Outrider scrapes home

LEONGATHA Cycling Club members had a taste of cold winter weather as they rode the new course from Hallston.
The extra elevation at Hallston meant the riders had only eight degrees at the top of the climb at Trida.
The riders also had to contend with a shower as they raced down the hill towards Leongatha and the first turn point at Canavans Road.
With several riders racing at Bendigo and the track meet in Melbourne, along with school holidays, it was a reduced field for racing.
The handicapper sent Damian King away with a handicap of 22 minutes ahead of a quartet on 14 minutes, followed by a five rider bunch on seven minutes.
They were chased by a duo on two minutes and the lone scratch rider Brett Franklin.
The first part of the race provided a 12 kilometre run, basically downhill, before the turn and the 18 kilometre climb up to Trida.
With out and back runs, the riders had two chances to gain a sight on the other riders and gauge their efforts.
At the Trida turn with just a 10 kilometre run downhill to the finish it was still Damian King in front by around two minutes from Steve Allen and Lorcan Heneghan from the seven minute bunch. However, just a further minute behind the was Rob Monk (seven minutes), Matt Parkinson and Harrison McLean (two minutes) along with Mark Bensley and Tony Giles from the 14 minutes bunch. It looked like it would be touch and go whether Damian would stay away.
However, Damian had sighted them on his return journey and he raced home to win with one minute in hand.
Steve Allen slipped away from Lorcan on the turn and also powered home with two minutes in hand to claim second from Matt who just outsprinted Harrison for third.
Next home in fifth was Rob Monk, then Lorcan, Mark Bensley, Tony Giles, the scratch rider Brett Franklin in ninth the fastest time one hour, eight minutes and five seconds for the 40 kilometres. Rounding out the top ten was Gavin Slavin from the seven minute bunch.
With Jack Allen and Kaleb Jans the only Juniors racing, things did not go smoothly.
First off Kaleb punctured his tyre in a warm ride – he gashed the tyre and that need a temporary sleeve to get him to the start line.
Kaleb had a gap of 30 seconds on Jack at the Trida turn but disaster again struck as the tyre was going down.
Jack made the most of Kaleb’s misfortune to chase him down and race home for the win whilst Kaleb made it to the finish on a flat tyre.
Next week racing will start at Tarwin Lower for the race out to Walkerville North and return.

Winners’ group: racing was at Hallston on Saturday with, from left, Steve Allen placed second, Damien King first, Matt Parkinson third and the Junior winner Jack Allen.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Jun 28 2016. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry