O’Mara handicap at CCCC - 14 Aug 2011 - Modella race report

Andrew Weightman rode well after a bad fall several weeks ago. Great to have you back Andrew.

On Saturday the Cycling – Inform Team was a bit light on, just Andrew Weightman and I raced the O’Mara handicap at CCCC on the Modella circuit.  We really missed our team mates today; Harry, David and Dan who would have helped scratch no end.

As usual scratch gave away 30 minutes on this circuit and in perfectly still conditions Andrew and I knew there was little chance of us seeing the front.  Anyway, off we go for a 100k at threshold.

Despite a good working scratch bunch we failed to make any real headway on the leaders, and unfortunately some of scratch bunch went missing in the last 20k’s when we ramped the chase up a notch to try and bring down the gap in the final run in.  I was pretty sure everyone had given their all by that point in any case, so a few of us pressed on as hard as we could in the circumstances.  Despite one scratchy attacking his own group with 10k to go (and us not being up yet); we otherwise worked really well together as a bunch.

It was great to see local hard nuts Warren Knevitt (O’Mara), Leigh De Luca (Jamis) Vaughan Bowman, Michael Gallagher (VIS) to name a few giving it their all in the long chase.  Also great  to see Andrew Weightman in pretty good shape and on the mend after fracturing his broken shoulder a little over 4 weeks ago .

While everyone was doing their bit, the road was empty in front of us and the gap to the front, I am told, was over 2 minutes in the end.  Never mind, there’s always next week and here’s hoping for some decent cross winds that normally prevail at this time of year, which should be here any day now and would definitely change things up a bit.

A fantastic fastest time win to a young Brent Nelson – sponsored by Croydon Cycle Works.  For me his ride was the stand out off scratch today.  Watch this young fellow in the future, very impressive indeed and a blisteringly fast sprint to top off a hard day.

Out front another young rider by the name of Jack Hickey took the win from a rather large group by the looks of the photo.  Well done to Jack.

A special mention to race sponsors O’Mara Cycles and all the volunteers at CCCC who are just amazing in what was another superbly well run event and the sausage sizzle at the end was worth turning ourselves inside out for.

A handy donation from race entries taken was made to the Fusion Foundation that meant the trip was all that more worthwhile for participants.  We should do that more often.

Scratch time 2.09minutes – 100k’s.  Result – didn’t get up.

Full story and results are posted on the CCCC website as always:  www.carnegiecycling.com.au