Warm, humid conditions greeted our 16 riders for tonight’s Crit racing, a sign of things to come over coming weeks and months.
B-grade
With many of our regular A-graders chasing other goals, Kevin Laffy and Troy Griffiths joined Cam Smith, Bryce Denham and Nick McNair in a red-hot B-grade field.
With a strong early pace, it was Cam Smith often on the front, driving the speed before Troy in particular tried to flex some muscle on the group.
With the group holding together they hit the start/finish line as one, with a lap to go.
Into the final straight it was Troy Griffiths who broke clear to win from Kevin Laffy and Nick McNair in third.
C-grade
Dave Faulkner, Will Kettle, Kaz Griffiths and Matt Dobeli were joined by Claire Goodman, fresh off her Great Cycle Challenge training, riding to fight kids’ cancer.
Off to a strong start, tonight’s race had a different feel to last week’s steady pace.
After a couple of Will Kettle surges, it was Kaz Griffiths who boiled with a great break away move, Matt, Dave and Will happy to let Claire close the gap.
Into the final lap it was Will and Dave who got an early break, in a tight finish it was Dave Faulkner for the win over Will with Matt Dobeli in third.
D-grade
Once again, the ever-popular D-grade was the biggest bunch with Paul Oman, Cookie, Jerrod Davison, Terry O’Burtill, Ray Hamilton and Joel Pike setting off over 20 mins +3.
Pre-race, Jerrod was brimming with confidence and set off at a frenetic pace, stretching the group, creating an early split with Joel, Cookie, Paul Oman and Jerrod gapping Ray and Terry.
Into the last few laps, Joel started to look a shade of beetroot as he drifted to the back, leaving Cookie, Paul and Jerrod to battle it out, with Cookie triumphing over Paul, with Jerrod in third.
A huge thanks to Cam for setting up the course and for our timekeepers for the night, we’ll see you all next week.