Saturday’s race at Wyndham was hamstrung by the Calder Stewart Series being run this weekend. That reduced the race to three fields with A and B grades ridden together(only Matt Nunn fronted to represent the A graders), C grade and the juniors who had a good sized field of 12. Two laps for the B grade (12 riders) and a smaller field of C graders (seven riders) and 1 lap for the Juniors-laps of 34kms of good rolling terrain soon sorted the riders out.
Wet, drizzly conditions greet the riders as they started out and that took its toll on a few riders.
B grade rode well as a group until the first hill, leading up to the letterbox hill intersection, then the action started. Hori Miller, Neil Sutherland and Grant Colbran established a gap and they were joined shortly after by Derek Tan and Matt Nunn. The pace through the rollers was too tough for Matt and with Andrew Leinert joining the other four, with an impressive bridge across to the break, they set about putting distance between them and the rest of the field. The break rolled through Wyndham well in control but soon after the start of the second lap Andrew and Grant dropped off with the other three distancing them to scrap it out for most of the second lap. Derek put in some massive turns on the front but couldn’t shake off Hori and Neil until they had 2km to go to the finish. Derek finally broke them and cruised to a comfortable and very well earned victory ahead of Neil and a broken Hori!
C grade had a good solid day out and it saw Andy McIntyre, Dave Watkins, Hunter Gough, Craig Sadlier and Tony Raggett establish a break earlier on and they were never headed. The biggest drama as they charged into the run in to the finish line saw a dog try and get into the action- evasive action taken and it was left to Andy McIntyre to hold off the fast finishing Dave Watkins and Hunter Gough. Race time was 2 hours and 16 minutes- 15 minutes slower than the B graders.
The Juniors had a good battle with an exceptionally long race for them doing a whole lap. They were ably assisted by a couple of parents riding with them and the ever green veteran Bill Sutherland. The old boys were dropped at various stages in the race and the sprint to the finish had Josh Miller leading the sprint home from Cody Harvey and Marshall Erwood. Six of the group finished very close to each other and they showed some good staying ability to ride together for most of the race.
A good day had by all - pity about the weather but it was encouraging to see a good field out to race one of our more testing circuits.
Thanks once again to all the racers, marshalls and other helpers. Obviously another big thanks goes to Robin Criglinton and Lindsay Jones and also to Marty Lohrey who, in the spirit of the club, shouted all those who stayed behind for a well-earned drink courtesy of his $50 jackpot win!
Report courtesy of race manager Neil Familton