02/08/2008
A small but dedicated band of Cyclists turned out in extremely cold wintry conditions at Darnum on Saturday. Race director Stiles decided a handicap would warm them up so that was the race for the day.
First off with 6 minutes head start were Dave Baillie, Tristan Marut and Callan Barker. Callan decided Dave and Tristan were going too slow about half way through lap 1 of 5 and took off on his own. Dave and Tristan waited for the three minute bunch to catch them and joined in the chase but by this time Callan was long gone. Paul Yeatman and Shane Pettingill had three minutes head start on the scratch men. Shane found the pace a little tough and struggled to hold on to the hard riding Yeatman. The scratch bunch consisted of Shane Stiles, Brett Millar and Ashley Lucas. They set off at the same time as Rob Monk and James Lalor. Rob and James only had to complete 4 rather than 5 of the 8km laps.
James was riding strongly while Rob was showing all the signs of someone who had enjoyed 5 weeks off the bike. James let Rob do some work in the first 2 laps especially on the downhill run along Sthurs Road where his power to weight ratio was a help. On the hills past the milk factory on lap 3 James took off on his own.
Stiles and Lucus managed to drop Millar early but worked well together for most of the race. Stiles had to wait for Lucus on the hills but big Ash was a powerhouse on the flat sections and had no trouble holding speeds near 50km/h.
With one lap to go they had caught all the riders except Monk and Lalor. They passed Monk at the start of Sthurs Road but he managed to hold onto them down the hill. Lalor however would not be caught.
First was James, second Stiles third Lucus with Monk in fourth. Then followed Barker, Yeatman, Marut, Baillie and Pettinghill.
Next weeks race is at Cloverlea starting at 2.00pm. Members do not need to worry if they don’t have much training under their belt and don’t feel ready to race. Rob Monk and Neil Walker have shown in the past fortnight that racing without training at all is quite within your capabilities; not necessarily productive but quite achievable.
