The word on the street was that the Road Racer of the Year competition was shaping up to be something special and they came in droves to grab the 3 points and stake a claim to the prestigious title…
28 riders signed on, yet again in hot 30+ degree conditions, for Round 1 – the 30K Dangarsleigh Handicap. The handicapping had been worked on long and hard in the preceding days and after some last minute fine tuning, the start order was announced with no fewer than 8 separate groups spread across 13 minutes. Some late nerves from Luke Milan got him shifted up to the 3 minute group, a smart move on his part but probably not one we’ll fall for next time. There didn’t seem to be too many complaints about the handicapping although there was a big shock for Mick Harris (but not to anyone else who’s ridden with him recently) as he found himself making up a 3H scratch threesome with Houlty and Harrison at 13mins.
Dave Jenner got things underway with Karlee and Ray Phillips, followed by the notably improving Bob Murison and Jo Wauch with Luke at 3 minutes. These groups, and indeed the first 6 groups stayed together and away for the first 15K leg. Back at the business end, the 3H’s had snaffled up the 12 minute group to make a powerful bunch that was tearing up the road into the wind and bearing down ominously on the 10m:30s group at the half-way mark.
As the riders turned, and assisted by the tail-wind, the pace picked up notably. The Block/3H group of six drove hard, so hard in fact that despite continuing to pick off the field, they hadn’t collected too many shadows by the time the long drag up Monument hill came into view. Swanny went with a little early testing surge from Harrison who was clearly enjoying the pace, which was relentless over the top and this caused a further splintering of the group with Paul Williams one of the few to dig in and stay in contact with a particular gutsy ride. A rapidly improving Brendon Cole came agonisingly close to hanging on and recovered sufficiently to sprint for home.
Meanwhile up ahead, the group of Pete Creagan, Darren Schaefer and Dene Bourke had stayed away through disciplined riding and good strong turns. Darren justifying his promotion towards the back of the field demonstrating mongrel (his word, not mine) tenacity and never say die attitude – one to watch there. When the train came through on the move towards Peterson’s, Captain Creagan caught the last carriage and along with Paul Williams, were the only surviving passengers on the rollercoaster ride home with Cell Block H.
Harrison and Houlty were hauling everyone home and with the leaders in sight, it was now just a question of whether they could catch the 3-minute group of Jo Wauch, Luke Milan and Bob Murison who had combined well and had the smell of victory in their nostrils. Despite winding things up dramatically on the final run-in, the catch wasn’t made and 21 seconds after Jo had grabbed it on the line from Luke, Harrison and Houlty cleanly took 4th and 5th (recording a blistering time of 44m:16s for the 30K at an average of 40.66 kph) with the rest of the 8-man group sweeping through 2 seconds later – including Mick Harris, justifying his worthy inclusion in the 3H scratch group.
Thanks to Johnny for running the race and being on sign-duty (and grabbing 4 RROTY points in the process) and to Sam Jenner who took the photos on the line to counter any disputes and give us our detailed split times – hope to see you lining up next time Sam.
So RROTY Round 1 drew to a close with Jo Wauch top of the leaderboard. Results are now posted on the league standings page and there’s a handy link over on the right of the home page to get to that anytime you want to find it. Also, if you just want to check the top of the league, you can see a simplified snapshot if you scroll to the bottom of this and any other page.
Rider Place Start Time Handicap Finish Time Elapsed Avg
WAUCH Jo 01 4:15:24 PM 03:00 5:09:16 PM 0:53:52 33.42
MILAN Luke 02 4:15:24 PM 03:00 5:09:16 PM 0:53:52 33.42
MURISON Bob 03 4:15:24 PM 03:00 5:09:19 PM 0:53:55 33.38
MUNDAY Harrison 04 4:25:24 PM 13:00 5:09:40 PM 0:44:16 40.66
HOULT Mick 05 4:25:24 PM 13:00 5:09:40 PM 0:44:16 40.66
SWAN Andrew 06 4:24:24 PM 12:00 5:09:42 PM 0:45:18 39.74
CREAGAN Peter 07 4:20:24 PM 08:00 5:09:42 PM 0:49:18 36.51
KIRK Andrew 08 4:24:24 PM 12:00 5:09:42 PM 0:45:18 39.74
MUNDAY Dave 09 4:24:24 PM 12:00 5:09:42 PM 0:45:18 39.74
HARRIS Mick 10 4:25:24 PM 13:00 5:09:42 PM 0:44:18 40.63
WILLIAMS Paul 11 4:21:24 PM 09:00 5:09:42 PM 0:48:18 37.27
WILKINSON Peter 12 4:17:54 PM 05:30 5:10:23 PM 0:52:29 34.30
COLE Brendon 13 4:21:24 PM 09:00 5:10:29 PM 0:49:05 36.67
SCHAEFER Darren 14 4:20:24 PM 08:00 5:10:31 PM 0:50:07 35.92
BOURKE Dene 15 4:20:24 PM 08:00 5:10:46 PM 0:50:22 35.74
HALE Rob 16 4:22:54 PM 10:30 5:10:46 PM 0:47:52 37.60
HARRIS Dave 17 4:22:54 PM 10:30 5:11:40 PM 0:48:46 36.91
HOSKING Peter 18 4:21:24 PM 09:00 5:11:40 PM 0:50:16 35.81
WILKINSON Richard 19 4:17:54 PM 05:30 5:12:43 PM 0:54:49 32.84
KELLER Wilfried 20 4:17:54 PM 05:30 5:13:06 PM 0:55:12 32.61
MUNDAY Sam 21 4:22:54 PM 10:30 5:13:57 PM 0:51:03 35.26
MARA Billy 22 4:17:54 PM 05:30 5:14:47 PM 0:56:53 31.64
JENNER Dave 23 4:12:24 PM 00:00 5:14:58 PM 1:02:34 28.77
McMILLAN Karlee 24 4:12:24 PM 00:00 5:15:09 PM 1:02:45 28.69
PHILLIPS Ray No Data 4:12:24 PM 00:00 No Data No Data No Data
MACIVER Col No Data 4:22:54 PM 10:30 No Data No Data No Data
HARRIS Holly No Data 4:22:54 PM 10:30 No Data No Data No Data
TINDALE Rob No Data 4:22:54 PM 10:30 No Data No Data No Data