Twenty riders turned up for the final race in the East Gippsland Series. Once again Bairnsdale riders greatly outnumbered those from Wellington, but those that made the trip enjoyed a great day’s racing. Full results can be found on the results page by clicking on the “Results” tab or going to https://wellingtoncyclingclub.teamapp.com/livescores . A race report follows courtesy of Mike Renehan;

Wellington cyclist Mike Renehan accrued enough points to win the B Grade race in the final event of the four race Kermesse series conducted with Bairnsdale cycling club. A decent field presented and the sprints were hotly contested. The first won by Adam Scanlan of Bairnsdale, the second won by Renehan and the final sprint won by Dave Webb, who moved to East Gippsland from Bright. Renehan managed to place in all sprints to take the overall points. This competitive field will see some interesting racing over the coming months.
The A Grade field was very depleted with only three riders starting. Mitch Rankin of Wellington struggled to hold on in the middle section as the 2 Bairnsdale riders applied plenty of pressure. Former NRS rider Kai Rothlisberger was too strong breaking clear to win by a considerable margin. Rankin chased with Daniel Rickhuss of Bairnsdale, but the hard chasing dulled his sprinting with Rickhuss second and Rankin third. In the Bairnsdale dominated C Grade the wily Don Steward did what it took to just take out every sprint and line honours to take the win from Leigh Thomson in second place.

The next race will be the Belgian Classic at Lindenow on Sunday Mar 18 starting at 10am. This race will cover typical terrain cyclists racing in Belgium might encounter. A few hills and a good finish all run under handicap conditions.

Location

Long Paddock Café, Lindenow