Well done to Darren Richards for winning the Colac Open riding off limit and holding off a fast finishing Marcus Coppock and a pack of riders behind him. Geelong did especially well in today’s race placing in 8 of the first 10 places, see race report below by Darren Richards ….
A sunny morning greeted us at Cororooke for the 2018 Colac May Open. I arrived feeling quietly confident today as the outmarker along with the tireless worker Ian Sumner that we may be able to hold on for 30-40 km before being overtaken. As the “road general” Ian said the plan was simple, go as hard as we can for as long as we can. A couple of early climbs then the course flattened out a bit around the lake, as we hit the highway around the 30 km mark we hear over race radio that we are holding the group behind so we pedal onwards towards the next goal at 40km. As the 40 km passes and still no sign of the bunch so although tiring we both push hard up the hill back towards Alvie.
Near the top of the climb Ian gives me the nod to push on without him so when I reach the top it is full speed ahead towards the finish, legs hurting but determined to not look back, just suffer. With a lack of cohesion in the chasers proving to be costly I take my first look behind with 500 to go and can see riders coming at me but luckily I hold on by about 20 meters from the fast finishing 2nd Marcus Coppock, 3rd Jim Burzacott, 4th Howard Duncan (all 18 min) 5th Gavin Gamble, 6th Kevin Lee, 7th Tina Stenos,(all 22 min) 8th (should have been 22 but 18 min as he forgot his knicks, HaHa he won’t do that again) Umberto Scolaro, 9th Vincent Haveaux (18min) and Ian Sumner (limit) rounding out the top ten. Fastest time: Tim Canny Eureka
Well Done to GSCC for taking 8 of the top 10 places!!