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Mildura-Coomealla Cycling Club
Red Cliffs, Victoria, August 6, 2005
Beam me up Scotty!
By Peter Winton
Too right. Why didn't he beam me up and not burn me up? Greg Scott (on a Scott) was the strongest rider in the second limit bunch on Saturday and deservedly took out the race in a five rider bunch struggle to the line. I say 'struggle' because none of us had anything left that even closely resembled a sprint.
With the wind blowing into the face of the riders in the outbound 40km leg it was always going to be a race of survival of the mentally strongest. Yes, it takes physical fitness and all that as well but should you weaken (mentally) and take up a position with the chasing bunches it will be even harder, and you'll still lose.
The strength of Greg Scott early in the race had Stephanie Frawley in trouble. There's nothing quite like the frantic screams of a woman unhappy with the antics of a man, is there? A quick change in rotation sorted that out and the gender war was averted.
How we found ourselves in this situation:
Well, limit had a tidy mark of 21 minutes. Sitting pretty in this timeslot were Tom Athorn, back from holidays, Joe Monteleone, Garry Pitt and Peter Sargeant. It seemed to take forever, but then at 10 minutes nestled Kevin Gregory, Stephanie Frawley, Harry Robbins, Peter Winton, Ian Japp and Greg Scott.
Waiting for the 'go' signal at four minutes were Peter Doody, Michael Shipsides, Dion Bassi-Anstee and Air-Force 1 commander, Peter Mulhearn. The chopping block at two minutes consisted of Errol Schmidt, Ian Brade, Rob Akkermans and Sean Gallagher. Unfortunately at the 20km mark a touch of wheels brought Errol Schmidt down and intimate contact with the 'b****-of-mine' occurred. Abrasions of the knees and arms were the least of his woes as he did make some heavy contact with his head. Riders in this bunch obeyed race club rules and stopped to render assistance. Thus ended their participation. Errol was on his feet and coherent at the end of the race.
Scratch was a two-rider grouping of Kevin Tankard and Michael Murdoch.
All this occurred oblivious to the foot-stomping leading bunches. At the turn-around point (ably marshalled by Bob Murdoch) all but two of the limit group had surrendered to the Greg Scott powered chasing group. Peter Sargeant and Garry Pitt were struggling away together and had turned into the tailwind with about a 1500 metre advantage. The closing bunch of Bassi-Anstee, Doody and Mulhearn had only freshly dropped Shipsides as the second limit group straightened up, clicked up a couple of cogs, took a swig of whatever was in their bidons (should it be investigated?) and got cracking. It didn't seem too long before the scratch duo came into sight and mental telepathy between the Scott bunch raised curiosity as to the whereabouts of the chopping block. Had they been spat out and become dispirited we wondered? It's happened before.
Sargeant and Pitt were eventually rounded up but they elected to find an alternative means of getting back home - suit yourselves - the Scott Six surged on.
Ever mindful of the fear of capture Greg Scott thumped his pedals mercilessly and Frawley was accepting of the challenge. Kev Gregory found the pace a bit rich up one the many slight undulations and he suddenly disappeared beneath the waves. So now it was the 'Fab Five'. At the 20km to go mark Captain Scott was sensing a chance of staying away. A quick peek behind in a long straight section of road found only emptiness. That was a bit like how my energy level was feeling, used up, gone, shot.
Suddenly it was 2kms to go. Harry Robbins was gasping for breath and struggling with cramp but still doing his bit. Ian Japp was still coming thru as was Frawley. The writer of this bizarre tale was ready for the finish and wishing it would hurry up. Robbins crashed through his own pain barrier and burst to the front in the uphill finish, Scott waited a few seconds, then reacted, Japp surged up on the outside. Winton was still counting down the metres whilst Frawley simply held the view they were all silly boys and she wouldn't play this game any longer.
Scott, Robbins and Japp, 1,2,3. Winton trailed in for a lazy fourth with Frawley fifth in what was truly a magnificent effort on her part (to let me finish fourth!)
The winner's time was 2:10:11, or 37 kms/hr.
Michael Murdoch raced away from Kevin Tankard in the scratch riders sprint finish to take fastest time in 2:05:00.
Clearly evident was the loss of chopping block's influence on the race outcome as the chasing groups broke down behind second limit - there was to be no combining of forces in the run home. While all this was going on the club had representatives at the SACF State Road Titles; Richard Hale, Arthur Anderson and Jack Lokan. No reports of the outcome of these riders from that event were available at the time of writing.
Next week is a 64km handicap at the Riverside Golf Club course (Mildura).
Results
1 G Scott 2 P Robbins 3 I Japp 4 P Winton 5 S Frawley 6 P Mulhearn 7 P Doody
