Peake secures back-to-back wins

MOUNT Gambier Cycling Club continued its Summer Series on with riders making the trip to Tantanoola Wind Farm for Race 3.

Leaving Mount Gambier, where the weather presented perfect calm and sunny conditions, which only lulled the riders into a false sense of security, as upon arrival at Tantanoola they were met with a backdrop of wildly spinning wind turbines that sent some trepidation into the hearts of the assembling peloton.

As the name suggests Tantanoola Wind Farm lived up to its name, with ESE winds to 30km/hr with some significantly stronger gusts to cause the riders some grief.

A good starting list of 17 riders were presented to club life member Tina Opperman, who was officiating as commissaire for the event.

With only one late scratching, the first and only limit rider rolled up to the start line.

Del Delaland just returning to racing after a number of seasons on the side lines took to the course at 9am to begin a first up solo effort which would certainly test his legs.

Club legends Spek Peake, Mike Bakker and Michael Dethmore were the next bunch to the start line giving Del a significant head start of six minutes before they began their pursuit, with Spek almost being dropped from the bunch at the start after not getting his foot clipped into the pedal.

Luckily Mike Bakker, the gentleman of racing, waited for Spek to lock in before getting him back up to bunch speed.

Club president John Cranwell was next to take his position at the start line waiting for his countdown of two minutes 30 seconds before taking to the course.

A further five minutes had elapsed before Tegan Kuhl and John DePree were released onto the course.

The third scratch bunch was the largest bunch of the day being made up of four riders, Craig Andrae, Craig Dunn, Phil Stasiw and Chris Neave, who was returning from an injury after missing the previous race.

The commissaire counted down three minutes before they were given their orders to leave the start line.

The second scratch bunch was quickly to the line only having to wait 60 seconds before Rob Mann, Matt Opperman and junior rider Miles Kroon set off in pursuit of the bunches ahead.

Last bunch to the line, a full 19 minutes and 30 seconds behind the first on course rider, was the ever strong and reliable Dave Bryant and up and coming punchy speedster Dan Whitehead.

All bunches worked consistently over the first 5km crossing over Stony Creek Bridge and then making the sharp right hand turn on to Canunda Tourist Drive heading west and picking up a reasonably strong tailwind.

Speeds began to lift as they headed towards the scenic hill which when crested gives a perfect view over Lake Bonney.

Overdoing the effort on the rise can be costly, as was experienced by Dethmore as he was unable to recover quickly enough and lost touch with his bunch as Peake and Bakker made the fast descent on their way to the turnaround.

The third scratch bunch was working well together maintaining good tempo and bunch communication as they negotiated the hill and the fast descent hitting the base at approximately 65km/hr, but it was the second scratch bunch of Mann, Opperman and Kroon who were turning on a master class of high level consistency and at about the 9km mark, caught the third scratch bunch and formed a large bunch of seven riders.

Initially, as the two bunches merged, there was a little bit of chaos but they soon sorted themselves out and began working strongly towards the turnaround averaging approximately 44km/hr over that 5km section of the course.

The scratch bunch of Bryant and Whitehead now had their work cut out to try to close the gap on this much larger bunch ahead of them as the field proceeded to turnaround and make thier way back to the finish.

As the large seven-man bunch closed on the turnaround, Kroon misjudged his line and sped into the turn point and flat spotted his rear tyre as he locked up a rear wheel and almost T-boned Opperman.

He managed to pull off a great save and slotted straight back into the bunch with consistent riding.

Delaland was still holding good speed and working well by himself, but the chasing bunch of Bakker and Peake had closed the gap by four minutes.

Dethmore was now vulnerable having been dropped earlier by his bunch and Cranwell was closing in on him just a minute behind but wasn’t making up much time on Bakker and Peake. DePree and Kuhl had closed the five minute gap to Cranwell by three minutes and were working consistently to chase him down.

The large, combined bunch of Mann, Opperman, Kroon, Andrae, Dunn, Stasiw and Neave were powering on gobbling up time on the bunches ahead of them and were able to hold a 90 second gap to the chasing scratch bunch of Bryant and Whitehead.

The next hurdle for the bunches, apart from the consistently strong headwind, was the climb back over the scenic hill at the midway point of the return journey.

Coming from the opposite direction the hill is much shorter but has a much steeper gradient and challenged the slower bunches, assisting the chasing bunches to reduce the time gaps even more.

It was just as DePree and Kuhl were coming to the base of the hill that the seven rider bunch made the catch and charged past. Kuhl increased speed in an effort to merge with the bunch but realised that the much higher tempo to stay with the fast-moving bunch was too much on the steep ascent and had to back off.

At this point the whole bunch started to adjust their tempo to keep pace with the faster riders at the front and this caused a slight gap to form in the middle of the bunch.

Andrae realised he had to dig deep to jump across the gap with the trailing riders unable to make the move and the large bunch broke apart with Kroon, Mann, Opperman, Dunn and Andrae pulling clear leaving the rest of the riders to regroup.

DePree and Neave stayed together and picked up Cranwell just as they came over the crest of the hill forming a bunch of three, while Stasiw dropped back with Kuhl forming a bunch of two.

The two smaller bunches would now be vulnerable to the fast-chasing scratch bunch of Bryant and Whitehead.

While the still fast moving five rider bunch powered on down the long descent to make the hard left hand turn back onto Poonada Road, they flew past Dethmore as they continued to chase the two bunches ahead of them.

With all bunches now on Poonada Road and heading north to the finish line Delaland was still holding the others at bay until 1km to the finish when Bakker and Peake caught him.

Delaland lifted and gave it his all and latched onto the wheel of the two passing riders.

Meanwhile Mann and Kroon were pushing hard and with about 1.5km to the line the pace proved too much with Opperman just losing touch and then Andrae was the next to feel the high tempo with just Kroon, Mann and Dunn powering on to try to catch the three riders ahead but the finish line arrived just too early with Spek Peake coming to the front and getting the win in 1:04:53 just over Bakker by one second and then Delaland in third place another second further back.

Kroon really pumped his legs and took fourth just nine seconds later with a two second gap to Mann and another two seconds to Dunn in sixth, Andrae 1:05:26, next was Opperman 1:05:40. Bryant and Whitehead were the next bunch home in 1:06:34 with Bryant taking fastest time (47:04 adjusted), 20 seconds later Neave and Depree in 1:06:54 with Cranwell and Dethmore just two seconds later. Stasiw and Kuhl rounded out the event arriving shortly after in 1:08:03.

Iberdrola Australia, the sponsors for the race, supports community projects that aim to make a positive difference in the areas of education, fire and police departments, social welfare, country shows, indigenous groups, sports clubs, art festivals and youth programs.

RACE 3 PLACINGS

1st Spek Peake

2nd Mike Bakker

3rd Del Delaland

4th Miles Kroon

5th Rob Mann

6th Craig Dunn

7th Craig Andrae

8th Matthew Opperman

9th Dave Bryant(Fastest Time 47:04 adjusted)

10th Dan Whitehead

11th Chris Neave