Racing on Saturday produced a quinella for the McFarlane family with David winning the senior race and son Thomas winning the junior race. Both wins cam via breakaway efforts. Racing was held around the Pound Creek circuit with a cold south westerly buffeting the riders however the wind direction really only impacted on the senior field in the run back past the golf course.

The senior field saw 21 riders face the starter with 3 riders leaving at 11minutes start, followed by 3 at 9 minutes, 2 at 8 minutes, 3 at 5 minutes, 5 riders at 3 minutes and the virtual scratch bunch of 5 riders on 2 minutes as both Nick Aitken and Stuart Smith were away racing. With the backmarkers being the larger bunches it was going to be a difficult day for the limit riders. By the end of the first lap, Steve Allen had dropped his co-markers and started the last lap alone. He was being chased by a bunch of 5 riders whilst the rear 3 bunches had come together in a 12 rider bunch and they were just a few minutes down. The climb up past the herb farm saw the backmarkers round up the rest of the field.

The head wind run up the climb past the golf course would be the scene for the action to thin the numbers. An early move by Tony Clark was countered by Thierry Rolland, the Dave McFarlane and the improving Tom Debenham. However at the critical time Tom broke his chain and was out of action. Over the top it was a small break to David and Thierry. They decided it was a big enough gap and headed for the finish line around 8km away. A lack of organisation in the chase bunch aided their quest and by the line they still had a gap of around 80m. Dave McFarlane out-sprinted Thierry to claim the win. The bunch sprint was narrowly won by Steve Piasente ahead of Tony Clark, Neil White, Phil Camenzuli, Kevin Feely, Elliott Gin, Clem Fries and Lee Robinson in 10th place. Dave McFarlane also claimed fastest time with a time of 81.57minutes for the 2 laps (51km)

In the junior race run along the Pound Creek Road and over 12km Thomas McFarlane managed to gain a 60m break on Matt Dudley on the uphill run to the turn. However, Matt closed the gap on the first section of down hill run at which point both riders swapped turns leading into the wind. However around 1km out Thomas upped the tempo and again opened a small gap on Matt. He worked hard to hold the gap and managed to cross the line with around 5m to spare to claim the win.

Next week riders will be back at Mardan for the racing of the George Martin Trophy with the race coming back into Leongatha, out through Nerrena and up the hill to Mardan. On Sunday the club conducted the Gippsland Time Trial Titles at Outtrim using the flat run to Leongatha South and back for the time trials.

Race report by Lindsay Love