Somehow it all came together on Saturday afternoon despite a last minute realisation that the signs weren’t out, no one had a key to the shed and it was raining. Lesser mortals might have decided it was too hard and called off the race but phone calls were made, keys were found and San Remo fired up the troup carrier, rising to the challenge. With Col busy winning gold medals, Swanny gamely took on the role of handicapper, introducing a novel approach and announcing the gaps in reverse order, relative to the time of the scratch bunch. This added an air of mystery to the proceedings and also terrified Chris Stace when he heard he was going off 12 minutes.
Our lone Go rider was followed at 5 minutes by a group of seven that included returning rider Chris Jones and which also extended a warm welcome to Pete Harris who has finally seen sense and made the transition over to road racing. Joking aside, it is great to see so many quality MTB riders racing with us on the road these days and yesterday we had Peter Hosking, Hugh Munday, Dave Harris and Mick Harris also in tow.
This seven-strong group was followed just a minute later by five more riders and within the first lap they’d made the catch and combined to form an impressive power house that would take some beating. Swanny’s abacus hadn’t been working too well in the damp conditions and a combined Scratch & Block group of eight riders eventually left a further 6 minutes behind.
With their work cut out, Scratch set about the task at speed but quickly lost some horses from the engine room and by the end of lap 1 it was clear the day would belong to the 10-strong bunch ahead who turned just 45s down on leader Chris Stace having only conceded just over a minute on the chasers. These 10 riders stayed together until the last lap up Imbota when Dave Harris launched himself off the front. Initially no one responded but then Rhys decided to go after him, almost latching on before he surged once again. With Pete Hosking in tow, the pair caught Dave over the top and the three riders worked together until Dump Hill when Dave went once again, proving unbeatable on the final climb aboard his new bike. He pulled away strongly to take a well deserved victory. Rhys Williams wasn’t too far behind him to take second place and Peter Hosking closed off the top 3 places.
Scratch had managed to pull back another 1m:30s on the second lap but when Sam Munday claimed fastest time from Mick Hoult, a massive 3m:38s had passed since Dave Harris crossed the line. Critically however at the top of the RROTY league, Kirky has been displaced by Wilf with Chris Stace hanging onto third spot.
Big thanks goes to Luke “Fingers” Milan for rising to the challenge of picking the locks on the shipping container, collecting the trailer and putting the signs out in record time so everyone else could enjoy an afternoon of competitive racing. Thanks also to Swanny for developing some interesting handicaps, come back soon Col!
Next week we’re back on Boorolong for a 30k points race which should be interesting and note there will be no juniors next weekend either due to the public holiday.
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