Mann powers to victory

REASONABLY good conditions presented to riders as they arrived at the Moorak course for Race 9 of the 2026 Mount Gambier Cycling Club summer racing season.

Due to other races in the region, as well as illness and equipment failure, only six riders took to the course forcing the handicapper to make some hasty recalculations and changing rider positions within bunches and reducing the course distance from four laps to three, resulting in an overall course length of 29.34km.

At the stroke of 9am race organiser Tina Opperman sent the riders of the limit bunch on their way.

That included Spek Peake and Amelia Milne, who was returning from a prolonged period on the side lines from a nasty injury.

There was an extended gap of 10 minutes to the now scratch bunch, which due to a late scratching, the original second scratch and scratch bunches had been merged, to make a four-rider bunch consisting of Craig Andrae, Kane Polniak, Chris Neave and then usual scratch rider Rob Mann.

Peake led the first bunch on to the course and used his experience to offer some coaching to the returning junior rider in Milne as she was finding her cycling legs after a long layoff.

It was good for Milne to be on course in a small bunch to allow the building of confidence around another rider and not have the pressure of having multiple bikes around her after returning from an accident.

They had completed half a lap of the first 9.78km loop before Neave led the next and last bunch onto the course.

The bunch of four riders settled into a steady pace, working consistently together with the more experienced and faster rider in Rob Mann not pushing the bunch too hard ensuring things ran smoothly.

The other three riders though were very aware that Mann could push the pace at any time and apply maximum pressure to the other riders.

Both bunches worked consistently through the first lap and picked up a slight tailwind to make the start of the second lap a little easier as they headed 3.1km along Yells Road towards the smaller of the two hills which the course has on offer before making a left hand turn on to Lock Road and the sharp descent which offers some recovery time after the previous 500m climb of two per cent gradient.

The riders now headed south 1.6km to the next left hand turn where they began to feel the strength of the north easterly wind which had picked up slightly to 20km/hr as the riders headed the 3.1km along Wynham Road back towards the next hill on course which is approximately 1km long reaching a three per cent gradient.

This is when the limit bunch of Peake and Milne began to find the pressure starting to mount with the scratch bunch closing fast and using the hill to their advantage to close the gap.

Peake and Milne crested the hill and made the left hand turn onto Telford Road and making it halfway along Telford Road before the scratch bunch using the fast descent of the hill to finally make the catch, passing by at speed, not allowing the limit bunch to take advantage of the draft created by the scratch bunch.

The scratch bunch made the turn back onto Yells Road taking the bell to acknowledge the start of their last lap.

Mann took over at the front of the bunch as they passed the start/finish line and there was an instant jump in speed as he tested the other riders’ resolve.

The other three riders in the bunch matched his pace as they worked again towards the hill at the end of Yells Road.

Neave took the reins at the front of the bunch as they began the climb.

He maintained a good pace trying to keep Mann under as much pressure as possible, but Mann had the pace easily covered.

Andrae took over at the top of the hill and made the left hand turn onto Lock Road with Mann jumping around him quickly and used the descent to take an advantage as he lifted the pace testing the bunch again as he opened up a 15 bike length gap off the front of the bunch.

Polniak pushed hard and began to close the gap to Mann.

The bunch came back together about halfway along Lock Road with Neave taking over just before the turn onto Wynham Road.

The bunch settled as they were now pushing into the slight headwind as they were coming to the next test, the last and hardest hill of the day.

It was Neave who drew the short straw and took the lead of the bunch from Polniak at the base of the hill.

Mann was now sitting in third wheel and stalking the bunch. If there was going to be an attack this is when it would happen.

Neave clicked back a couple of gears and took a sneaky check behind just as Mann made his move.

Neave’s reaction was just a bit slow as he tried to go with Mann but just didn’t have the legs, with Mann opening up a gap of about 10 lengths.

The bunch splintered with Mann now taking a good lead as they headed toward the turn onto Telford Road.

Andrae, Polniak and Neave tried to regroup and drag Mann back in, but Mann held his gap as he made the turn onto Telford Road using the sharp descent to his advantage as he headed toward the Yells Road intersection.

Andrae and Polniak kept up the chase with Neave losing touch and trailed off the back of the chasing bunch.

Mann then slowed to try and get some much needed recovery which allowed Andrae and Polniak to close up and reform as a bunch but only for a few short moments before Mann attacked again and gapped away just before turning onto Yells Road and powered on to the finish line to take the win, with a gap of about five seconds to Andrae in second with a further five seconds to Polniak third and then Neave about 10 seconds later in fourth place.

There was a reasonable time gap to Peake in fifth who was able to open up with a sprint to the line with Milne coming in a few seconds later in sixth place.

The race sponsor was Crater Lake Cycles.

RACE 9 PLACINGS

1st Rob MannFastest Time 48:09 adjusted

2nd Craig Andrae

3rd Kane Polniak

4th Chris Neave

5th Spek Peake

6th Amelia Milne