Long time member honoured

SIXTEEN Mount Gambier Cycling Club riders nominated for the John DePree Farewell Race as part of our Summer Series of racing.

John DePree is a long standing member of our local cycling community for the past 18 years after moving from the Netherlands to Australia.

He has raced in several disciplines – road, gravel and MTB throughout South Australia and Victoria and has always acquitted himself with determination and has achieved some astounding accolades throughout his racing.

He has been a true gentleman of the sport and has always been very supportive to other riders and always ready to lend a hand within the community and cycling clubs, he is rarely seen without a smile on his face especially when on his bike.

He now starts a new chapter in his life as he heads home to the Netherlands where he will continue his cycling journey and is already booked in to return to Australia in September for a motorhome holiday.

The day’s event was being officiated by Commissaire Tina Opperman.

The first bunch to greet her at the start line were the limit riders of Molly Opperman, Anna LeCornu and Amelia Milne. They were sent onto the course at the stroke of 9am with a five minute gap before the next rider in Spek Peake who was making a solo journey took to the course in pursuit of the three riders ahead of him.

A further five minutes had elapsed before the next bunch came to the start line consisting of Troy Mustey, John Cranwell, Amali Judd, Tegan Kuhl and man of the hour John DePree.

There was a long time gap of eight minutes before the next bunch assembled at the start line.

This bunch was made up of Craig Andrae, Kane Polniak, Matt Opperman, Phil Stasiw and Chris Neave and with this bunch on their way it was just 30 seconds before the last two riders Rob Mann and Miles Kroon took their place at the start line.

All riders were now on course heading East on Caroline Road towards the right hand turn onto Border Road at around 15.5km from the start, here riders would turn south for approximately 2km before they hit the turnaround point where they reverse direction and head back to the start/finish line completing the 35km course.

The first two bunches had settled into a good consistent tempo, with just a moderate side wind from the north to negotiate, which wasn’t causing too much of a problem for most riders.

It would become mechanical issues that would up set proceedings with first Molly Opperman in the limit bunch having a battery problem with the electronic gears on her bike, not allowing her to change gears she opted not to continue and retired from the race leaving just Milne and LeCornu to battle on.

The next casualty was in the third bunch when Troy Mustey got a flat tyre and also decided not to proceed and retired from the race, leaving Cranwell, Judd, Kuhl and DePree to continue in pursuit of Peake the solo rider and the two younger riders ahead of him.

The second scratch bunch was working consistently hard, and even harder when Opperman came to the front of the bunch, as he pushed hard to keep the 30 second time gap to the chasing bunch of Mann and Kroon.

Milne and LeCornu were the first bunch to hit the turn around mark at 17.5km having worked strongly together to hold their gap as they began their journey home to the finish line.

Peake was next to the halfway marker with the pursuing bunch of DePree, Cranwell, Kuhl and Judd only five seconds behind and within 100m had caught Peake who managed to hold onto the wheel of the passing bunch as they headed for home.

At about the 16.5km mark the second scratch bunch with Opperman on the front of the bunch surged again with Neave just rolling to the rear of the bunch missed the sudden surge and was gapped and was unable to regain his position and the gap quickly grew, by the time the bunch hit the turnaround marker about 1km further on, Neave was about 50m behind.

The bunch was now heading into a north/north westerly wind which had picked up to around 30km/hr the head wind soon killed off any pursuit from the trailing Neave, and he was left to the mercy of the chasing Scratch bunch.

As Mann and Kroon hit the turnaround point it was clear Opperman’s surges had kept them from reducing the 30 second gap which had started to grow, which was now close to a minute. They would now find it almost impossible to catch the bunch ahead as they headed home into a head wind.

Milne and LeCornu made the left hand turn back onto Caroline Rd which gave them some reprieve from the headwind but still getting a cross/head wind which would hamper their speed.

The pursuing bunch was slowly closing the gap to the two younger riders ahead, the experience of the more senior riders was coming to the fore as they worked strongly together while using their better drafting skills to close the gap.

As they made the turn back onto Caroline Rd and their pace increased Peake lost touch and trailed off to continue on in a solo effort once again.

The four remaining riders of the second scratch bunch made the turn onto Caroline Road in hot pursuit of the bunches ahead, but the earlier surging was starting to take its toll on Polniak who was only just holding on.

Neave topped the small rise on Caroline Road at about 14.5km to home when the scratch bunch of Mann and Kroon caught and passed him leaving him with a long, lonely ride to the finish, his day was done.

At this point it was clear that the scratch bunches speed had also dropped off due to Kroon struggling with very tired legs after racing a 50km race the previous day, but they would continue trying to close the gap to the riders ahead.

Cranwell, DePree, Judd and Kuhl were pushing hard and whittling away the gap to the junior riders ahead of them and finally with about 2km to the finish made the catch and quickly overcame LeCornu and Milne as they powered past.

The bunch of Opperman, Andrae, Stasiw and Polniak were still pushing hard trying to close the gap to the bunches ahead, with them powering past Peake with about 5km to the finish line with the pace really testing Polniak now who was also riding on tired legs.

They had a slight glimpse of the bunches along way in the distance, but would they have enough time to close the gap.

Topping the last rise with 1000m to the finish line Cranwell was feeling the strong pace of the bunch as they began to make position for the sprint home, Kuhl and Judd were coming to the fore in the last 100m with DePree trying hard but just not being able to hold their pace, Kuhl opened up her sprint, and was just able to keep Judd at bay by a handful of seconds with DePree coming in about 25m in third with Cranwell only 10m back in fourth place.

It was then about 50 seconds to a fast finishing Milne in fifth who had managed to gap away in the last 200m from LeCornu in sixth.

Opperman had made a last ditch push coming to the 1000m to the finish line with Stasiw and Andrae using him as a lead out with Polniak falling away due to the higher speed.

Stasiw wound up over the last 200m and held off Andrae. Stasiw finished 2 min and 45 Secs behind the winner taking seventh and fastest time (57:20) with Andrae just a few seconds later in eighth with Opperman rolling in shortly after in ninth and then Polniak in tenth, then Peake in eleventh, Kroon twelfth, Mann thirteenth and lastly Neave in fourteenth.

Presentations were made at the race site and then many of the riders, officials, volunteers and friends made their way to Metro Bakery & Café to give John and Nel DePree a send off with coffee and farewell cake.

JOHN DePREE FAREWELL RACE Placings

1st Tegan Kuhl

2nd Amali Judd

3rd John DePree

4th John Cranwell

5th Amelia Milne

6th Anna LeCornu

7th Phil Stasiw (Fastest time)57:20 (37.12km/hr Ave)

8th Craig Andrae

9th Matt Opperman

10th Kane Polniak

11th Spek Peake