It was a bright and sunny winters day for round 2 of our Road Racer of the Year (RROTY) handicap competition, although a distinct chill in the air had riders rugged up before the racing commenced. There was 2 laps of the 15km lumpy Long Swamp parcours on the menu for the riders; there was an excellent overall turnout of 25 riders on the day, and we also welcomed a new junior rider Abbott White who was keen to try his hand at road racing.

With the handicaps in place, Jacqui King kicked off proceedings as the lone GO rider. Next off at 2mins were the duo of Michael Singleton and Jo Wauch (welcome back Jo!), with the experience duo of Phil Tutt and Christian Girard showing Abbott the ropes at 4mins. These riders were followed by another trio at 6mins, with Ice Cold Billy Mara leading off with Dene Bourke & Richard Wilko. Just a minute further back at 7mins was a solid chase group of 5 riders, and with 200+ years of experience between them Kirky, Swanny, Clint, Roddy and Gareth would soon have the front-runners in their sights. It was then up to the grizzled Block TT duo of John Scott-Hamilton & Andy Robb to try and make a dent in time gaps setting off at 9mins, while trying to hold off a rampaging Scratch group consisting of G2I winner Codie Miller, Shaun Brennan, Brent, in-form junior Toby Inglis, Houlty, Olly Marshall, Holly, and last weeks winner Matt Bedford, who all started just 3mins behind at 12mins.

The outbound leg was into a slight headwind, and riders hit the first turn at 7.5km, the 6 & 7min groups had already joined forces, making for an 8 strong peleton that would be hard to chase down if they worked well together. The other rider in trouble was Pat Ferris, who dropped a chain on the outbound leg and was out of the race before it had even got going. The remaining riders pushed on to hit the 15km turn at the end of the first lap, with Jacqui still holding a decent lead, and the groups were all as-is…but the gaps were shrinking as the Scratch Express motored around the turn with Block in their sights.

As riders hit the final turn to commence the 7.5km run for home, the combined 6/7 mins group had hit the front of the race as they had mopped up the groups in front with only Jacqui King able to hang on; but their lead on the chasing Scratch/Block group had been whittled down to a slender gap of just 1 minute – could they hold on? It was a sufficient gap to get them over the final Imbota climb with their noses in front, but as Scratch upped the tempo they steamed through the remaining front group on the final kilometres; there was a chance to hitch a ride on the fast moving group, which meant as riders hit the final Dump Hill climb to to the finished, there was 14 riders in the mix with a chance for some RROTY points.

There was a big surge on the lower slopes of the climb that saw Toby, Brent and Codie go clear, while everyone else scrambled for wheels and tried to suck some oxygen into burning legs. As they hit the finish Brent & Toby had a gap over Codie, and in a close sprint it was young-gun Toby who took out the win and fastest time of the day – great racing Toby. With Brent & Codie taking the other podium spots, there was still the serious matter of who would get the remaining RROTY points, and with a final surge up the straight Andy & Houlty pipped Brenno on the line to take home the leftover bacon.

The rest of the riders rolled in not long behind, and a special note goes to Christian who marshalled Abbott from the start to the finish – great teamwork guys!

Thanks to Pete Hosking for doing the signs (even if the cones were set at the triathlon turn around!), Col for running the race, and Col & Wilf for expertly manning the turns.

Next week is the long weekend, so we’ve updated the calendar to run a graded Scratch race on Dangarsleigh.

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