Primed by almost 3 weeks of TdF watching, 25 riders turned up to emulate their heroes on the lumpy Boorolong 30k course this afternoon. Yet again there were some speculative efforts at influencing the handicaps including Andy Robb’s old chestnut about jetlag but Houlty was having none of it and stuck to his scientific algorithm which he seems to be refining very effectively.

Young Harry Wooster was back for more fun and games and he and rolled off the start line with three minutes on Dad, igniting an interesting family contest that Harry would win this week. Josh Denham and Rhys Williams were both making a comeback and jagged a ride in the seven minute group with Richard Wilko.

There were cries of derision at the size of the 9m:30s bunch. Nine riders roared off the line including Andy “Jetlag” Robb who along with Dave “Flappy Shorts” Harris and Keglegs, would give the scratch pairing of Dave Munday and Mick Harris a good run for their money in the closing stages.

While the monster group was barreling along, further back there were a few casualties. Sam King did his good Samaritan thing when Carl seemed to have punctured on the way out. On Blacks Hill Flappy Shorts dropped your author (who was having a bad day) like a stone who then officially formed the gruppetto when Scratch rocketed past a few minutes later. As a consequence, knowledge of the rest of the race is a little limited.

Strava tells us that Rhys pulled away from Josh and Wilko on the twisties with Jetlag returning the favour shortly after the turn but by now Scratch and Flappy Shorts were only 40s behind them. Everything came together on the long drag up from Dumaresq Rd and from then it was officially on! Jetlag had a crack on the downhill sections and then Phil Thomas went to the front once the road leveled out. This was a good thing as it strung the riders out avoiding any bunching. Jetlag had one more big effort with 1km to go but Scratch had it well covered. With a couple of hundred metres remaining, Mick Harris hit the afterburners and ripped past everyone to charge over the line for a comfortable victory and fastest time on the day that sees him also rocket up the Road Racer League.

Josh Denham clearly hasn’t lost his sprint with an impressive second place ahead of Dave Munday and Dave Harris with Jetlag just securing the last of the bonus points by a tyre width over Keglegs.

At the top of the Road Racer League Mick Harris goes from 7th to 3rd and Dave Munday from 6th to 4th but Chris Stace and Alex Thomas are still 3 points to the good in the top two places.

Congratulations to Mick and many thanks to Paul Williams for impeccable sign duty and running the race. Next week Tamworth are holding the John Dewhurst handicap race so get down the hill to that one if you are able to. For those unable to race there, we’ll have a 45km effort on Long Swamp for Round 12.

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