asdf IN A massive upset that took everyone by surprise, underdog Michael Young took the win in the Footscray Cycling Club’s Frank O’Brien Memorial Handicap, held at Little River on Saturday.
With the day’s field consisting of six roughly equal groups of around 16 setting off at intervals based on their abilities, punters had their money on the gun riders off scratch catching all before them and taking the win given the hot, blustery conditions,
But they didn’t count on the determined efforts of limit and second limit stealing the limelight, with a tremendous and gutsy ride by the combined groups. Ascot Vale resident Young is in his second year of racing with the club. Young spoke of how his bunch, second limit, caught limit on lap two when “the combined 25 riders got whittled down a couple of times in the crosswinds to about 15” and then “worked like prisoners in a chain gang for the rest of the race.
“It was hell, never ending pain (and) tough the whole way, until the end when we knew we weren’t going to be caught and there was a little foxing,” Young, 31, said.
“David Lane went first and I managed to get his wheel and roll him at the finish line. I’m stoked, I didn’t know if I’d last the distance.”
Meanwhile, three minutes behind, scratch were closing fast having swallowed up all the other groups.
The fastest time winner was 31-year-old electrician Steve Pilson.
“It was just a slog-fest, just work as hard as you can into the wind, in the crosswind, all the time. You could tell it was the first handicap of the year as we weren’t very well organised going into the corners,” Pilson said.
“But we were pulling back five minutes each lap until the last lap and even though we were still going hard, we only got a couple of minutes on them and came up three minutes short.
“It was pretty hectic at the end, as we knew we were going for fastest time and not first to eighth, so there was no second prize for us.
“I just followed a few good moves, Paul Redenbach went early with Graham Carlson on his wheel and I followed Carlo and waited as long as I could and just managed to get around him at the end.”
