A must for all 6amers the Warbie Road race has now become a CSV event & still excellently run by BBC. They set a great example on pre-race setup and finish line goodies to eat & even had an event show bag for the day.
The 6amers have always done well out at Warbie and with plans and nerves aside the boys was excited for the first real team hit out of the road season. Attendees this year in B grade included Brenton, Brendan and Jeff while during the week our C grade contingent had the honours of being bumped up into B grade so this added Michael, Brad, Nick and friend Anthony into the mix. It made for quite a display of 6am-ers in one grade.
Altogether now the starting field for B-grade was approximately 50 riders with a range of big names racing.
courtesy of Michael McRitchie
Racing began with the usual neutral zone and once away saw the team having a go on the front, this eventually saw Brenton and Kane Fraser off the front followed shortly by Jeff bridging across and then Brendan a few minutes later. Working hard the 4 took turns into Powelltown with the peloton out of sight, with the 4 tempo riding up the climb the young guns eventual bridged across with 1km to the top. The descent saw the main field sit-up and come back together as those left on the climb made their wayback on.
For the 3 laps up to Nayook it was full on race tactics as small surges and attacks left many riders chasing back onto their respective groups, some were lucky to hang on while others were just plain dropped but still worked very hard to finish the race. Good racing by all saw the third lap become more selective with Jeff having to chase back to the leaders with 4 others (thanks to all but mainly Harry Hanley in particular) while Brendan was in the lead group. All together for the last climb saw the weather really close in with light rain seeing the peloton take the descent back into Powelltown single file & unscathed with cool heads, a credit to all racing.
courtesy of Blackburn Cycling Club
Once on the flats again the usual pull to bring all back together before the last 15km’s was on. The next big point in discussion with Jeff and Brendan was the place where an attack would go, fast approaching the right hand turn and kicker at Gladysdale would be it. With true form Brendan was in the front group for the kicker leaving 5 battling it out in front now.
Brendan went on to claim 4th finishing off an excellent day, Jeff rolled in 2 seconds behind with about 7 others while Brenton, Brad , Anthony and Nick also made it to the finish and a big credit to them riding the distance. Mad Mike’s recent sun tanning holiday had him in the “hurt zone” for much of the race but he still managed to hold on for 2 laps of the circuit.
Brett Curran our team manager for the day certainly saved us on the finishing line with some outstanding fluro tops to keep us all warm while we raided our show bags. Brendan accepted his 4th place finish to a standing overation from the crowd.
Thanks again to Blackburn Cycling Club, we will be back next year to tackle the Warbie beast again.
