Club racing was held from the Korrine Tennis courts on Saturday in fine conditions but with a strong and cold westerly wind buffeting the riders. Racing involved 2 laps of the 19 km circuit which included the tough climb up to the Glen Alvie corner. With a smaller field it was a difficult job for the handicapper and perhaps the backmarkers suffered with the marks. First away were Ken Barnes and Rick Whitehouse with a handicap of 15 minutes. They were followed at 10 minutes by Rod Cheyne, Steve Wilson, Kerry Pritchard and Steve Allen. At 6 minutes there was a bunch of 5 riders whilst on scratch there was another group of 5 riders including Olympian Drew Ginn. Drew is recovering from a back injury and is using his time to put in substantial training time on the bike. Consequently his form on the bike is pretty good and he needs the like of top club rider Nick Aitken to race with. However this week Nick has been racing the Tour of the Murray river.

After the first lap Rick and Ken were still going well and held a reasonable break. The closest bunch was down to 2 chasers – Rod Cheyne and Steve Wilson, so it was 2 against 2 out front. The 6 minute bunch was intact but had only made up around 3 minutes of the 9 minutes they were chasing. The scratch bunch had bade farewell to Drew who was moving well but alone faced a difficult task.

At the end of 2 laps it was Rick Whitehouse claiming the win some 30 sec ahead of Rod Cheyne and Steve Wilson. A further 10 sec back were Elliott Gin (4th) and Phil Hanley (5th) from the 6min bunch who had worked hard to hold of the fast finishing Drew Ginn who flashed over the line just 5 sec later to claim 6th and fastest time in 55.35min. Ken Barnes claimed 7th, Jason Scott 8th, Seve Piasente 9th and rounding out the top 10 was Justin Matthews.

In the junior B race over 1 lap of the circuit, the 3 starters, Will Lumby, Mitch Gin and Matt Dudley, had started out with the senior limit markers. Over the hills up McGraw Rd and then back over the run toward Glen Alvie, Will and Mitch gained a break on Matt before Will slipped away on the last climb to a 100m gap on Mitch. With the downhill run to the line Will held onto his small cap to claim the win and from Mitch and Matt in third place.

Next week racing is back at Pound Creek for the McIndoe Cup – a scratch race. This will give the back markers a chance to claim a podium place. Up at the Murray River Tour, Nick Aitken was sitting in 5th place most of the week as well as leading the King of the Mountain classification. However, Saturday his ride nearly came unstuck as a fall resulted in him popping his AC joint however he was determined to race on Sunday to finish the Tour and claim some good results.

Race report by Lindsay Love