Pound Creek 22nd June 2019 (Lex Watt & Watchorn trophies)

The Cycling club held the Lex Watt Trophy race around the Pound Creek circuit on Saturday. Riders and officials were blessed with a great afternoon – negligible wind and some weak sun. The race was a handicap event run over 2 laps of the 24km circuit and Club Champion, Alex Dunbar was again in great form.

Alex gave a 13min start to a trio of riders, followed by 7 minutes to another trio whilst the second scratch duo had a start of 2 min. The benign conditions allowed the front trio to work well and stay together over the first lap. It was a similar situation with the other groups. At the end of the first lap, Mark Bensley led Bernadette Fitzgerald and Rod Cheyne around to start the final lap. However, they had lost 4min of the lead on the chasing trio of Phil Hanley, Peter McLean and Tom Fitzgerald. However, this trio had to stop for cars along the Tarwin Lower Rd and this allowed the chasing duo of Brett Franklin and Leigh Stott to catch them just as they were moving away again. However, the major threat was Alex Dunbar who was just 1min down on the bunch of 5 and 3 minutes down (out of 13) on the front markers. The climb back toward Koonwarra saw the field come together and then break up with the climbs to the turn and race back past the golf course.

Mark Bensley and Tom Fitzgerald managed to hold on to the backmarkers however, Alex Dunbar was not finished and headed off solo over the golf course hill to run out first and fastest with a time of 1.22.23. Brett Franklin raced home for 2nd whilst Tom Fitzgerald won the dash to the line for 3rd over Leigh Stott. Mark Bensley was 5th, Peter McLean 6th, Rod Cheyne 7th and Phil Hanley 8th. Bernadette found the sag wagon more inviting and did not finish.

The only junior to show was Bastian Jefferies and he completed an out and back time trial on Pound Creek Rd in a time of 18min 15.73 sec. This was around 30 sec slower than his time in April and shows missing some weeks impacts on the form.

Next week the club has Time Trial titles at Outtrim with seniors racing the clock to Leongatha South and return.

Lindsay

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