Mustey emerges as King of the Mountain

SIXTEEN Mount Gambier Cycling Club riders nominated for Race 4 of the summer season.

They would be competing on an out and back course over 30km at Glencoe starting at the corner of the Overland Track and Mile Hill Road 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 then continue on for another 3km, making a hard right hand turn onto Mile Hill Road and making the epic climb to the finish line and for the winner to be crowned the King of the Mountain.

Riders were expecting a tough day as the predicted weather was for thunderstorms, stiff winds and a possible 3mm of rain, but the reality was far brighter with only a very light north westerly of about 7km/hr and no rain so conditions were quite balmy at about 21 degrees.

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 only 1 to 2 per cent of gradient and the return journey continuing in the same vein but with the turn onto Mile Hill Road the cyclists would be staring at a wall of bitumen of the epic climb ahead, striking fear into their hearts.

With one late scratching just prior to start time, the remaining fifteen riders started their warm up and began assembling for a 9am start.

Tina Opperman was officiating for the event as Commissaire.

She gave the two limit riders their countdown and Sandra Parsons and Del Delaland took to the course on the stroke of 9am.

Tina counted down four minutes before the next bunch of three riders and Troy Mustey, John Cranwell and Spek Peake, started their chase.

A further five minutes had lapsed before the next bunch consisting of Tegan Kuhl and John DePree departed from the start line.

Three minutes later Amali Judd, Phil Stasiw and Chris Neave were given their starting orders and took to the course.

The second scratch bunch was the next to come to the start line.

Matthew Opperman, Craig Andrae and new rider Kane Polniak, who was making a step up in grade to a stronger bunch, were given a two minute countdown and then they started their pursuit.

Last to the start line was the depleted scratch bunch of Rob Mann and Dan Whitehead after losing their third companion due to a late scratching.

Tina gave them a two minute countdown and then they took to the course.

At this stage they were starting 16 minutes behind the first riders on course.

All bunches were now on the road and working well together, adjusting tempos as they negotiated the slight headwind and the lumpiness of the course and the constant pressure on their legs from the consistent rise in the road of the false flats as they headed out to the turnaround point where they would be greeted by the club’s ever reliable volunteer Dianne Major, who ensures they negotiate the turnaround safely and always offers some encouraging words for each of the riders.

All bunches were working well together except for the limit bunch where Parsons was making her first racing appearance for the season due to work commitments and was finding the going a little tough with Delaland gapping away by the time he reached the turnaround point with Parsons about 50 seconds behind him when she made the turn.

The going would now be a little easier for Sandra on the return trip due to the slight downhill nature of the course and the slight tail wind, now that she was heading in a southerly direction back to Mile Hill Road.

Mustey, Cranwell and Peake were the next to the turn marker and were just 1:30 behind Parsons but still about 2:20 behind Delaland.

Three minutes had elapsed by the time Kuhl and DePree reached the turnaround with the ever consistent pair working strongly together.

Stasiw, Judd and Neave arrived 2:30 later followed hotly by the fast moving bunch of Opperman, Andrae and Polniak having closed the gap from two minutes to just 45 seconds.

Opperman was driving the bunch hard and Polniak was feeling the pressure.

The scratch bunch arrived with a gap of 1:40 to the bunch ahead.

The second limit bunch was working strongly on the return trip to Mile Hill Road with Mustey doing some very strong turns and gradually they closed the gap on Parsons and then moved on to track down Delaland who had started to feel the efforts of the outward journey and was beginning to slow.

Likewise the second scratch bunch was working very hard to catch the bunch ahead of them with Oppy maintaining a hard pace and they finally caught the bunch a head, 5km before the right hand turn onto Mile Hill Road.

These two bunches merged as the slower bunch lifted their pace to match the passing bunch and they began to work together.

The bunch speed stayed high, but with the extra workers, each rider was able to get some extra time at the back of the bunch to recover before they got to the main climb of the day in the last 3km.

The chasing scratch bunch was now at a severe disadvantage trying to chase down the now merged six rider bunch.

As the second limit bunch of Mustey, Cranwell and Peake got within 5km of the Mile Hill turn, they managed to catch Delaland who jumped on their wheel as they came past and took some recovery and then took a turn on the front of the bunch but just couldn’t maintain the higher bunch speed and eventually lagged behind and was left to the chasing bunches.

Mustey, Cranwell and Peake powered around the right hand turn and onto the foot of Mile Hill, where Peake couldn’t hold the higher speed as they began to climb and Mustey and Cranwell pulled clear.

Kuhl and DePree rounded the turn with the hill just ahead and they could see Parsons and Delaland already on the base of the climb ahead of them, DePree increased speed and charged after them opening up a gap over Kuhl.

It didn’t take long for both to overtake Parsons and then Delaland in quick succession as they chased Peake towards the summit.

The now merged bunch of six hit the right hand turn with Stasiw leading into the corner but he took a wider line to avoid gravel with Neave taking the opportunity to take the inside line of the corner and ended up 10 lengths ahead with Opperman jumping on his wheel.

Stasiw quickly closed the gap then Andrae and Polniak jostled to get the best position to attack the riders ahead, with Judd now working very hard to get back onto the bunch.

Looking forward the bunch could see a string of riders ahead of them at various positions on the lower slopes of the hill.

Polniak attacked early getting the jump and getting a gap of 30m over Neave who maintained a strong tempo and led the bunch to slowly chase him down.

Mustey by this stage had made a break over Cranwell and was now topping the summit to power away and hit the finish line 44 seconds ahead of a hard riding Cranwell in second place, then came Peake almost a minute later in third place with DePree the next to crest the rise and hit the finish line in fourth 30 seconds later.

Kuhl was only 15 seconds behind Depree to finish fifth.

It was then Polniak who had worked hard to pass Parsons and Delaland to take sixth place and hold off the fast chasing bunch.

Delaland got across the line in seventh with two seconds to spare as a flurry of riders were on his tail.

Next was Neave closely followed by Opperman and 10 seconds after was Andrae and then Stasiw who passed Parsons just before the finish line then Judd in 13th about 50 seconds ahead of Dan Whitehead who took out 14th place but still managed to take out the overall fastest time (49:03).

He was followed in shortly after by Rob Mann.

Associated Roof Tiling was the Race 4 sponsor.

RACE 4 PLACINGS

1st Troy Mustey(King of the Mountain)

2nd John Cranwell

3rd Spek Peake

4th John DePree

5th Tegan Kuhl

6th Kane Polniak

7th Del Delaland

8th Chris Neave

9th Matt Opperman