We welcomed back a couple of club legends, with Neil Thomson and Russell Jeffreys returning to EMCC racing.
After a pre-race major mechanical, Zenon Gawronski set off as our lone limit rider, a tough ask over the 54km ahead. With a great solo effort, Zenon kept Ray Hamilton and Russell Jeffreys at bay as all bunches crept closer together.
At the turnaround point, Ray and Russell still appeared to have a sizeable lead, with Matt Dobeli, Claire Goodman, Darren McKemmish and Will Kettle feeling that they were making good gains on last week's heroes, Mel Smolenaars and Heather Lias, who had John Jenkins for company.
Looming large from the turnaround were the combined powers of ‘Butch's’ (Graeme Butcher) 33-minute group and Cam Smith's 40-minute group. Scratch at 42 minutes were working hard to gain ground.
With around 15km to go, ‘Dazza’ (McKemmish), Matt and Claire were caught by the combined group of Cam, ‘Butch’, Nick Woods, Daniel Burrows and Matt Grealy, with Cam, Daniel and ‘Butch’ in particular driving the pace.
As the super group caught Mel and Heather, they latched on quite impressively as we all headed for the finish, in pursuit of Ray and Russell.
As it unfolded, Ray and Russell had a comfortable three-minute advantage with Russ sprinting for the win over Ray.
Despite his constant, withering surges on the front of the chasing bunch, Cam Smith still had the legs to sprint for third from Daniel Burrows in fourth and Matt Grealy in fifth.
In a fast-finishing scratch group, Mick Hone finished in the fastest time of 1hr 11min 10sec — or in other words, just over two-and-a-half minutes quicker than his son Levi in last year’s race.
Gunbarrel Handicap Results
1st — Russell Jeffreys
2nd — Ray Hamilton
3rd — Cam Smith
4th — Daniel Burrows
5th — Matt Grealy
Fastest time — Mick Hone
First female — Claire Goodman
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