A beautiful warm Autumn evening greeted riders who’d entered the final round of the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club Summer Series on Thursday 29 March on the Mt Buller Road.
It was meant to be a Team Time Trial contested between teams of six; but as entries were a little on the lean side, team size was reduced to just two!
The team size reduction was all part of the Handicapper’s cruel and sadistic plan to find a summer series champion. Five of the riders near the pointy end of the series point scores are from the usual Scratch group: Josh Hopwood, Stefan Vaivars, Andrew Gerrans, Mauro Brega and Bruce Halket. If the race had been ridden in teams of six as planned, those five would likely have ridden together - and all received the same result as each other.
So they were separated into teams of only two to make it more likely to get different times; and to make it much, much harder (just for the fun of it!)
Seventeen riders entered, meaning seven teams of two and a single team of three.
Fastest time and the win went to Josh and Bruce. Their time of 32.19 over the 22km translates to an average speed of 41km/h! Josh rode an awesome time trial and Bruce did all he could to hang on!
Second place went to Steve Flew, Steve Plummer and Ian Conrick in a corrected time of 32.34 (actual time 36.14.) Third went to Peter Ellett and Tony Williams in 32.41 (39.11) ahead of Di Condie and John Eisner in 32.56 (38.56) while Stefan and Mauro rounded out the top five in 33.04.
The Teams of Two Time Trial was a well-received format and it might see a return next summer. Many thanks to our volunteers and officials: Annie, Gwen, Leonie, Sharron, John and George.
All MMBCC members should make a note in their diary for Sunday 15 April. This will see social road and mountain bike rides concluding at Mirimbah - where presentations will be held for both the Summer Road Series and the Summer Dirt Crits. Check the club website - www.mmbcc.org.au - for more details in the coming weeks.
Also on the website will be details of the upcoming Autumn Series’ for both road and mountain bikes.
In the meantime, employers are asked to take pity on MMBCC members on Monday mornings in April, as they'll be sitting up late on Sunday nights for the next month, to watch the Spring Classics from Belgium and northern France. It all starts with the Tour of Flanders on Sunday 1 April, followed by Paris-Roubaix on Sunday 8 April, Amstel Gold on Sunday 15 April and finishes with Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday 22 April. Simon Gerrans is a likely starter in the final two of these classics and will be a big chance!
CLICK HERE - for results.
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