There was movement at the Botanical Park for the word had passed around that the colt from Buttercup Lane was back in town. He had joined the Melbourne A-Grade riders and worth 300 watts. So all the Cracks had gathered to the fray.
With Dan ‘The Colt’ Purcell lining up to show the club how it’s done in the big smoke, the best of the club wanted to be in the mix for the Sawpit Gully Showdown. Josh ‘Legs and Lungs’ Hopwood fresh from last weekends Mansfield Tour even traded in his marshalling duties to be a part of the now legendary Colt lead-out train and record breaking ride.
Again near perfect race conditions met the gathering field on Thursday with another still magic autumn evening. The Sawpit Gully Showdown kicked off with welcoming back Tony Morris to join David ‘Bockie’ Bock with 15.30m head start. Followed by Dave Jagger and Craig ‘The Beacon’ Wilson with a 3min handicap. John Findlay and Ian Conrick had a 1.30min gap to fill before Steve Curnow and Janine ‘She’s Apples’ Appleton headed out with another 3.00min margin to chase. Rob Skinner and Mike Pearce had agreed to work together in the handicap with the Club Crack Sprinters Darren ‘Cannon Ball’ Bakker, Tim Ross and Steve ‘The Cobbler’ Duke rolling out next.
Second last off was the famous Wolf Pack of Dave ‘Eats Gravel’ Moore, Steve ‘Everyone knows Brownie’ Brown, Chris ‘I just had Baby’ Miller and club legend Bruce ‘The Don’ Halket. While the Wolf Pack waited and sniffed the air with their 14.30min deficit they queried The Don’s selection of steel stead for the ride which mirrored a German tank in that it was a 1980’s Pinnarello frame which he kept in the back paddock for years. “Geez mate, I hope that thing can ride ok”. “She’ll be right” said The Don, “It’s of Italian bloodlines and back in the 90’s I upgraded her from a 5 speed to a 7 speed!”. Okey Dokes said the Wolf Pack with raised eyebrows and a nod but it’s gunna take a lot to hold off the Scratch team tonight. Last off was the line was champion-bred Josh ‘Legs and Lungs’ Hopwood and the big show in town of Dan ‘The Colt’ Purcell. Rumour had it that The Colt was getting married on the weekend and was using the race as part of his final weight shred for the wedding suit.
Brownie lead out the Wolf Pack with his usual selfless huge initial turn and taking on the first long hill. This set up a cracking pace as we took on the rolling climbs north on Mansfield- Whitfield Rd. I don’t think we were far past Barwite Rd before the Scratch crew were upon us. The Colt and Hopwood were grinding at a phenomenal speed as the Wolf Pack joined and tried to hang on. At this point ‘The Don’ Halket was questioning his selection of the Italian stead as he was running out of gears at such a high pace. Brownie was in great form but had burnt a few too many matches early on. Moore was holding his own putting in big turns on the front and before we knew it, we were at the turnaround point near Sawpit Gully. Thanks as always to the safety marshals making the local traffic aware of our presence.
The mob had still managed to stay away out front as the Scratch crew took the speed up another notch on the descent from the turnaround point. Looking at the speedo we were well into the mid to high 40s with Hopwood and The Colt Purcell keeping the speed, instructions and wattage high. We had sighted the mob on the flats and were at full gallop to bridge the gap sharing time on the front to our lungs capacity. Maintaining the high pace we noted that much of the mid handicap group had formed into a larger mob of 8-10 rides including Bakker, Duke, Ross, Skinner and Pearce. With momentum on our side the Scratch crew past them at full whack with only a few managing to jump on the freight train.
As the rolling hills back to town returned to view we knew that there was still 3-6 race horses up the road. We managed to catch Curnow, Findlay and Conrick with Janine ‘She’s Apples’ doing the work on the front.
The handicapper had done another fantastic job because as we crested the last of the rollers we sighted Blockie, Jagger and Craig ‘The Beacon’ Wilson on the final descent and we only just caught him before the final turn into Mt Battery Road.
We knew it was going to be a high-speed sprint to the end at which point The Colt sniffed the finish line and prepared to launch. With ‘Legs and Lungs’ Hopwood setting up the lead-out train and with Miller on his wheel, The Colt Purcell jumped with 150m to go and galloped past the final two to take the win with a crack of his stockwhip overhead. Miller second and Josh stoically third with Wilson and Jagger again holding off the rest of the field with 4th and 5th respectively. The remainder of the mob coming home in a full lather with the uphill finish line exhausting the last of their energy. Given Hopwood’s negotiated exchange of marshalling duties to assist The Colts masterly lead-out train he generously gave his race points to Bockie with a respectful nod.
The Colt was delighted with his win and was confident he had shed any final kg’s for the wedding suit – hope the wedding was a blast mate!
All riders rolled back into town to our favourite water hole The Mansfield Hotel where Steve ‘Everyone knows Brownie’ Brown hosted the club for drinks and dining – all welcome as always.
Huge thanks to all the volunteers and marshals keeping us safe out on the Mansfield roads.