Merinda Way road race - Ryder finished last

SEVENTEEN riders were on the start line on Stoneleigh Road last Thursday night for the last Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club handicap road race of 2024. Despite starting right outside the cemetery, there wasn’t too much thought given to the location being some kind of omen. In fact, after two and a half laps (about 24 kilometres) around the Merinda Way Loop, we should have increased our fitness enough to prevent us from going into a hole in the ground anytime soon. First away was the Limit Group of Tony Morris, followed by six more groups until the Scratch Group of Andy Garrett, Bruce Halket and last week’s winner, Ryder Chadd, started 19 minutes later. The first group to look threatening was Adam Baker and Dave Bock. They’d started off 9.30 (right in the middle) and had caught both Morris and Micala Jacobs and looked strong going into the second lap. Steve Curnow, Ian Conrick, Craig Wilson and Allan Gerrans, who’d started off eight minutes had other ideas. At about two-thirds distance they caught Baker and Bocky and looked strong. Baker managed to hang on, Bocky didn’t. But then Scratch started to get involved. Andy Garrett is an absolute beast on the flat. He doesn’t really enjoy hills all that much; and he goes around corners with all the agility of an ocean liner, only more so! So with Chadd helping where he could, especially on the first lap, and Halket doing what he could on the hills, Garrett tore through the other groups. The Block group (Damian Grundy, Steve Brown and Ant Bateup) was caught near Quarry Lane and the 3.30 group (Mick Pearce, Steve Duke and Rueben Bateup) was caught near the cemetery. With just a couple of kilometres to go, Garrett accelerated to catch the leaders. When he tired a little, Halket had a go. He caught Baker and Wilson. When Grundy caught the tiring Halket, Garrett blasted past again to overtake Curnow and Conrick and take the win and Fastest Time. Halket took second (Where were you Adrian? You owe me an article!) just ahead of Conrick, Grundy, the Steves Duke and Curnow, Rueben Bateup, Baker, Wilson and Brown took another top ten finish. Ryder got dropped on the second lap, showing there’s a big step up from Block to Scratch. At one stage he even thought he might even die, but he didn’t. The cemetery can wait. Plus he did the right thing and rolled in with his Mum, Micala, even letting her over the line ahead of him. Many thanks to all the marshals and officials for a safe, well-run race. Road racing now takes a few weeks off - we’ll be back on Thursday January 16 for a race on Howes Creek Road, finishing on the dreaded O’Hanlon’s Hill. In the meantime, the Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club wishes all of Mansfield’s road users a safe and Merry Christmas and New Year.

Merinda Way road race - Ryder finished last

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