dissection of the race.