After taking a serious spill at last week’s crit race, it was great to see Phil Muratore return to racing on Friday night in A-grade with battle scars and medical tape on show.
He was joined by George Griffiths, Max Trewhella, Nathan Oman, Troy Griffiths and Neville and Kevin Laffy for 35 minutes of frenetic fun.
The speed was on from the get go which proved too much for a recovering Phil Muratore but with an average of 43.9km/h for the journey that is fair enough.
The remainder of the field was tight as they crossed the line for the last lap bell and it was Nathan Oman who surged away on the last lap with the tail wind to take a convincing win with Max Trewhalla finishing second and Neville Laffy third.
B-grade
It was a smaller field this week in B-grade consisting of Jamie Soares, Francis Lias and John Brian.
The three riders worked consistently throughout their race to average 39.1km/h and it wasn’t until the last lap when Francis Lias kicked away from his compatriots and even looked as though he would hold them off coming into the final kick.
In what was to be the finish of the evening (and potentially the season) just centimetres separated first and third with Jamie Soares coming to the line with speed and a well-timed bike throw to edge out Francis Lias and John Brian.
C-grade
Heather and Francis Lias crossed paths with Josh Thomson on their way to the racing on Friday night and after a few words of encouragement and the acquisition of a licence, Josh was on the start line for his first start in a little while.
Lining up against him were Liam Clohosey, Darren McKemmish, Claire Goodman and Nick Woods.
The pace was surging early in the C-grade event, ramping up to a lap nudging 43km/h which had the bunch gnawing on their headsets, but it was a quartet of laps at 41.7km/h that saw Liam, Claire and surprisingly Nick ejected out the back.
We think that Nick was actually planning on playing a domestique role to tow Liam and Claire back to the front but when they couldn’t hold his wheel he powered his way back to the front by himself.
In the finish, Josh showed that he still has a fine sprint, taking the win from a strong Darren McKemmish and the powerful Nick Woods in third.
D-grade
The pace was steady for the D-grade riders which included Ray Hamilton, Dave Faulkner, Zenon Gawronski, Georgie Jenkins, Will Kettle, Heather Lias, David Oman and Madi.
This suited the veterans of the bunch as they rotated around with the rest of their group in the front half of the race.
Too soon there were a couple of surges and the bunch was thinned to six, all of whom continued to rotate around the paceline as they circulated the criterium circuit.
With three of the club’s female riders in this race, would we see them hatch a plan to take the win?
In the end it wouldn’t be the case with the Kettle boiling for the second week in a row, with Will taking the win, showing a clean pair of pedals to the rest of the bunch.
Dave Faulkner came in second and David Oman steady as always came in third.
Georgie Jenkins took out the first female rider prize coming on top of her great effort the previous Sunday to complete the GWM Ironman 70.3 in Melbourne.
