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Fat Tyre Flyers Winter XC series #4
Whittlesea, August 15, 2004
Rohin Adams
With only 76 riders turning up to what could have been a mud bath, the track was surprisingly sticky. I'm not saying it was dry but the majority of the mud on my bike came from the little creek crossing near the start. Whilst the rest of the track was muddy it was fairly tacky and improved considerably through the day to a point where you could attack the climbs a decent pace. And that's just what a lot of the riders did.
Murry Spink took a few laps to warm up but took control of the elite men's in lap 3. He rode hard again in lap 4 to make his 1st place a certainty and held strong in the 5th. Joel Healy in final preparations for the World cup didn't let him get too far ahead finishing strongly just 20 seconds down. 3rd and showing some late winter form was the FTF Secretary James Dickey. His times were very impressive but he was pushed all the way with Loclan Norris and others trying to get onto the podium.
We had only the 1 Expert Female with Jenni King opting to dual against the Sport Men for some fun. In the Expert Men Joel Reed continued his domination of the class in his first year racing expert. 4 wins on the trot is great effort. Ivan Kallaur showed a strong ride for 2nd with John Claxton holding off a fast finishing pack of 3 which to much surprise included me.
There was another impressive ride by Andrew Paterson who tore shreds of the veteran filed whilst riding a fully ridged single speed. The Coffee by Van Go coffee proved a real hit with many happy customers looking forward to that service again. Thanks to all that helped setup, run and pack up the race.
A big thanks to the two girlfriends who marshaled the road crossing. Great job! We look forward to seeing everybody at the next race which is to be the final in our series. The Clover leaf challenge at Kirth Kiln will see a different style of riding with a long course format. Great riding and a good chance to test yourself.
