What a ripping day for a race!
GSCC Graded Scratch Races were the call for the day, after the Benalla Open was cancelled.
A,B,C & D grades fronted the new start line on Vickery’s Rd for the 50km race at 9am, just for something different.
The course menu read as follows … Start at Vickery’s Rd, out to Portreath Rd, back to Hendy Main then 3 laps of the main circuit, finish A in Larcombes Rd.
With a stack of our club mates riding the Amy Gillett, Gran Fondo, numbers were down, especially for the A Graders. All in all it was a great day on the bike.
Pictures show Grade winners and place getters (clipboard)…
A Grade ~ Andy Goodwin
B Grade ~ Daryl Suter
C Grade ~ Mandy Hosking
D Grade ~ Grant Rogers
C Grade Write Up
Write a story, they asked…
Okay!
Once upon a time, there were seven riders, all of them liked to ride bikes, even race! One girl named Mandy, she liked to ride down hills, really fast. Another girl, Tina liked to go up hills, really fast…. this was a dilemma for Mandy because the bike race they were racing in went up hill a lot!
The seven riders all gathered together on the start line for a bicycle race, on a beautiful spring morning. The birds were chirping, the sun was shinning and everyone had big smiles on their faces.
Mandy looked around at the other six riders. She noticed one rider whom she remembered rode last year with the A graders, named Stephen… ‘How are you going?’ he asked Mandy. ‘Okay but, not as good as last year. You?’ Stephen replied by saying, this is my fifth ride for the year. Ah, the old ‘I’m going bad’ trick, she thought.
Next to Mandy sat Barry, she’d ridden with him many times and remembered all too well he didn’t like feeling wind in his face, so he sat at the back of the bunch… must be a condition, cause he did that a lot!
There was a nice boy in the bunch too named Jamie, but you had to be careful of him, he liked winning races; having just won the Eureka Open.
Two chaps sitting at the back were a stark contrast from each other, James a big burly bloke and Noel, a little fella at least a foot shorter.
The guy they call Skinny, sent us on our way for our adventure. We all started to roll around each other until this little bump in the road, that went up, up, up saw Tina push down really hard on her pedals… everyone sat behind her until she got to the top.
Then the hill went down, down, down… Mandy tucked down and off she rolled. The riders from the other bunches headed in the opposite direction.. they didn’t have smiles on their faces.
Mandy managed to get half way up that nasty hill before Tina and co. passed her, but she managed to get to the top okay … she looked back and saw that big brute of a man, James had fallen off the bunch.
Okay, I’ll stop the silly story telling now…
We rode the next three laps like this… Hendy Main in the headwind, Jamie, Noel and Mandy (me) sharing the front on occasion. Up to the chicane first lap, Jamie and Noel mostly … up the road. Me down the road… cause I’m mean. Tina followed suit next lap… down the road.
Grays Rd first lap, saw Stephen make an appearance on the front, hitting an impressive 52kph after the turn, stringing out the whole bunch. I was straight on his wheel. Stephen did the same the next lap and on the third, but everyone was onto him so he threw in the towel early.
Forest Rd had everyone riding in the gutter… the boys closing down the road with the North Westerly. Not the good tyres!
Last lap, I saw Barry for the first time… locked firmly on Stephen’s wheel, going up the chicane to the finish, while Tina and Noel had the front covered. I tried in vain to edge Barry off Steve’s wheel with a few choice words, a cheeky get to the front Barry… to no avail.
I rolled up to Noel, who was pumpin’ those pedals pretty hard and sat behind him while he ticked away to the top… he’ll learn.
Jamie seemed cooked, having done too much around the course… great honest ride. Tina was looking comfy and raring to go, Barry was just biding his time for the sit and sprint, while Noel again on the front, took us around the corner into Larcombes towards the finish line.
I was looking for Steve, who I knew had a good kick… he rolled past me, had me sheltered from the wind, just right.
Noel went 600 from the line, bless him. Cue Barry the predictable, 400 to go….he took off like a cut cat! I barked ‘go’ to Steve who reacted with an elbow flick. I was on my own.
With Barry and Noel now 50 metres up the road and 300 hundred to go, I just kicked, drove down on my pedals as hard as I could. Made a lot of ground quickly, before I knew it, I’d crossed the line a bike length in front of the bunch. Sweet!
Congrats Tina for making it a girls one, two… picking up 2nd place. Third went to Barry, who copped an earful for being beaten by the girls!