FFi Training Ride
Four riders were seen heading out at 6.30 this morning from Greengate, FFi boys Owen and Mick, accompanied by Rodney Forrest and Mason Manwaring. Heading out Forbes Road, Amaroo, Molong, Manildra, Cudal, Bowen Park and then back into town via the Pinnacle.
A nice steady pace took them down to Molong where the only interest was by Mick and Owen going for the sprint into Molong, taken by Mick.
An uneventful trip to Manildra and another sprint, the first taken also by Mick and the second sneaky sprint after a school was taken by Owen. From there, along Banjo Patterson Way, Cudal for a water stop and Bowen Park.
Going into Cudal, Manwaring decided to cut his trip short and called the short cut, leaving Cudal out of the trip.
Forrest, Macphillamy and Troy filled their bidons and then set off to tackle Bowen Park, with the possibility of catching Manwaring.
Forrest, a first timer on Bowen Park, found the going very tough but struggled on trying to hold the wheels of the FFi boys up the hills.
Back on Cargo Road, saw the last three real hills that are part of Bowen Park, with KOM going to Mick atop Lidster Hill.
A right past the lake, and then onto a drink stop at the Mountain Tea House prior to tackling the Pinnacle. Forrest took a head start up the climb and kept powering his way up, only getting caught at the halfway mark by Mick and Owen who were going tit for tat up the climb. At the last sweeping right hander, Mick started turning the screws, watching the power go up as Owen drifted from beside him to sitting on his wheel. Around the left at the top of the straight, Mick was seen getting out of the saddle, clicking up another gear or two, Macphillamy starting to push back along side Troy. This was going to be a ding dong battle for final KOM points.
Troy kept winding it up making it too hard for Macphillamy to get around him before the top of the climb.
Forrest dug deep and crested the climb only seconds behind the boys.
All enjoyed the decent into town although the pot holes made for some evasive cornering.
Back into town, and the final points for sprinters jersey was hotly contested with Macphillamy taking an early jump, but Troy was quick to react and got over the top of Macphillamy and held him off for the final 50 sprint.
Garmin file for the day (For those riders that did the whole ride, unlike Manwaring):
connect.garmin.com/activity/57371645