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Latrobe City Cycling Club
Yinnar, Victoria, May 6, 2006
Saturdays race was held around the Hazelwood Pondage, due to an auction taking place on Hazelwood Estate Road that would have made racing unsafe. A & B grade riding five laps of the pondage (63kms)while C grade rode three laps (39kms)with all races still finishing at Yinnar.
The race began under controlled conditions from Yinnar assembly point to the start in Switchback Road.
With a strong field contesting the A grade event, riders were all content to do their turn of pace up front for the first of five laps. The start of the second lap, David Gafa tested the legs with Chris Joustra out front to gain a small advantage on the bunch. Riders in the main field kept them in their sights eventually catching them. Jamie Johnson and Jim Timmer-Arends attacked hard on the third lap to gain a break, but with these two strong riders out front, Spiteri chased hard with Gafa and Peter Tsbelis very early knowing this could of been the winning move. Soon after these riders were caught, another move of three riders went off the front of the bunch being Joustra, David Shanahan and Peter Verhagen to no avail also as the main bunch working well closed down their advantage. Dave Shanahan had another solo effort out front gaining a good break from the field later Joined by Timmer-Arends. The bunch could see the two tiring as they headed up the steep pinch past the Hazelwood Power Station and closed the gap rapidly and then catching them by the top before heading down the hill to get the bell for the final lap.
Heading into the last lap, Peter Tsbelis lost contact with the bunch as Roland Elsdon whipped up the pace. After hard efforts during the race, Chris Joustra lost contact as they headed up the power station hill for the last time. Into the final Kms several more attempts were made for solo efforts but were all closed down quickly as the finish was in sight.
In a bunch sprint finish, Darren Spiteri crossed the line in first position with Jamie Johnson second and Roland Elsdon holding off David Gafa for third place.
The B grade riders started with the A grade bunch working hard all the way to stay in contact with the bunch. Two survivors were able to stick with the main bunch. In the sprint for the line for B grade honours, Tom Langstaff was able to hold off Phil McNeil from the Carnegie/Caulfield club.
The C grade bunch consisting of Ian Wood, Dean Gray, Ashley Lucas, Sue Elsdon, Tim Buckley & Tania Baulch were soon racing. Dean Gray riding in great form soon had a gap on his rivals that had Lucas chasing and the remainder of the bunch riding consistently as group to pick up the two leaders. Baulch not feeling the best became a casualty after recycling a pie eaten earlier and was forced to withdraw from the race. At the beginning of lap two of the pondage Gray had about a forty second lead on Lucas who inturn was twenty-two seconds ahead of Wood and Elsdon with Buckley some distance back. Gray turning onto Brodribb Road had a commanding lead of 1 minute 04 seconds over the chasers who had now caught Lucas and were working together to catch the tearaway leader.
With one lap to travel Gray increased his lead to 1 minute 10 seconds. The chasers still working together but not making any headway into the leaders lead. Gray went on to win by a big margin. Lucas and Elsdon worked together after dropping Wood, and as they approached the small climb nearing the finish in Yinnar, Lucas sprinted away from Elsdon to take second from Elsdon and Wood crossing the line in fourth place shortly after.
