Hendry etches name on cobblestone

Eureka Cycling Club staged the ninth edition of the GP Doug Garley handicap on Sunday 4 June at Learmonth.

In 2009, Doug Garley became the inaugural Eureka Club champion.

The honour came towards the end of a brilliant career which included track cycling with Blackburn CC and Caulfield-Carnegie CC, amateur racing in Belgium, professional racing in the Netherlands and representing Australia at the road World Championships.

Upon moving to Ballarat, Garley continued his road and track racing with Ballarat Sebastopol CC, before being a founding member of Eureka Veterans Cycling Club.

The GP Doug Garley is raced over 43.5 kilometres and it includes 15 kilometres of gravel sections. Previous winners include Ken Heres, Michael Veal, two-time victor Darren Terry, Kevin Lee, Brian Ure, Craig Lee, and Stu Brien.

Riders enjoyed unseasonably warm weather and brilliant sunshine as they competed in memory of one of the true gentlemen of cycling.

Limit riders Patrick Cashin, Evan King and Roger McMillan made great use of their 17-minute mark to lead until deep in the race.

Geoff Edwards, Damian Larkin and Joe van Dyk set off at five minutes and rode a strong race after losing three of their comrades early in the event.

They were joined by the largely intact one-minute bunch of Paul Brick, Jason Birch, Jason Hendry, Tim Sinclair and Dean Wells with just five kilometres to race.

Tony Mirabella was also back in the mix, having originally started with the five-minute group.

Cashin was the lone leader with two kilometres remaining and almost held on but was swamped just 80 metres from the line as Hendry, Larkin and Mirabella fought out the exciting sprint finish.

Hendry was too powerful in the end and somewhat atoning for finishing second in a similar sprint finish back in 2019.

GP Doug Garley (43.5km handicap) – 1st – Jason Hendry (1 min), 2nd – Damian Larkin (5 min), 3rd – Tony Mirabella (5 min), 4th – Dean Wells (1 min), 5th – Tim Sinclair (1 min).

Rides of the Day – Patrick Cashin (17 min) and Evan King (17 min). First Female – Alana Forster (5 min). Fastest Time – Jason Hendry (1 min) in 1h 10m 15s, ave. 37kph.

– DEAN WELLS