“One of the most important days of my life was when I learned to ride a bicycle.”
Michael Palin

Have you subscribed to MMBCC News yet? Get it straight to your Inbox - enter your email address on the MMBCC Homepage.

Dirt Crits got ripped off

… by the weather again. But this coming Tuesday’s XC round will make up for the disappointment!

Bakker Plumbing Handicap 2024

By Dario Cippolini Gazzeta

Perfect conditions greeted Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club riders and volunteers at the start of one of the club’s marquee races of the season in beautiful Jamieson.

There was one late scratching with Campag Wilson suffering a broken spoke. And almost another but out marker David Jagger just made the start in time after fulfilling his fire fighting duties.

Jagger was the first to start by himself and had the job of trying to hold off the next 15 riders. Next off was a solid group of four, Adam Baker, Steve Curnow, Adrian Dowd and home town boy Allan Gerrans.

They were followed by a very capable quartet of Damian Grundy, Steve Duke, Michael Pearce and Darren Bakker.

Next to go was the biggest group of the night and probably the favourites for the win; Smokey Garrett, Ruby Dobson, Chris Miller, Bruce ‘Lead Out’ Halket and club President David Empey for his first race for the season.

They were being chased by the Scratch duo of Jake Lay and Talia Appleton.

The Jamieson course is beautifully scenic but also very fast; so most riders were chewing on the handlebars on the way to the turnaround at Ten Mile and there wasn’t time for sightseeing;

It’s also a unique course due to all the bends in the road, so you can’t really see if you’re gaining on the next group until the turnaround. After the turnaround all the groups were coming together, so they could look at each other’s progress.

The Block group of five were down to three just before the turn with Empey blowing up after some mega pulls on the front and Millar puncturing. Scratch were making progress but had the job ahead of them if they wanted to feature in the finish.

Meanwhile the smooth movers Duke, Pearce, Bakker, and the big engine Grundy, were collecting all the front markers, thinking they were a real chance not to get caught.

It wasn’t to be as they were caught by the rampaging remnants of Block about 1.5km from the finish. It was set to be a cracking finish with 7 riders vying for the win.

With 600m to go Halket and Dobson were keeping the pace high to stop any attacks. Duke started making a move on the outside.

Then with 300m to go Halket attacked, Smokey Garret was straight on to his wheel and blasted past him with Bakker trying to get into the slipstream.

There was no power outage in the sprint as Andy (Watt Bomb) Garrett hit 1100 watts, smoking the field to win by a big margin. Bakker came in 2nd, Ruby 3rd, Halket 4th and Grundy 5th. All the others riders came not long after, a sign of good handicapping. Good Job Dave.

Jake Lay from the Scratch group rode the fastest time of 60:10; only 9 seconds faster than the winner Andy Garrett. “If I’d known it was that close I would have tried!” Andy exclaimed over a recovery ale. Here are the results. Thanks to Tony for the racing shots, Bruce and Cameron for the presentation pics.

Big thank you to all the Marshals, Commissaires and helpers and a special thank you to the Court House Hotel for their efforts after a trying week.