Masterchef Moment at Cycling Race!

21/02/2015

by Jayman Prestidge

As much as I hate plugging crap reality tv, the title goes with the ingredients below.  ed.

To win a bike race you need to get the recipe right. Just like baking a cake you need to plan in advance, have the ingredients in even proportions, and bake it for exactly the right time. When the race is a Handicap you also need to ‘win the lottery’ by being put in a bunch that works well.

Seventeen riders were the ingredients selected for Saturday mornings race. The Handicapper set the groups and time marks with the first rider, Kerryn Milner, leaving sixteen minutes ahead of the fastest bunch of riders.

Kerryn was pursued by a bunch of five riders that were six minutes behind. Tyler Meunier launched from the start line so quickly that Richard Bridge and Duane McDonald were shed from the group in the first 500 metres. This left this group without some key ingredients, with only Jason Tubnor, Trevor Rollinson and Tyler remaining to try and reduce the gap to Kerryn.

Four minutes and thirty seconds back was the Chopping Block group of six riders. With a blend of youth, veterans, experienced and inexperienced racers, it was this bunch that could produce anything. They had the choice to bake a perfect cake and see the victor come from their group. Or, they could over cook the mix, and come home with nothing. Peter Finlayson led the group well and each time they passed the start finish line they looked smooth. They were gaining on the groups in front of them consistently and with one lap to go were only one minute and ten seconds behind the leading group.

The leading group consisted of Tyler Meunier, Jason Tubnor and Trevor Rollinson. With two laps to go they looked strong. At the bell lap, the strongest rider of the group was dropped from his bunch – some 300 metres in arrears of Rollinson and Tubnor. Unfortunately for Tyler he was thrown out of the oven after pulling a monster turn on the front, and then having his fellow riders not wait for him to recover from his effort. Tyler will not make that mistake again – he will make sure he never over bakes a turn!

The Scratch bunch featured a group of six riders at the start line, with Paul Yeatman being shed on lap 1, and visiting rider Darren Spiteri ‘sitting up’ at the end of lap two to save his legs for his important mountain bike race the next day. Paul Yeatman is a man that always prepares his ingredients well for racing, so it was interesting to see him get the mix wrong in the first lap of the race. He battled on solo until the finish negative splitting his last lap despite his hill allergy arising past the milk factory.

At the bell lap the race was setup for a great finish. Tubnor and Rollinson were one minute and ten seconds ahead of the Finlayson bunch, who were fifty seconds ahead of the Scratch bunch.

Scratch was working very hard, with Shane Stiles, Graham Parker, and Chris Joustra coming past for the bell looking extremely smooth. Colin Aitken was not pulling turns but still hanging in. Race Director Jarrod Jones yelled out the time gaps to the Chopping Block and Leading groups which strengthened the resolve of the Scratch-men.

Given the time deficit that needed to be eroded, Shane Stiles added some special spice to the ingredient bowl. He negotiated with the others that if any of the Scratch-men won the race, they would ‘chop’ the prize money up evenly. In a cooking and cycling masterstroke, this bit of extra spice ensured the Scratch-men turned themselves inside out to catch the leaders.

They caught the Chopping Block on the final hill – they were completely cooked! Stiles put the temperature up a notch and descended at break neck speed down the hill and around the corner into the finishing straight. Stiles flew up the outside of Tubnor who had also cooked himself and was now only seventy metres behind Trevor Rollinson. With less than fifty metres until the finish line Stiles adjusted his power to the right ‘temperature’ and rolled across the finish line in first place.

Stiles had done everything to bake his winning cake perfectly, and opened his oven door to deliver a cake that was not only baked perfectly, but would leave a lasting taste of victory in his mouth. Tyler Meunier finished strongly in second place with Trevor Rollinson taking third.

Racing is not only great fun, but exciting! Come along next week and have a go!  We are running a teams time trial.  Awards go to the most consistent lap times.

Tour of East Gippsland

Several club members are in the process of contesting the first race of the Victorian Road Series held around the Gippsland Lakes.  After the ITT, the results were:

A Gde:
C Monk 11th (+23)
J Henry 40th(+57)

C Gde:
P Brett (DNS)

A Women:
S Abbott 9th (+46)

C Women:
N Summerfield 4th (+1.29)

Masters A:
D Salton 8th (+1:00)
M Parkinson 24th (+1:24)
J. Laird 36th (+2:13)

Masters B:
B Rollinson 4th (+21)
L Hauxwell 5th (+24)

Masters C: 
B Kennedy 25th (+1:15)
R Monk 30th (+1:25)
G Tambassis (+1:33)
R Henry 38th (+1:50)

2015 Tour of East Gippsland Final Results

Back to race list.