THIRTEEN Mount Gambier Cycling Club riders nominated for Race 6 of the Spring Season with a late scratching dropping the numbers to twelve by start time.<\/p>\n
Blustery conditions with rain threating didn\u2019t deter the 12 from some very spirited and strong riding, culminating in all bunches closing their handicaps at the pointy end of the race.<\/p>\n
The Attamurra course is a very flat open course with the riders at the mercy of the wind with very little protection on offer.<\/p>\n
The 33 km\/hr west south westerly winds gusting to 40 km\/hr gave the riders a tail\/cross wind on the outward leg as they headed north east to the turnaround point at 15km just short of Paltridge Road, with the return leg heading south west into a head\/cross wind back to the starting point at the intersection of Sherwin Road.<\/p>\n
Club president Liam Fielding was officiating as time keeper and got the first bunch of Spek Peake and Porridge Dethmore away at 9am, with Troy Mustey and Amelia Milne starting three minutes later, with Amelia making the jump from first to second limit bunch after a number of podium places this season and coming under scrutiny from the handicapper, who thought it was time for her to gain some valuable experience in a faster bunch.<\/p>\n
Next to take to the course was the ever consistent duo of John de Pree and John Cranwell giving up a further three minutes.<\/p>\n
Phil Stasiw was next to the line with his handicap reduced to just a one minute lag to the previous bunch as he would be riding the event solo after his riding partner had scratched.<\/p>\n
Even the one minute gap with the day\u2019s windy conditions would prove to be a tough task.<\/p>\n
The last bunch to assemble at the start and giving Stasiw a five minute head start would be Miles Kroon, Craig Andrae, Chris Neave, Morgan Mutch and Matt Opperman.<\/p>\n
With the bunches on course and heading to the turnaround, all were utilising what tail wind they could find to keep their speeds as high as possible realising their average speeds would reduce dramatically on the return journey into the wind.<\/p>\n
Matt Opperman was like a man possessed and rode off the front of the scratch bunch and held a gap of 150m over the other four scratch men for about the first 7km. T<\/p>\n
he trailing four riders working smoothly were keeping him at a manageable distance and slowly began to reel him back in, although he may have slowed down realising he would need to work with the larger bunch on the return leg into the wind.<\/p>\n
Young junior rider Miles Kroon was working above his years holding some longer turns and high speeds with some exceptionally strong efforts.<\/p>\n
All bunches hit the turnaround point at the 15km mark, still intact with all holding good speeds due to the tail\/cross wind.<\/p>\n
Gaps between the bunches had only closed by relatively small margins but turning to come home and now facing a strong head\/cross wind those gaps would start to close fairly quickly as the stronger bunches were able to hold a much higher average speed.<\/p>\n
At about the 19km mark, Mustey with far more experience in his legs began to pull a gap on Amelia who had worked well to this point at a much higher tempo than what she was normally accustomed to and wasn\u2019t able to hold the higher pace.<\/p>\n
DePree and Cranwell had closed ground on Mustey and Milne and were now able to catch and pass Amelia and pursued Mustey and were able to make the catch on him at about the 20km mark.<\/p>\n
Mustey was able to stay with DePree and Cranwell as they passed and they formed a bunch of three riders with them able to work together and giving them more strength to chase down Spek and Porridge who were not that far ahead.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile back at about the 17km mark, Neave had sufficiently cooked his legs with the higher tempo and lost touch with the scratch bunch to ride the last 13km by himself as the scratch bunch went on in pursuit of the second scratch rider Stasiw, who was still working hard in his solo effort chasing down Milne.<\/p>\n
The newly formed bunch of Mustey, DePree and Cranwell had chased down and caught Spek and Porridge. With about 8km to the finish line, Spek and Porridge were able to catch the draft created by the passing three riders and managed to sit in the draft and use it to their advantage to get relief from the prevailing headwind.<\/p>\n
The now five strong bunch would be able to stick together as they worked towards the finish line.<\/p>\n
The scratch bunch now of only four riders, Andrae, Mutch, Kroon and Opperman working very strongly together, closed on and passed Milne and then at about 25km caught Stasiw who was able to up his pace as the four riders came past and he too was able to get in their draft and hold onto the back on the bunch and start to work with them.<\/p>\n
Now also with a five rider bunch, they worked even harder to catch the five riders ahead to close the gap before the finish line.<\/p>\n
As the finish line approached the bunch of DePree, Mustey, Cranwell, Spek and Porridge began to jostle for the sprint to the line with DePree leading out and thinking he had the win,<\/p>\n
Mustey made a last ditch effort for the line and took the win by two seconds over DePree who took second place and Spek just a second later in third, Cranwell six secs fourth, with Porridge one second later in fifth place.<\/p>\n
With the scratch bunch having closed down a lot of space to the first bunch, they just weren\u2019t able to bridge the gap missing out by 35 seconds with Opperman out sprinting the other scratch riders and taking sixth place and fastest time just three seconds ahead of Kroon with a second each separating Andrae, Mutch and then Stasiw.<\/p>\n
A short time later Milne and then Neave got to the line to finish a hard day at the office.<\/p>\n
Organisers would like to thank our Race 6 sponsor, Personal Training For Your Pooch<\/p>\n
RACE 6 PLACINGS<\/p>\n
1st Troy Mustey<\/p>\n
2nd John DePree<\/p>\n
3rd Spek Peake<\/p>\n
4th John Cranwell<\/p>\n
5th Porridge Dethmore<\/p>\n
6th Matt Opperman (Fastest time)<\/p>\n
7th Miles Kroon<\/p>\n
8th Craig Andrae<\/p>\n
9th Morgan Mutch<\/p>\n
10th Phil Stasiw<\/p>\n
11th Amelia Milne<\/p>\n
12th Chris Neave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THIRTEEN Mount Gambier Cycling Club riders nominated for Race 6 of the Spring Season with a late scratching dropping the numbers to twelve by start time. Blustery conditions with rain threating didn\u2019t deter the 12 from some very spirited and strong riding, culminating in all bunches closing their handicaps at the pointy end of the […]<\/p>\n