Wednesday Night
Wednesday Night Airport Dash
Numbers were a bit light this week for the airport dash, with many away with work or family commitments. Still it made for an interesting roll out. Jeff and Max Stewart rolled out early with Max doing the bulk of the work to help his dad stay away from the chasing bunches.
Terri Rossi and Denis Druve where off next. Then the big boys started and by big, the weight limit was 90kg or over to qualify for the bunch. This bunch contained Dugald Parson, Adam Farris, Mason Manwarring was bound to struggle as they could not ride side by side due to the 2.5m rule.)
They gave the next bunch containing Charlie Gascoyne, Mick Cain, Joe Szpytko and a fly in from Western Australia a 6min head start. Rod Farrell and Owen MacPhillamy followed them at a further 90sec back.
Rod and Owen had to start fast to try and close as much time as a possible before they hit the headwind. They were going well between the start and the dipper closing on the Cain bunch. Owen was doing the bulk of the work with Rod rolling through on the descents to give Owen some respite. As the Farrell bunch hit the base of the dipper the Cain bunch was on the verge of cresting the top. At the top the Farrell bunch caught the first to be dropped from the Cain bunch. The first casualty was Joe Szpytko however he quickly settled in and rolled through for a turn. One his second turn, Owen was heard yelling to Joe to go right, right Joe, go right. Both Owen and Rod followed this by grabbing the anchors as Joe went left and forced his companions onto the dirt.
Both Owen and Rod recovered from the slight hiccup and returned to the pursuit of the bunches. Owen said it was frustrating as “we could see them just there but never close enough”.
By this point the Big Boy bunch had had an implosion followed by an explosion, which sent, Mason up the road. The man that had earlier complained of not being able to breath was away.
Back with the scratch bunch Rod was starting to struggle and able to hold the gap while Owen rested and then Owen would close it a bit more. At the first U turn there was 30sec. And it looked like the Farrell group and the Cain group might come together at the airport.
Past the airport everyone witnessed the strength of Mason as he had well and truly blasted his bunch and was soloing back to town.
At the last U turn the gap was down to about 20sec between group Farrell and group Cain. Unfortunately Owen was starting to fad a little and Rod had been on the limit sine the first T intersection. This lead to a slight loss in time for the Farrell group.
Owen found some extra legs between the 2nd and last intersections and dug deep to try and get onto the back of the Cain group by the last intersection. He got it to within 10sec or so but struggled through the corner with a few cars, lack of lungs and tired legs. Rod waited and wound it up again allowing Owen to recover a bit before Owen took up the pace setting and closed the gap again to within a tantalisingly close margin but just could not roll onto the back. Rod pushed it down the dipper and again it looked close but Owen was struggling a little over the top. Again a few seconds of recovery and the pace was back up. Into the last creek and the Cain group has started to falter.
Charlie was off the back but Mick was sticking to the blow in and was not going to be upstaged by someone younger and not as good looking.
Rod and Owen caught Charlie and Owen was heard yelling at Rod to go, but Rod waited enough for Owen to recover again a little.
Through the last creek and the Farrell group was in the bottom as the Cain group was about ¼ of the way up. Owen has gone to the front and really trying to push it to bring it all together before the sprint. Towards the top Rod has put in one last turn and then over the crest Owen has rolled over the top of Rod to try one last time to bridge the gap before the end.
He couldn’t do it, Owen got to Mick’s rear wheel and the WA blow in was a bike length in front.
The explosion and explosion of Mason from the big boy bunch allowed him the chance to take a rare solo wins.
Owen was soon seen coughing and spluttering due to the tail end of flu, unfortunately that amount of coughing could lead to vomiting. That is what happened and it was not pretty. Rod was heard asking Owen what the brown specks were on his legs to which the reply from Owen was “must be rum ‘n’ raisin chocolate, sorry about that”.
After some hard riding from everyone it was time to head to the Hotel Canobolas for a $10 steak.
Owen will be happy to have a fastest time for the loop as next week see’s the return of Mick Troy, Angus Tobin and rumour has it the Windsor boys may be up.