RACE 9 brought the Mount Gambier Cycling Club to Kongorong to hold its feature race for the 2025 Spring Series, the Bailey Memorial.<\/p>\n
The Bailey Memorial holds great significance to the club and is in memory of Allan Sydney Bailey, who passed away after a fairly innocuous fall while competing in a Cup Race on the return leg from Port McDonnell.<\/p>\n
He was held in high regard by his friends and peers as a true gentleman and courageous competitor who had no equal.<\/p>\n
A champion of the region, he was considered arguably one of its finest athletes.<\/p>\n
Since its inception in 1932, the Bailey Memorial race has been a part of the club\u2019s cycling history and has been run every season since with the exception of the COVID year.<\/p>\n
The coveted trophy race is always hotly contested due to its legendary significance so the Mount Gambier Cycling Club thought that it would be fitting that it was presented to the race winner by a local legendary rider Ray Bilney, who competed in the 1966 and 1970 Commonwealth Games in road cycling, winning a silver medal in the road race in Edinburgh in 1970.<\/p>\n
Hailing from Ballarat, he won three consecutive Australian road race titles from 1964 to 1966.<\/p>\n
Bilney competed for Australia in the road race at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo where he finished fourth at just 18-years-old.<\/p>\n
Twice awarded Ballarat Sportsman of the Year, Bilney was the Australian Cyclist of the Year in 1965 and 1966, winning the coveted Sir Hubert Opperman Trophy.<\/p>\n
Bilney was inducted into the Victorian Cycling Hall of Fame in 2014.<\/p>\n
Eleven Mount Gambier Cycling Club riders took to the Kongorong course with the limit bunch of Spek Peake and Porridge Dethmore starting their race on the stroke of 9am.<\/p>\n
A larger second limit bunch of five riders were the next to the line, with Phil Stasiw, Amali Judd, Troy Mustey, John DePree and John Cranwell given their starting orders at 9.06am.<\/p>\n
A further six minutes had elapsed before the last four riders of the scratch bunch, Matt Opperman, Miles Kroon, Ethan McKenny and Craig Andrae, began their pursuit for the Bailey Memorial Trophy.<\/p>\n
The riders were set to pass the timekeeper four times as they made their way around the Kongorong loop circuit of 8.5km per lap to total 34km as they crossed the start\/finish line at Kongorong Primary School.<\/p>\n
The course is flat and with the light wind allowed for some fast racing.<\/p>\n
The riders leave the start\/finish line heading north for 300m and make the first sharp left hand turn heading west passing Kongorong CFS shed and football club entrance, through the township on Hay Terrace approximately 800m to the first sweeping left hand turn heading south west onto Perkins Road where there is a slight rise before hitting the next sweeper about 200m away.<\/p>\n
The riders then travel south on Nene Valley Road along the back straight for about 2.2km into the next sharp left hand turn and now heading east for about 2.1km on Shepherds Lane before making the last and fastest sharp left hand turn on School Road and heading north back towards Kongorong School and the start\/finish line approx. 2.9km away.<\/p>\n
The limit bunch were working well on their first lap holding a steady pace completing their first lap in 17 minutes and needing to hold a gap of one minute and 30 seconds per lap to keep the second limit bunch at bay.<\/p>\n
The second limit bunch had other ideas and were working much better than anticipated as they clocked their first lap at 20 minutes 30 seconds, meaning they had closed the gap by two minutes and 30 seconds.<\/p>\n
The scratch bunch were the next to complete their first lap.<\/p>\n
They needed to close a gap of one min 30 seconds per lap to catch the bunch ahead but with a first lap of 25 min 30 seconds they were going to have to lift their pace significantly unless the second limit bunch gone out too hard.<\/p>\n
At the completion of the second lap, the limit bunch of Spek and Porridge were still working consistently, lapping at exactly the same time as their first lap but were losing time to the fast pursuing bunch of Stasiw, Judd, Cranwell, Mustey and DePree who had closed the gap even further.<\/p>\n
Although they had slowed slightly from their first lap they were now only just over a minute behind.<\/p>\n
The scratch bunch of Opperman, Kroon, McKenny and Andrae had splintered part way through the lap with only Opperman, Kroon and Andrae passing the timekeeper and with one less rider the speed had also reduced and even though they had closed further on the speeding second limit bunch, the time gap had been reduced to only four minutes.<\/p>\n
McKenny arrived back at the start area shortly after but decided to pull in and would take no further part in the race.<\/p>\n
Part way through the third lap the fast moving train of Stasiw, Judd, Cranwell, Mustey and DePree caught the limit bunch with Spek and Porridge ramping up their speed to catch the draft of the fast moving second limit bunch.<\/p>\n
They managed to hold their wheel but that was all they could do and weren\u2019t able to work in the bunch and for Spek and Porridge it would be just a matter of hanging on until the end.<\/p>\n
The now seven member bunch were hitting the start\/finish line to start the all important last lap and getting their last time check which had showed they had slowed but only slightly from their previous lap and were lapping very consistently.<\/p>\n
The timekeeper could see by the looks of determination on their faces that they were up for the fight.<\/p>\n
Three minutes and 15 seconds later the scratch bunch passed the timekeeper with the lead rider calling for a time check to the bunch ahead.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t what they wanted to hear as the race was slipping away, but with some words of encouragement to his fellow bunch riders the lead rider in Opperman tried to spur them on for a last ditch effort to catch the bunch ahead.<\/p>\n
The seven strong bunch were working hard and trying to up their pace making sure the pursuing scratch bunch would not make up the time gap.<\/p>\n
The wind had started to shift to more westerly giving the riders some relief on the back straight as it is protected by forest on its west side.<\/p>\n
The size of the bunch allowed riders to hide in the bunch and get protection from the wind and allow the draft to pull them along as the speed of the bunch was lifting, turning left onto Shepherds Lane and catching a light tail wind increased speeds even further.<\/p>\n
They knew they had to leave it all out there to make sure they kept the scratch bunch at bay.<\/p>\n
Scratch had lifted their pace but couldn\u2019t sight the bunch ahead.<\/p>\n
Kroon and Opperman were still working strongly with Andrae now trying to preserve his position and hold on, only being able to work after some rest at the back of the bunch.<\/p>\n
The seven combined bunch riders came into view with about 400m to the finish line with DePree leading and increasing speed but Judd was the first to challenge coming past with Stasiw in pursuit as he started to wind up his legs and with 50m to the line charged past Judd and held his position to the line taking first place by a bike length.<\/p>\n
Judd finished hard for second place, and just behind her the strong and consistent DePree finished in third, then three seconds to Mustey in fourth, a further four seconds to Peake and then eight seconds to Cranwell with Porridge coming in shortly after.<\/p>\n
The scratch bunch worked hard but just couldn\u2019t close the gap with Kroon and Opperman sprinting for fastest time with Opperman just getting the better of Kroon and then Andrae rounding out the placings.<\/p>\n
The club is grateful for the support of Race 9 sponsor SOULFUL BIRTHING with representative Leanne Kroon making the presentations at the race site to the three placegetters and fastest time and Ray Bilney making the presentation of the Bailey Memorial trophy to winner Phil Stasiw.<\/p>\n