Hi John

Thought I'd give a report on the Wagga Motors Open120km Handicap which was held on Saturday 1st June.

We had a beautiful winters day in Wagga with clear blue skies and temps around 15 degrees. I was given a handicap of 21mins over the scratchies, but with the majority of our group intent on waiting for the 16 min bunch to catch us it was to no avail. We got caught after about 30km and started working together to get the limit riders who were still 2 minutes ahead after having 4 minutes on us at the start.

We caught the limit riders at about 50km and turned into a fairly good headwind which started bringing our average down. with the riders staggered across the road trying to keep out the wind, the rider in front of me clipped the wheel in front and couldn't keep his balance. He went down right in front of me and I was big time on the anchors - I somehow managed to miss him simply by staying straight and braking really hard. This spat me out the back, so I then had to chase back! Not happy Jan.

We were then caught by the 12 minute bunch after 70km and the pace picked up enough that we were then really doing some work. I took some turns but then sat in for about 20km to make sure I had something left for the sprint home. At 110km was KOM. George Pappas, myself and another rider tried to get away before the start of this climb but were reeled back in. I managed to get off the front again and thought I had the KOM but a Canberra rider (who eventually won the race) caught me with about 50m to go and had too much strength. So I ended up 2nd KOM. The final few kms back to the finish were uphill with the last 400m being downhill.

Things slowed considerably at this stage and I had good position about 10 wheels back - not doing anywork but close enough to go and not get caught unawares. The Canberra rider who won KOM jumped hard and got off the front about 20m and then the chase started properly until another Canberra rider got on the front and didn't slow too much but certainly didn't chase his team mate. We were fairly well bunched again coming into the straight and riders started coming over the top everywhere. I got a little boxed in but managed 10th place. Not bad but they only paid to 8th place and also only 1st KOM. The Canberra rider ended up winning easily.

The scratch riders didn't catch us and I think we had about a minute or so on them, and our bunch ended up being about 30 riders. So we stayed away comfortably in the end given that our speed dropped in the last 10 kms as riders started to get position and think about the finish.

I think my next open will be the Rosemount estate so I have a few weeks to get ready for that one. I also stayed at my parents place in Tumut and did 60km of hills on Sunday morning -there was hardly any flat riding at all and no cars!

See you on Tuesday morning for some hills.

Matt

Last updated: Tuesday, 10 October 2006

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