11/03/2005
By Trent Brown
In near perfect conditions on a hot and clear day for cycle racing around Shady Creek, 41 starters made Staf Duncan’s job very difficult 15 minutes before the race. A large bunch from the Llyod Morgan group fresh from a 120 km “training’ ride during the Saturday morning, joined enthusiastic club members from the Warragul Cycling Club in a two lap handicap race around the circuit, including the climb up the Col du Shadee.
The outmarkers riding 14 minutes ahead of the scratchies (made up of those cyclists involved in the Lloyd Morgan training camp) included Glenda and Brendan Pridmore, Lawrence Maskill, Dani Bennett, Andrea Alexander, Alan Hauxwell, Steve Jackson and Steve Evans. While the first climb of the Col was completed altogether it took the toll on some of the riders who dropped off from the D grade peloton along Stuhrs Road . At a similar time Alan Hauxwell thought the pace was too slow and tried to drag the rest of the group through but to no avail. His first lap was nearly 30 seconds quicker than those he was riding with.
Starting 6 minutes after the D grade peloton, a group of 9 riders consisting of a mixture of Warragul Cycling Club and Latrobe City riders completed the first lap all together, no doubt under control of a couple of experienced riders Terry Kelly and Allan Beveridge. However once they reached the incline up the climb this bunch dropped some riders and a small group consisting of Micheal Pridmore, Trev Rollinson, Colin Brown, Allan and Samuel Beveridge and Andrew McKernan formed a small group who was primarily led out by Brett Miller who appeared very strong going over the top of the Shady.
The B grade bunch consisted of 9 riders and comprised a group whose combined talents would take them far on the day only to be captured by A grade and the scratch riders somewhere along the Stuhrs Road part of the circuit. Most of the group stayed together up the first climb of Shady with plenty of talk amongst the peloton in how to work together cohesively for the remainder of the race. Geoff Thomson was the ‘general’ in the group and his encouraging words gave plenty of advice to newer riders to B grade in how to effectively pull their turns. All of the group stayed together on the first lap until the bottom of the Col du Shadee when a voice could be heard from the back of the peloton “Come on lads, do it for B-grade!” or words to that effect, when most of the bunch turned round Rob Monk was spinning like crazy and eased off the peloton somewhere near the middle section of the climb. Once over the top, all riders including Tim Lee, Steve Twinning, James Henry, Geoff Thomson, Pete Bailey and Trent Brown worked well and managed to hold of those behind them at least to Stuhrs Road .
Two and half minutes in front of the scratch riders a group of 7 riders including the Sandner boys (Thomas and Stevie), Danny Dilger, Jason Kruger, Scott Keeble, Ben Serpell and Matt Malacarne set off knowing that if they didn’t perform well at the beginning of the race they would be mowed down somewhere near the top of Shady or just over the top of Shady by those lads riding off scratch. Some of the A graders managed to get just one lap in, either from exhaustion of trying to stay away or from a combination of new work commitments and or lack of training. We will be sure that these boys were probably ‘foxing’ considering the club championships are to be held in a weeks time around the Lillico circuit – we will wait and see. Meanwhile the scratch riders including a few familiar faces of Josh Arkarsu and John MacKenzie worked extremely hard in cooperation with the other riders from the Llyod Morgan training camp as they caught A-grade and then slowly reeled in B-Grade on the final lap near the Stuhrs road-Shady Creek-Darnum Road corner.
The pace heated up along this final stretch of the race with two riders jumping free, Darren Lapthorne and Josh Arkarsu while the others in the peloton (which included nearly the rest of the riders left on the circuit) played cat and mouse for a period of 1.5kms. John MacKenzie put the foot down to try and bridge the gap between the two who had got lose and the peloton who was on his wheel. Ben Edwards managed to join him, forming a nice group of four who rode away from the remaining riders in the pack. The win was taken out by Darren Lapthorne, second went to Josh Arkarsu, with John MacKenzie and Ben Edwards third and fourth respectively. In a sprint for fifth place Pete Bailey revved his legs up beating Geoff Thomson, James Henry, Stevie Sandner and Steve Twinning across the line.
Next week’s racing is at Lillico, with the Bikeland Club Championships to be run. All riders irrespective of age or grade will depart the start at Lillico at the same time.
