At last the skies cleared and Saturday racing was back on at the weekend.  18 riders rolled up for the start and after a quick review of the situation it was decided to have an A and B graded scratch races.  This terrified a few riders who found themselves in A Grade territory for the first time and suggested a B+ Group might be in order but the rest were having none of it.  So 5 riders, classed as A- went off ahead of 6 riders in the traditional A Grade who were classed as A+ for the day, while a further 7 slotted into B Grade.  Keeping up with this?  Swanny, (clearly suffering from some serious jetlag) authoritatively advised this was a perfectly standard race structure, known as a Scratchicap…

The A- bunnies were given a 60 second start on their A+ counterparts over the 30K course and had managed to stay ahead at the 7.5K turn recording a sub-12m first quarter, strong riding from Holly Harris in particular kept the group away until the start of Imboda.  However, A+ were on fire, recording a 10m:57s first leg at an average speed of 41.1kph.  Both groups then merged, and with no casualties so far the pace stayed high over the return leg climbs.  Mick Harris, on his new bike was clearly out to impress and closing in on the dump hill he attacked and went over the top turning first.  The increased pace in response saw Phil Hess, Peter Hoskings and Sam Munday drop out of contention and the chasing group of 8 set off after Mick on the descent.

Meanwhile, back in B Grade, a more civilised race saw all 7 riders still together at the half-way mark and indeed still at the final turn.  It was at that point that they decided to dispense with the niceties and Pete Creagan, Phil Thomas, Luke Milan and Dene Burke put the hammer down on the hills.  Burkey was watching Phil like a hawk as they came up the dump hill for the final time and with Pete “I don’t do hills” Creagan behind them he was banking on at least 2nd as he slotted onto Keg Legs’ wheel ready for the jump, but PC had them both fooled and launched a big-ring burst as the road leveled out that gave him enough clean air to pull away and power over the line for a fine victory with Phil coming in second and Dene third, 9 seconds back.

The Scratchicap format seemed to be confusing everyone and with the group of 8 still together across the final flat with only the climb to go, Holty had seen enough of the pedestrian 45kph pace and with carbon roaring, he took the whole bunch on the outside and strung them out for a 750 metre joyride before signalling he was out of juice at which point Mick Harris spotted his favourite hill again, and attacked, again…  This time it looked promising although he’d got Kirky for company and both riders seemed to go clear before Harrison took up the chase on his own, overhauling a tiring Kirky for second but unable to reel in Mick Harris who recorded a very fine win much to the delight of his waiting fans at the summit.

Thanks to the McMillan family for rushing from the Juniors to do the signs and run the race – with a complete start and finish list in legible hand-writing – amazing!