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Mildura-Coomealla Cycling Club Handicap
December 14, 2003
Dion Bassi-Anstee wins finale tussle
By Peter Winton
Mildura's weather turned on a pearler this morning with a temperature of 19.5 degrees Celsius and a 13km/hr SSE breeze to be pleased with, all bonded together with 48% relative humidity, no-one should complain ("coupla days", as Con the Fruiterer would say!).
18 clubbies and one newcomer arrived at the scene, well 2 of them were late and drew the wrath of the race panel. Perhaps they were having a day off from their normally strict discipline work ethic, eh constables !
Absentees included President Mulhearn, also B grade form rider of the moment Harry Robbins along with Brendan Liddle who was probably sleeping in (or is that "off") after another Christmas party. My apologies to those I have missed.
Good to see Arthur "collarbones" Anderson front up for a look. What happened to the "long lay-off" Arthur, rumour has it you might pin a number on your back next week? All it took was a sniff of the action and you changed your recovery agenda!
Down to business. In scratch today we had Kev Tankard, Mark Busch, Rob McNally and "Mr 99% fat free", Ian Brade. The chopping block (4 min. bunch) of Ian Beruldsen, Dion Bassi-Anstee and, rejuvenated clubbie, Errol Schmidt. At the 6 minute mark lurked Michael Shipsides, Richard Hale (resplendant in pirate-pink bandana), Scott Giles and yours truly. Scotty Giles finally found out about the perspiration rate of Shippy today, and that's without Michael having a drink the night before (so he said).
At 7 minutes and 30 seconds the physiques of Adrian Lloyd, Jack Lokan, Peter Doody, Barry Pollock and Jeff Scott lined up and limit today at 12 minutes was festooned with Rob Akkermans, Jeff Mitchell and newcomer Bob Pedler.
8 laps of the relatively short circuit of the aptly named "old abattoir" to be overcome today for a 43 km killing. Scratch had a big task today given the good weather and the gap out to 12 minutes for limit and some big hitters in the middle order. Still, the bunches must roll on. Not much action to tell until the 3 rider CB's rounded up the middle 2 groups at about 3 kms to go. The 6m and 7:30m groups had formed together on lap 6 but were sluggish to organise themselves properly, it took almost a full lap to do so and this allowed the Errol Schmidt led chopping block to capture this combo at the 3km to go mark. Richard Hale had already been snapped by the strong riding efforts of Scott Giles, a powerful triathlete type (we hope he goes to Berri with us, get on him now for the good odds).
The limit riders were caught in the long Deakin Avenue straight section of the circuit with 4 kms to go and the 2 B"s, Bassi-Anstee and Beruldsen, seized an opportunity to ride off the front. With Barry Pollock offering advice on which wheels to watch, most "pretend" surges were not without an entourage and eventuated only in bringing the break-aways back.
Bassi-Anstee and Beruldsen launched themselves again along the 19th Street section, followed by Pollock and others using the strung-out group as cover into the southerly breeze. Schmidt was suddenly away on his own without his 2 colleagues but then Lokan rose up and threw down the gauntlet, jolting a few riders out of their complacency. His charge was soon annulled, the bunch now awaited the tail-wind assisted finishing straight for the final assault. Scratch were not to be seen by this stage and it became a game of "get on the best wheel you can". Schmidt's lead had been eroded and his race over with 9 riders "sensing the smell of blood".
Bassi-Anstee and Beruldsen fought out a tussle for the win with the younger Bassi-Anstee taking the honors. Close up in third was Barry Pollock proving his desire for competition, from an improving Rob Akkermans. Adrian Lloyd also challenging for a high placing by stealing 5th from Peter Winton by a tyre width on the line.
Bassi-Anstee's winning time of 1:12:44 (1:04:44 after handicap adjustment) being a quality time and earmarks the young Curlwaa Islander for a potential scratch posting before the end of summer.
This Tuesday's event (6:30pm) is scheduled for a criterium at Dolfen Drive however, riders are reminded of the Club's heat policy. No racing when the forecast temperature is 39 degree or above.
Results, 43km
1 Dion Bassi-Anstee (4 min) 1.12.44 2 Ian Beruldsen (4 min) 0.01 3 Barry Pollock (7:30) 4 Rob Akkermans (12 min (limit)) 5 Adrian Lloyd (7:30) 0.02 6 Peter Winton (6 min) 7 Peter Doody (7:30) 8 Bob Pedler (Limit) 9 Jeff Mitchell (Limit) 10 Jack Lokan (7:30) 0.07 11 Errol Schmidt (4 min) 0.09 12 Scott Giles (6 min) 0.38 13 Mark Busch (0) 3.05 14 Kev Tankard (0) 3.06 15 Ian Brade (0) 3.07 16 Rob McNally (0) 3.08 17 Michael Shipsides (6 min) 4.12 18 Jeff Scott (7:30) 6.56 19 Richard Hale (6 min)
Local results 2003
