What’s this you ask, well it’s the affectionate name given to CV’s Melbourne to Ballarat Handicap.
The Duke, Elmanetes and Lumpy headed west for the yearly assault on the Western Hwy to Ballarat. Beautiful conditions greeted the team with a light tail wind and dry roads. With a large presence of Police escorts at the McDonalds counter it was sure to be safe along the busy Western Hwy race route.
Cam (Lumpy) headed off first in the 18min group shortly followed by Brad (Elmanetes) and Wayne (The Duke) off 15min. The pace was on from the gun with speeds in the high forties & often dipping into the low fifty km/h range for the first third of the race.
The Pentland Hills was the first major challenge and it didn’t disappoint, Brad’s & The Duke’s 15min bunch was completely strung out and split into fragments with only 8 or so riders making the selection over the climb. The Duke and Elmanetes were able to form a group with some other 15min bunch riders that were detached and progressed rolling strong turns until the 12min group caught them around the 60km mark. At this point both had no further problems & continued to power all the way to Ballarat.
The outright winner Shannon Johnson (Preston CC) came form Lumpy’s 18min group which was a superb effort. While The Duke and Elmanetes finished well with the 12min bunch at 2:25 minutes behind the leaders. Fastest time went to Genesys Wealth Advisers Steele Von Hoff (Chelsea & Peninsula CC) with a time of 2:08:44 but close to 5mins behind line honours.
However the 6am-ers presence in the event was tarnished by a heavy fall to Lumpy which occurred around half race distance. The five rider crash was in a fast section of the course with Lumpy reporting his Garmin registered 45.7km/h at the time of the incident so damage to bike and body was inevitable. Cam was transported to Ballarat Base Hospital with suspected neck injuries.
The team caught up with Cam later at the Hospital where he was checked out with flying colours which was a huge relief to us all. Cam we wish you a speedy recovery and we are here ready to support you on your return.
Also thankyou to Alistair Ferrier who was our support driver & team photographer for the day, his assistance for this one day classic was very much appreciated.
All in all the 6am-ers held their own & survived the Melbourne to Ballarat for another year.
