Battle around the Barwite Loop
By Talia, Janine and Jarrod Appleton
Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club road racers had perfect conditions last Thursday for the 22km handicap race which started at the BP Roadhouse. The race course went around the “Barwite Loop” and finished with an uphill sprint on Mt Battery Road outside the show grounds. This circuit includes the short but steep climb over the hill on Old Tolmie Rd which is affectionately know by local riders as the Coombesberg. It was guaranteed to break up the field and have a big influence on the eventual outcome of the race.
Ben Grundy was the lone Limit rider making the best of his five-minute start over the chasing group of Ruby Dobson, Rachael Grundy, Bella Green, Dave Bock and Talia Appleton.
They were followed by Steve Curnow, John Eisner, Dave Jagger and Craig Wilson.
Chasing them was Janine Appleton, Tim Hall and Jason Parker. Next off in the ‘Block group was Cam Lachal, John Lazarov and Rob Skinner.
Bringing up the rear of the field was a large Scratch group consisting of Steve Duke, Damian Grundy, Bruce Halket, Tom MacMunn, Dave Moore and Lewis Dowie who was still keen to race only four days after his great result at the Mansfield Subaru Tour.
Scratch had a disastrous start! Lewis dropped his chain which lead to confusion amongst the rest of the group as to the merits of waiting for him or heading down the road. Bruce and Steve waited to help pace him back to Damian, Dave and Tom. Steve paid dearly for his generosity. Lewis, no doubt determined to make amends for holding the group up, powered down the road. Bruce and Steve tucked into his slipstream and managed to hold the wheel. However, this huge effort caught up with Steve at the next rise in the road and he was dropped by the group leaving him to ride as lantern rouge for the rest of the race.
The race plan of attacking on the hill paid off for Ruby and Talia, leaving Bella, Rachael and Bocky in their tracks. They teamed up brilliantly and backed themselves for the remaining 14km, staying clear of the chasing group of Tim Hall, Dave Jagger, Steve Curnow and Janine Appleton.
Talia put her last 100% effort into the sprint after the Mt Battery corner, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Ruby, who dashed past to take the win in a time of 44.23 (corrected to 39.53). Talia a very comfortable second ahead of Janine in third to fill the podium with women.
For the first time ever, the MMBCC presented the First Unplaced Male to Dave Jagger.
Tom MacMunn won Fastest Time in 31.21.
Thanks to all the volunteers and Commissaires for assisting on the night.
Next week is the last road race of the summer, on our ‘traditional’ course on Whitfield Road out to Sawpit Gully Road and back.
Here are the results and many thanks to Antonio Coplandia for the pics.
Some snippets on the Tour...
Our website averages about 300 page views per month for most of the year. Not surprisingly, this goes up a lot in the lead-up to our Tour.
During March 2018 we had 4,980 page views, from 1,780 unique visitors, which we thought was really good.
But this March we’ve had 6,366 page views from 3,574 unique visitors!
That’s double the number of unique visitors from last year! So we’re definitely attracting more interest in the Tour; and we really hope this translates to more value for our sponsors.
Speaking of sponsors, more thanks again to Martins Garage, All Terrain Cycles, Torq Nutrition, Lezyne (and Cannondale), Krush and the Delatite Hotel. Please support those that support us (below is a page from the Tech Guide which appeared as both the inside front cover and the back cover).
In case you hadn’t seen them, here are the Welcome pages from the Technical Guide that each entrant received.
Finally, here are a few more pics from the Mansfield Subaru Tour. There are heaps more from Ernesto on the Cycling Victoria facebook page.
MTBA Nationals
Good luck next weekend to a slew of MMBCC members who’ll be competing at Bright at the Australian Mountain Bike Championships. Good luck. Ride well.
Jersey for sale
Bruce ordered a Tour Souvenir Jersey in the wrong size. He should have ordered a Medium Club Cut but he ordered a Medium Race Cut by mistake. It’s basically a Small.
Price negotiable. Drop him a line…
Also, if anyone else wants one of these, we’re considering opening up for another kit order. Let Bruce know if you’re interested.
