Col de Shady Creek

18/07/2009

With the tour de France in full swing a small field of sleep deprived cyclist turned out to contest a scratch race at Shady creek.

With the state team time trial championships on Sunday in Ballarat numbers were down with some riders resting for this event.

A and B grade combined and raced over 3 laps. James Lalor was keen to force the pace right from the start and he established a good break going up the hill the first time. At the summit the A grade riders pushed the pace and jumped over to him quickly. This left the B grade quintet of Rob Monk, Jayman Prestige, Trev Rollinson, Dave Baillie and Jason Dastey to chase them down. James was rolling through with the A graders and the gap widened into the strong head wind along Darnum-Shady Creek Road. The B grade chase lacked organisation with riders reluctant to put themselves into the red zone to chase A grade.

On the climb the second time up Rob Monk decided a smaller chase group would work better so he put in an attack half way up the climb. Only Trev Rollinson was able to go with him and this pair put their heads down on the descent and toiled hard to chase over the gap to A grade. Nearing the half way point of Stuhrs Road the catch was made but Trev and Rob were fairly spent. At this point the A graders who were just rolling around finally took off up the road led by Shane Stiles. Rob, Trev and James settled into a rhythm to ensure the chasers behind would not catch them thinking A grade were gone for good.

Stiles, Thomson, Brenton Jones and Tristan Marut had other ideas though. They seemed keen to watch the B grade race so James, Trev and Rob caught them on the climb the final time. Rob noticed James was pocketed behind A grade so he attacked, establishing a small gap but James was not letting anyone get away. He caught and passed Rob and once again got a good ride down the hill on the back of A grade. Stiles thought it only fair to give Rob a hand on the decent so by the bottom James and Rob were back together but Trev was nowhere to be seen.

A grade did take off now, thanks to a 60km/h time trial effort from Stiles. He rode strongly to the finish doing most of the work on the front but young Brenton Jones proved too strong for him in the sprint. Thommo took out third place.

Rob and James rode together to the finish. James led out the sprint but he went from a little too far out and Rob came over the top for a good win. Trev was a clear third. Then followed Dave Baillie, Jason Dasty with Jayman finishing at the tail of the field.

The C grade race contained three riders who all completed the two laps of the 17km circuit. The first lap was raced steadily with all three riders sharing the workload evenly. Mick Watson pushed the pace going passed the Start/Finish line and put a gap between himself and the other two riders. Cy Monk bridged the gap between the two groups but Cy and Mick decided to wait for Dave Axford and conserve some energy for the last lap. Going up the hill the second time, Mick pushed the pace hard and caused Dave Axford to fall off the back of the group and made Cy work hard to stay on his wheel. Cy and Mick worked together for the rest of the lap with Dave making up some ground over the flat territory. Mick was too strong for Cy over the last 150 metres and had his first win, Dave came in shortly after Cy and Mick.

2009-07-18 Shady Creek – Photos courtesy of Tristan

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