CYCLING
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An incredible chase by fellow scratch riders helped hand Racing Kangaroos’ Brodie Talbot the 2013 Mark Dwyer Handicap honours in Mudgee on Saturday.
What was shaping up as a remarkable day for limit riders turned sour over the final kilometres when about five “scratchies” lived up to their status.
The scratch group including Talbot and his Racing Kangaroo teammates, Mudgee’s Ayden Toovey and Jordan Payne, worked tirelessly across the 98-kilometre race to set up a sprint finish between about seven riders.
Led by a siren-wailing police escort down Short Street, Talbot left peers in his wake to claim victory by four seconds. He completed the fastest race time of two hours, 13 minutes and 12 seconds.
Mudgee Cycle Club president Carl Holleman said the race time is one of the fastest in recent history.
A Macarthur Collegians Cycle Club member, Talbot said the win was a bonus.
“I felt good all day. I actually just wanted to help out the Mudgee guys, Ayden and Jordan, as best I could on their home turf,” he said.
Payne and Toovey finished third and fourth respectively among the bunch sprint, sharing the second fastest race time of 2.13.16.
First turning in to Henry Lawson Drive at Gulgong were limit riders Richard Spinks (Northern Sydney), Grant Roe (Randwick Botany), Arthur Norton (Warrumbungle) and Glen Partridge (MTBA). This group started the race 35 minutes before the scratch riders.
Four minutes behind at Gulgong, a group of about ten riders looked as though they were going to be in the mix over the final 34 kilometres. This group included Mudgee’s Fin Murray (14th overall; 2.37.47). The scratch riders were nowhere to be seen by this time at the Gulgong turnoff.
But just after Mud Hut Creek Road the limit riders had their lead narrowed to three minutes and the scratch riders had incredibly crept their way into sight.
“I think just near Gulgong we were about 12 minutes behind that lead group and we knew it was going to be tough to chase them,” Talbot said.
“But we kept pushing and got to that second lead group, I think they were made up of riders who were in the third bunch from the start, and with a fair few good riders in our group we thought we might just catch the leaders.
“By the time we came off Henry Lawson Drive and onto Putta Bucca Road I think we had closed the gap to something like 20 seconds and that’s when I knew we had them.
“I found a gap on the top of the hill and went for it.”
Finishing in second place to Talbot was Manly Warringah’s Jacob Kauffmann, who was also caught in the bunch sprint with Payne and Toovey.
Kauffman won the Division One Pieter van Gent graded scratch race on Sunday. For more details on his win see Wednesday’s The Weekly.
First woman home on Saturday was Bathurst’s Kirsten Howard who placed 17th in a race time of two hours, 38 minutes and 25 seconds.