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2004 Jayco Bay Cycling Classic
Victoria, Australia, January 7-11, 2004
Mikkeli Godfree Diary
Cyclingnews contributor and rider in the MGZT team, Mikkeli Godfree, spends much of his year racing abroad. Like many Australian riders, he is back home at this time of year and racing in the Bay series in Victoria. He's also writing a diary while on the road, staying connected with assistance from local ISP Big Blue Internet. On day one in Hastings he survived the carnage to bring home a good result for his team and sponsors.
Surviving the skidpan and dodging the fallen
Race 1 - Wednesday, January 7 - Hastings
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With the wind belting through Hastings and the rain coming down in sheets it was always going to be a sketchy race. As if the weather wasn't enough, the course was a killer with one particular corner claiming most of the victims. It was so sketchy that when one rider went down a heap would freak out and go down, just to fit in. In the women's race, only one of the four breakaway riders came around the corner on one of the laps - the rest fell!
By the time the men lined up, the rain had stopped (for the minute at least). A star studded field was in attendance. Notably, McEwen had been notching up the wins recently but so too had Graeme Brown. On the other hand, the FDJ boys were coming into form and Brett Aitken had just returned from Hong Kong with some good racing under his belt.
So bang! And we're off for an hour. Crash! No sooner than we had begun.and it was on. The pace was blistering and so was the road rash that the riders were notching up from the first minute. The aforementioned corner was claiming victims from the word go. Hilton Clarke was an early faller, winning a few stitches in his head as his prize. The only positive out of that incident was that Hilts cleared the way for his teammate, Brown, to take the first sprint. It seemed that every second time we rounded this corner, someone would go down. Robbie went down once and spent the rest of the day two cautious metres off the wheel in front of him. Baden Cooke came around once and in avoiding a crash he lost his rear wheel and did a five-metre drift with his foot out before he ended up facing back the other way!
It was absolute carnage and the blood drew the crowds. After twenty minutes some 200 people had flocked to the danger zone. Oh, and there was a race going on too. No attacks were sticking but the race was falling apart from the back and with fifteen minutes to go there was less than half the field in attendance.
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The move of the day came from Baden Cooke after the sprint at thirty minutes as he went solo taking advantage of the bunch tiring. With a lot of his Jayco teammates at the front of the bunch slowing things down, Cookie's lead went out to twenty seconds pretty quickly. Jayco was covering every counter attack and having no problems slowing the chase on such a tight circuit. And with that...he was gone.
With five laps to go, Simon Gerrans made his bid for the race, waiting for the Jayco boys to tire a bit before he launched off the front. Gerro looked good and was joined by Andy "Monkey" Graham, as Jayco worked hard to bring them back. With three quarters of a lap to go and Cookie still nowhere to be seen up the road, Gerro and Monkey were caught. With second place up for grabs and only 20 riders left in the main bunch, the fight was on. As Brett Aitken tried to infiltrate the Jayco train he put himself on the deck. A big bingle resulted and it was a scrabble for the line. Matt Wilson took advantage of this to skip away while the MGZT boys, myself and Joel Pearson took off in pursuit. With only two corners remaining (one of which was the most dodgy of the day) there was little chance of catching Wilson and breaking up the Jayco one-two. Wilson ended up taking second by half a bike-length over the MG boys who claimed 3rd and 4th.
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Although we had finished, the fast sprint to the line meant that we barely made it around the first corner upright, even after the finish! We could have done with a finish chute thanks Iffy! When all was said and done it had been an dangerous and exciting race. All the riders were plastered with dirt afterward and hardly needed to head for the showers as it absolutely bucketed down straight after the race slightly deterring what had been a great crowd. They certainly didn't go home without some stories anyway, never mind the skin lost in the process. As for the MGZT team, we were very happy with how the day had gone. Our major races are overseas or out of Victoria, so to get a good result amongst the pro's (and in front of our sponsor - Bianchi) was fantastic. With so much water and so many crashes, this race saw a completely different set of players at the front. Indeed the Portarlingon race will see a some new faces fighting out the win.
Stay tuned, Team MGZT.
See Full Results
Images by Jigsaw Chiropractic
- Matthew Rex from South Australia claims the Bgrade win in front of Paul Richards (MGZT)
- A grade gets underway in the wet.
- Hilton Clarke (SBR), Dylan Boone (MGZT), Baden Cooke (Jayco-FDJ) and Nick Kiraly (Caulfield-Carnegie) take turn one.
- Gaps appear in the A-grade race.
- Simon Gerrans (Carnegie Caufield) and Aitken in a Jayco sandwich at the half-way point.
- Dylen Boone (MGZT) and Baden Cooke (Jayco) get a gap with Aitken (Drapac -Porche) poking his head around the corner.
- Carnegie-Caulfield riders Nick Kiraly and Simon Gerrans light up the race with Willie Walker (CBD) following closely.
- Mark Renshaw (Jayco) leads Mikkeli Godfree (MGZT) with two laps to go.
- Matt Wilson (Jayco) just held on for second ahead of the MGZT pair of Godfree and Pearson.
