Back Markers Do it Tough
Bright sunny conditions and a firm easterly wind greeted the 21 starters for Sunday’s penultimate round of the Summer Series. With main handicapper Zeke back a few changes were made to the groups from last week’s Foxing!
That said the marks did not decrease much given the huge margin of victory last week – scratch still had to give limit a whopping 12 minutes! Barry Rose, Steve Green and Phil Bowden were licking their lips at the prospect as they departed.
Last week’s strongest block rider, the in-form Glen Oakley was somehow promoted to back to second limit (no doubt some sort of golden handshake had occurred with the new handicapper!). He was joined by Peter Lott, Jane McNamara, Chris Richards, Charlie Baldry and Darren Garnon. Darren has kindly donated a full cycling kit as the prize for the summer series winner. However this didn’t encourage his group to wait for him!
After his victory last week Phil Davies was pulled a group along with the super-strong Anthony Dean and Cootamundra’s fittest rider Geoff Golden. Tim Condon and Rod Holder joined them off the 4 minute mark.
Block left 1 and a half minutes ahead of scratch and their pace was driven by Al Baker. Hangers-on included Dave Jarvis, Ken Clark and Garry ‘Retro’ Halloran. Steve Hines, Brendan Forsyth and Anthony Slowman chased these guys from scratch.
With the huge time gaps up front it was always going to be a hard task for the back markers to make up time. Even after a minor spill from second limit, in which they literally stopped for over a minute to make sure everyone was OK, scratch were still nearly a minute off catching!
Second limit worked hard to catch limit, with McNamara showing the guys how to do it and Lott, Oakley and Richardson proving up to the task. Up front Rose and Green had shed Bowden and were heading for victory. Behind these two bunches the rest of the field were toiling away but to no avail.
Richardson took up the chase as Green faltered but veteran Barry Rose had his ears pinned back and was home free. He took the win from Richardson who won a ding-dong battle with Oakley for second place. Fourth was Steve Green and Peter Lott took the last of the points. Brendan Forsyth took the fastest time in 39 minutes 31 seconds.
Current point standings after Round 6 – Phil Davies still leads with 28 points, Glen Oakley 22, Barry Rose 16, Jack Stratford 15 and Hamish Nott 14
The last round of the Summer Series is this Sunday and it is the last chance for a warm up before Cootamundra hosts our round of the interclub at Stockinbingal Fair the week after. It looks like a battle between Phil Davies and Glen Oakley for the win!