DePree secures history making win

TWELVE Mount Gambier Cycling Club riders signed on for Race 5 of the Spring Season.

They competed on an out and back course over 30km at Glencoe starting on the Overland Track and heading north towards Mt Burr and making a turnaround at 13.5km, then making the return journey back to the start line at 27km where they continue on for another 3km, making a hard right hand turn onto Mile Hill Road and then making the epic climb to the finish line at the top of Mile Hill, the region’s very own L’Alpe d’Huez from Le Tour de France with classic mountain top finish.

On face value a rider could be deceived by the simplicity of the event, with the outward leg of the course to the turnaround having some mild undulation and false flats of two percent of gradient and the return journey continuing in the same vein but with a reasonably stiff side head wind back to the start line.

If this wasn’t enough to burn the riders’ leg muscles by the 27km mark, the turn onto Mile Hill Road would have the cyclists staring at a wall of bitumen of the epic climb ahead, striking fear into their hearts.

Life member Tina Opperman officiated as Commissaire, waving off the first bunch of Amelia Milne, Spek Peake and Michael (Porridge) Dethmore over the start line at 9am and they began their race with a reasonable tail side wind of about 20km/hr gusting to 30km/hr.

Next bunch to the line was John Cranwell, Troy Mustey and John DePree, with the Commissaire sending them on their pursuit at 9.05am, setting off with a steady pace hoping to use the wind to their advantage to chase down the limit bunch ahead.

A further four minutes had lapsed by the time the second scratch bunch of Chris Neave and Phil Stasiw came to the line and began their race for mountain top glory.

The last and largest bunch that headed out was made up of four riders, Morgan Mutch, Craig Andrae, Miles Kroon and Matt Opperman, taking to the course 14 minutes after the first bunch had departed.

All bunches were now on the road and working well together, as they would all need to work as a team to catch the bunches ahead and hopefully protect their legs to make the main climb of the day to get to the all-important finish line.

Unfortunately for the second limit bunch, at about the 9.5km mark in the outward leg Troy had to make a management decision and withdraw from the event and this left John Cranwell and John DePree to work on as just a two-man bunch.

The limit bunch of Spek, Amelia and Porridge were working well and made it to the 13.5km turnaround with a good gap to the pursuant bunch of Cranwell and DePree, the latter pair are both very experienced riders and were now holding an even tempo and gradually closing the gap to the limit bunch without over taxing their legs in preparation for the climb that was coming at the end of the race.

The four riders in the scratch bunch were pushing strongly with the use of the wind and had reduced the time gap by 2.5 minutes to the second scratch bunch of Phil and Chris by the time they reached the turnaround.

All bunches were now on the return leg heading South to Mile Hill Road and they were concentrating on keeping their average speeds up and looking to spot the bunches ahead of them to keep their confidence up, to remind them that all the hard work was paying off and that they were actually closing the gaps to the bunches ahead.

With approximately 4km to the finish the limit bunch started to splinter as the younger legs of Amelia proved stronger and she started to pull a gap on Spek and Porridge leaving them to fend off the fast approaching bunch of John Cranwell and John DePree who were still working strongly as a team and with 3km to go they had caught and passed Spek and Porridge and now had Amelia within striking distance.

By the time Amelia made the hard right hand turn onto Mile Hill Road they were within 50m of catching her. Amelia made it to the foot of the climb when Cranwell and DePree made the catch, all three were now on the climb and trying to find a steady rhythm to make the climb.

Porridge Dethmore was the next to make the turn on to Mile Hill Road with Spek now 25m behind. Chris and Phil were the next to the turn and were now in hot pursuit of the slowing riders ahead of them and were still holding a reasonable gap of about 200m to the chasing scratch bunch.

The scratch bunch hit the turn still intact but started to splinter as they began their ascent at the base of the climb.

The younger legs and the power to weight of junior rider Miles Kroon was now about to pay dividends as he is built for the mountains and left the three heavier built senior riders in his bunch behind as he began dancing on the pedals and making the steep climb look easy.

Meanwhile Cranwell and DePree found the better rhythm and started to break away from Milne on the upper slopes of the climb and now battled between themselves as they closed on the line with DePree getting the better of Cranwell and claiming the honours of his first ever win at a MGCC event by 13 seconds.

Cranwell claimed second place by approximately 100m ahead of Milne who claimed thirrd and another podium finish.

Miles was the next to cross claiming fastest time just ahead of Chris then shortly after was Porridge, then coming to the line with a rush was Opperman, Andrae, Stasiw, Spek and shortly after was Mutch.

All riders, officials, volunteers and spectators then headed into Glencoe to our Race 5 sponsor, where Julie from Country Post & Bistro made the presentations to the placegetters and everybody enjoyed her hospitality with a well-earned coffee and brunch and debriefed with some tales of the day’s events. RACE 5 PLACINGS

1st John DePree

2nd John Cranwell

3rd Amelia Milne

4th Miles Kroon (Fastest Time)

5th Chris Neave

6th Porridge Dethmore

7th Matt Opperman

8th Craig Andrae

9th Phil Stasiw

10th Spek Peake

11th Morgan Mutch