The scheduled Kinglake grade scratch race that was originally set for today was switched over to National Boulevard after safety concerns were raised about the state of the circuit following heavy rains on Saturday.
There were smaller than usual numbers with late scratchings due to the venue change and many riders being involved in the UCI sanctioned Amy’s Gran Fondo event at Lorne. Amongst those riders were Tim Anderson, Morgan Belbruno, Luke Poyser, John Lejcak, Stephen Saunders, Luke Markof, Stephanie Young, Kathryn Kennedy, Phoebe Symes, Kaz McMurray, Nickolas Bird, Michael Kanizay, Sandra Prosenica, Kon Kakris and John Hiatt. Special congrats to Tim and Kathryn for obtaining UCI qualification which is a great achievement. Apologies to any that have been missed in this callout but feel free to drop a message in the comments for any other club members that competed that haven’t been mentioned.
This week the strong Northerly winds of the last 2 weeks at National Boulevard swung around to a chilly Southerly that made for a harder push to the line for the downhill finish and despite a few brief prior showers and heavy skies the course remained dry and the sun came through at the finish for the presentations.
Shoutout to Tommy McDonough whom despite questioning his promotion to B grade continued his recent good form by putting in an early push to take him over the line first from a long range effort down the main straight. Although there were a number of breakaway attempts across most grades the bunches finished more or less together this week.
Massive thanks to all the volunteers, marshals, referees, and first aider who make these races possible (Albert, Bill, Chooka, Dave H & B, Paul Wilson & Michael Heath). Bruce and Faye were away on holidays today but will but will be returning next Sunday which is again at National Boulevard. This week also saw the return of president Vince Sinni from an overseas trip and was immediately in the placings after a few weeks off the bike.
1st Place – David Drew
