Mansfield-Mt Buller Cycling club's summer road series kicked off last Thursday with, ironically, a fresh dump of snow as the backdrop for the Whitfield Rd graded scratch. In A grade, Bruce Halket, Josh Hopwood, Jock Brega and Tim Ross took off whilst Ian Conrick, Di Condie, Steve Plummer, Allan Gerrans, Rod Stewart and Christine Hopkins started two minutes later in B Grade. Dick Forrest, Geoff Jones, David Bock and Daryl Rielly made up the C Grade bunch.

Bruce Halket tried an attack off the front before the turnaround but found his colleagues were on the ball and quickly reeled him in. Without any further action the bunch headed to the line with Tim Ross making a decisive move with fifty meters to go and taking the resulting victory.

In B Grade, Steve, Ian and Christine put the pressure on prior to the turnaround and split the bunch. Steve and Chris then jumped Ian at Possums before Steve applied his years of experience to overtake Christine in what was a great first ride for her.

C grade worked together for a lot of the course before separating into personal comfort zones and finishing separately with Geoff Jones looking strong and taking out an easy first place. Christine took out the Alpine Butchery best effort award. Thanks to them and the Delatite Hotel for sponsoring the evening.

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