The first few laps were much easier than last week when it was on from the gun. No major attacks, some single file work, we were all warmed up before the real racing started. After 1hr20mins racing last week there was a reluctance by riders to get off the front too early. Soon enough a gap opened with four riders up the road. They were Rob Doyle (Ballarat CC/Doom Posse), Kos Samaras (Coburg CC/Kosdown), Cam Clamp (HCC), and Rico Rogers (Total Rush)... Italo didn't have a rider in the break so they had two riders on the front keeping the pace up. I was hovering around the front waiting for someone to ping off and start bridging to the break. While in second wheel, I was soon chopped and given a serving for blocking/negative racing/etc.. ok - I should have drifted back a little further in the pack and let someone else hit the wind.. Anyways, all sorted with the rider in question and I let him know I was itching to get a small bridge group formed to get across to the break away.
A few laps pass and the break was out of sight. The main bunch still had too much firepower to let them collect all the winnings. Rhys Gilliett (Doom Posse / Virgin Blue-RBS Morgans) and I were ready to jump from the bunch but we couldn't decide the best section to do it... turns out after the first failed attempt that the second option was better. We were soon clear of the main bunch with the firepower of Jake Sutherland (Total Rush), Nathan Elliott (Brunswick), and Cam McKenzie (Doom Posse). The main bunch knew we were on a mission but couldn't bring us back. Cam summed up the chase effort perfectly after the race, "I did a little mouth vom". Gold! Sutherland, Elliott, McKenzie, Gillett and I turned ourselves inside out for 7 1/2 minutes ripping out an average of 47km/h to reach the break. Not bad given the wind that was blowing us around. The break was surprised to see us, and happy we didn't drag the whole bunch back to them. The pace backed off a little after the catch but not wanting to put our good work to waste we were all soon back to pulling good turns to keep the main bunch out of the mix. Samaras had enough of the front bunch chaos and went back to the main bunch leaving Doyle, Rogers, Sutherland, Clamp, Gillett, Elliott, McKenzie and myself.
With about 20mins of racing left the tactics started. The Doom Posse had all their riders represented in the break - total dominance - so they were the main instigators of the moves trying to split the group of eight. The rain was closing in making the roads a little dodgy. Late in the mix Clamp and I got a small gap but it was shutdown by the soggy ranga, Elliott. McKenzie's freshly shaven legs were seen flying off the front multiple times. 1 1/2 laps to go we lapped the A grade bunch. McKenzie then pulled off the move of the day. He was solo off the front as the bell rang for the final lap, none of the Doom Posse were going to close him down... as we approached the roundabout McKenzie was through but a truck brought the rest of us to a stop. We then had to tail the truck all the way up the back straight and navigate around it and other riders 500m from the line. Elliott starts the push for the line very early trying to get Sutherland and Rogers in a good position for the sprint for 2nd. I sat on Clamp for as long as possible and came around on the windy side (yeah, non-sprinter mistake).. just not enough room to pull in Gillett. Rogers took the group kick from Doyle.
The rain soon kicked in a little harder so it was back to the car where we stacked in 4 bikes and 4 dudes. When in Melbourne, the Doom Posse choose to fly LamaAir:
A Grade Results:
1st. Cameron McKenzie
2nd Rico Rogers
3rd Rob Doyle
4th Rhys Gillett
5th Shane Miller
6th Cam Clamp
3 comments:
So it is a team sport?????? Sounds very serious...great report and interesting to see how the race evolves.
It'll always be teams... be them clubs, mates, shop teams, sponsor teams, etc.
DOOM POSSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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