RIDERS from the Footscray Cycling Club ventured out to the Balliang-Granite Road circuit for an 80km road race on the flats and hills in and around the Brisbane Ranges. The A Grade race saw 26-year-old Brunswick East resident and bikebug.com rider James Love take the win.
“It was quite civilized for the first three rotations of the Balliang circuit,” he said after the race.
“We just rolled turns and there wasn’t really enough wind to split the group up, so we all got to the climbs together.
“Jason Costin attacked as we approached the hills and we all thought we’d leave him out there and he would hit the headwind and come back to us but to his credit he didn’t. He was out there for the entire climb out and back so he was on his own for 25 k’s – a pretty gutsy move.
“When we brought Jason back in Adam Trewin attacked and was caught, and then Miles DaCosta attacked and was getting away. I jumped across to him and we worked together for a while until Miles attacked and saw I was still there so he was spent by the time we crossed the line.”
Love crossed in first just ahead of DaCosta in second, with Trewin taking the bunch sprint.
In B Grade, competitors had a tough race with a good sized bunch of riders of equal level try all manner of attacks but stay together as a bunch all the way to the sprint, where 32-year-old Newtown resident Paul Sheean showed a welcome return to form by taking a hotly contested sprint.
With 10 kilometers to go, Igor Tesic and Vito Depetro broke away, keeping 100 metres up the road from the chasing bunch, but as they approached the finish line the breakaway was fading fast and the bunch were at warp speed in pursuit.
With mere metres to go, the bunch swallowed up Tesic and then Depetro on the line, with Sheean and second placed Andrew Bonnello crossing just ahead of an exhausted Depetro, with Mark Micallef and Bob Shannon mere centimetres behind.
“I knew we would catch them. It was just a matter of when,” Sheean said.
“Sheean was always confident that the pack was on top of the situation.
“I got a slingshot off Micallef and Shannon at the perfect time and just went through and caught Vito, so a good win; I’m happy with that.”
In other results, Jeremy Canny-Smith and William Hamilton won C and D grades, respectively.
