An all grades race, handicaps were allocated on results so far this year and there were plenty of groans amongst the A graders when the handicaps were read out before the start.

With the very first of the south-east prevailing winter winds howling, the tail wind conditions put on the onus on those with small handicaps to put the power down early on to start distancing their handicap rivals.  The recipients of the better handicaps were prepared to hang onto the pack as long as they could to increase the chances of a win after calculations at the end.

Sure enough when the neutral  zone ended after the cattle grid, the gas pedal was pushed by Leon Bennett and a bunch of 9 powered off up the rise towards George Fisher mine.  Luke Scard was caught unawares and put in the hard work to try and make the junction with Lyn Roughan and Linda French hanging on.  It wasn’t long before the casualties were being spat out of the pack with Derek Skora the first to go followed by Denis Piltz.

With the pavement scrolling away under the wheels, the lead bunch was whittled down to 5 by the turn for home into the strong headwind.  Riders faced 20 km of hard slog.  Bennett, Matthys Labuschagne, Doug Humphries, Danny Walker and Clayton Green headed down the slope towards Spring Creek first.

Behind a secondary group of Geoff Marsh, Luke Scard, David Knight and Jason Ahearn were quickly organising themselves into a mini peloton, rolling through in an echelon to combat the strength of the wind.  

Back in the field, there was time trials going on for Linda French, Denis Piltz, Lyn Roughan and Tammy Green – evenly spaced out the working hard by themselves.

Further back another pack of 4 had formed with Frank Long, Tony Sweeny and Skora all working for Rachael Palfreyman who sported a gift handicap of 18:30.  With their race done, the men put their efforts into trying to get the win for the Cloncurry lass.   At the rear of the field Denise Walker rode a brave  solo 40 km in her first race of this distance.

Up ahead the four lone time triallers became a group and started to lift their pace considerably.  The lead pack had a bunch sprint with Danny Walker successful in taking line honours in a ride time of 1:08:10 for the group, with Humphries just slightly gapped.

As riders gradually crossed the line the calculations started to see who was the recipient of the trophy.  Jason Ahearn who enjoyed an 8 min off his time was declared winner with a great ride in the second pack, finishing on 1:09:49 and corrected to 1:01:49.  Second was Palfreyman who corrected to 1:02:27 courtesy of her domestiques and third was a tie between 6 minutes men Luke Scard and Geoff Marsh.

Next official race is the Peter Berg Memorial Handicap to be run from Chinaman Dam turnoff at Cloncurry to the Driver Reviver stop 60 km towards Mount Isa.  There will be a 30 km option for C graders.

Check details on the club Facebook page – Copper City Cycling Club Mount Isa for upcoming training rides.

For all enquiries please email coppercitycyclingclub@gmail.com.