"When my legs hurt, I say: 'Shut up legs! Do what I tell you to do!'" – Jens Voigt
Great Handicapping!
By Damian Grundy
Every so often the handicapper gets it right. And this was one of those nights. With less than a 2 min gap from 1st to 5th everyone in attendance emphatically agreed that the true winner on the night was indeed the handicapper (yours truly 😊)
What a fantastic season we are going to have. It’s fair to say that family pride is going to be a dominant feature of the racing this year. Three Ross’, two Chadds, two Hoebergens… there is definitely much interest not only in the overall placings but there is a high level of fierce intra-family rivalry.
As mentioned, the racing came together at the end for a very close overall battle.
Young Alastair Ross took overall honours in a hard-ridden and well-deserved win. And also taking out family honours for the night.
Spencer Carmen was 2nd and Micah Chadd held off brother Ryder (4th) by 5 seconds for 3rd overall. Ryder had metaphorically ‘come-from-the-clouds’, overtaking Ben Ross in the final few corners. So Ben Ross was 5th.
First female on the night was Nicole Hoebergen who finished just off the podium in 6th.
Tim Ross had a very serious race focus for the night and whilst he was beaten by both sons he achieved a very noteworthy performance of being 3rd fastest rider on course for the night behind Ryder Chadd (fastest) and Ben Ross (2nd fastest).
Congratulations to all and a special thanks to Ben Ross for marking out the course, Kate Stonnill for the assistance with results and Ryder for picking up the arrows after the race.
Heath’s first ever win.
By Steve Duke (with a little help from Judi)
Fifteen riders lined up for this week’s race. The weather was a big improvement on last week, sunny and warm making for comfortable riding.
First off for limit was John Eisner, shortly followed by Craig Wilson, both starting out solo. Next was the duo of Adrian Dowd and, starting his first race for the season, Jarrod Appleton. They only had a 2 and half minute lead on the biggest group for the evening - Heath Hammond, Steve Duke, Tim Ross, Ben Ross and Mark Ruttiman. It was Mark’s first race with MMBCC recently moving to the area and returning from a 5-year pause from racing.
A further 2 and a half minutes behind were the trio of Darren Bakker, Ryder Chadd and Simon Hall.
Starting in Scratch was Bruce Halket, the ever-reliable Andy Garrett and we welcomed visiting rider Alan Adams, fresh from his recent Age Group win in the Worlds Gran Fondo. Bruce was showing no ill affect from his mishap at Seymour Gravelista, where he raced in the horrid conditions and was the clubs only representative. He was sporting a nice new helmet though.
Early in the race Mark had a dropped chain and was dropped from the other four riders who knew they had to keep up the pace if they were going to keep away from Alan. He continued on with a solid solo ride and we look forward to seeing Mark back again knowing he will be a strong addition to our regular club races.
By the turn around at Long Lane, Craig had made steady progress to the front of the race. The stretch along Barwite Road, as usual, saw plenty of changes in race positions. Bruce being distanced and eventually joining Darren, Ryder and Simon.
Steve’s group caught Adrian and Jarrod and although making great time on everyone else, Andy and Alan were briefly stopped by traffic. It was at this point in the race that Andy told Alan to go for it, knowing that it was his only chance of catching the front riders.
Up the Coombesberg young Ben began the first of numerous break away attempts. Only to be caught each time. He may have an age and weight advantage on his elders but he is yet to be able to keep this on the downhill sections. (Note to you all Alan was clocked going 34 to 36 km/h UP the rise!)
With the final Graves Road section saw the riders making every effort to either maintain position or catch those out in front.
It was a great finish and I am sure that all enjoyed the evening race.
Final placings over the line were Heath, Steve, Ben, Alan, Jarrod (same time). Tim +0.11, Craig +0.44, Andy +0.32, Ryder +0.01, Bruce +0.03, Darren, Simon +2.25, Mark +1.30 and John +0.32. Heath travels down to Mansfield each week from Benalla - congratulations to him for his first ever win in a bike race. We're really pleased your maiden win is with the MMBCC.
Thank you to the handicapper, race marshals, commissaire and Tony, our official club photographer. Here are the results.
Next week it’s the Race of Truth, an Individual Time Trial on Chapel Hill Road.