Saturday dawned sunny and the temperatures were rising for the Thornbury Tavern graded race and the first race of the South Port series. Having ridden the A grade event most of my report will be first hand and probably a little lacking detail on the other events so my apologies for that. Forty riders overall started spread over all grades with 11 in A, 11 in B, 12 in C and six social-junior riders.
A grade started off at a nice steady pace for the first lap of 3 (75km in total). After one and a half laps Brendan "the mountain goat" Akeroyd decided he would test his post-Pioneer legs with a crack up the road but to no avail. After the second hill climb Zeno gave it a nudge with Matt Nunn clinging on. The pace lifted and eventually Zeno was reeled in with half a lap to go after some strong riding by Hamish Keast who then unfortunately after his second puncture called it a day. By this stage the bunch had whittled down to around eight riders and then the obvious attacks happened up the Fairfax Hill. By the time we got to the Riverton turn off we were down to four - Zeno, Josh, Corbin and myself. For the next 7km the attacks were fast and furious with a lot of gutter action. Josh burned a box of matches before the final corner with a mini breakaway with Zeno chasing him down 'til his candle too went out leaving the young pocket rocket (Corbin) and the old master (me) left to sprint it out with Corbin taking line honours.
In the B grade, I'm told, it was a hard fought battle with Neil Sutherland and Derek Tan attacking strongly throughout the race. The race split on the last hill on the last lap leaving six riders to fight it out at the end. Soon to be A grade riders Neil Familton and Red Burnett finished 1st and 2nd with Hayden "hitting some form" Rankin coming in for third place.
C grade was taken out by Hunter Gough, from Andy McIntyre and Dave Watkins. Again apologies for the lack of info from the other grades.
Overall results as follows:
A grade:
1st - Corbin Strong
2nd - Mike White
3rd - Josh Haggerty
4th - Matt Zenovich
Time: 1.45 (3 laps)
B grade:
1st - Neil Familton
2nd - Red Burnett
3rd - Hayden Rankin
Time : 2.00 (3 laps)
C grade:
1st - Hunter Gough
2nd - Andy McIntyre
3rd - Dave Watkins
Time: 1.22 (2 laps)
Social grade:
1st - Connor Erwood
2nd - Marshall Erwood
3rd - Hayley Paterson
Time: 47.56 (1 lap)
Report courtesy of race manager Mike White