It was the shortest day of the year but 20 brave souls were still tempted out onto Boorolong under grey skies today. The threat of rain didn’t eventuate however and a great, dry days racing was once again had by all, at least until the ride home from the Bowlo*.

We had return visitors in the form of Jay Callaghan and Bindy Cowen down from sunny QLD  which gave Harrison some company back in scratch although the 6-strong block group was only 30s up the road from them – enough to create the need for an early chase, and of course they obliged. Further up the road was an 8-minute pair of Sam Munday and Rob Hale who plugged away but failed to reel in the 5-strong 7-minute group ahead and were swallowed up by most of the chasers at the foot of the twisties just before the turn. About half-way home, the remnants of the 7-minute group were snaffled up and the hungry bunch turned their attention to the far horizon with Holly Harris showing good form joining the faster riders rolling turns at the front.

While all this had been going on, up ahead Bindy and Jo Wauch had been working well and had combined with the 2m:30 group of Clint Bourke, Richard Wilkinson and Wilf to carry a good lead deep into the homeward leg, to a point where they might have entertained thoughts of staying away to the finish. When the chasing bunch crested the final climb however, the leaders were in sight and as the pace picked up in the final run-in, the catches were made.

The final show-down inevitably involved the two scratch riders and Harrison just pipped Jay on the line for victory with Ben Harris taking a comfortable 3rd and Swanny 4th. H’s time of 47:19 was almost a minute faster than his mainly solo time on the same course two weeks earlier. Younger brother Sam mopped up the remaining RROTY points followed by Phil Thomas and Clint Bourke who finished well with strong rides.

In spite of a no show from San Remo, he still has an impressive lead in the RROTY competition.  Ice Cold Billy has narrowed the gap but it is still sitting at 14 points and in fact the top 5 positions remain unchanged.  Swanny has jumped from 10th to 6th and Wilf and Richard Wilkinson also skipped up a handful of places to sit comfortably in the top 10, ousting Col, Brendon and Houlty who didn’t ride today.

Thanks to the King family for running the race, capturing the results and for putting the signs out with consummate ease despite Swanny suggesting Theron might need to get a move on with just an hour to go!

Next weekend is the Senior Club Championships out on Dangarsleigh which will be run over 2 events this year – an individual time trial and a set of graded scratch races.  See you there!

* The ‘ride’ home from the Bowlo was tackled with courage by Johnny and Ice Cold Billy who braved a massive looking storm head on.  Kirky however, flagged down a passing ute and after throwing his bike in the back, jumped in the cab and instructed the driver to take him home…

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