Race Report

This was the biggest field we've seen for this event. We were even knocking back entries for the first time. And Hilton, the man who showed everybody how it should be done this time hadn't ridden this event since that amazing year for record breaking: 1996, when the first 46 riders all rode 'sub-hour' and the event records established all still stand.Well, Hilton is now just into serious verteran status and I would reckon he should peak in about ten years. So today was a pretty good start! There was quite a bundle of the GP lads among the top ten. And apparently just a modicum of rivalry amongst the ranks; and very keen but subtle interest in the results as they were recorded.

And there WAS a Women's course record - well done Mandy! Lorraine of course also carried home a swag of medals including the vets' gold.

There seemed to be a few mechanical grems about today: the tandem of Naughtly Nev and Ray arrived without one seat post so we gained a couple of marshals; Brian Hawes had a restart on the basis of a mechanical mishap in the first 300m and Andrew H apparently had some similar concerns when he was heard asking Stan for an adjustment of a left nut (?)

We can add a couple of "DNF-punctures" to that list; there was also a disappointingly large number of DNS.

There wasn't a lot wrong with the conditions we provided although we do have to admit there were times when it was better to be out there than other times. The flag did, indeed manage a flutter or two on occasions; but there were plenty of times when it was quite untroubled. But it certainly didn't assist anybody when it was blowing, being dead westerly. For what it might mean, Eddy was less than 30sec short of his winning time of last year. And there was that course record...

The WADA mob were there again giving strong support to their folk and maybe one of the strongest performances of the day went almost unnoticed because it was solo in a field of one: first man home was Mark leFlohic with a very impressive time of 27min for the 16km on his trike. I had a somewhat concerned call from Rod (at the turn) after Gerry Bampton has passed through, wondering whether his bike was going to make it back - but it did; somewhat asthmatically. We are assured that's the nature of the particular beast and nothing to worry about.

I hope everybody noticed there was an equivalent of 10% of the riding field standing around for the entire duration of the event working as marshals, starters, timekeepers etc.

Thank you Jenny & Mel (Registrations and results); Kirsten, NickyA, Roger Holt David Doust, Rob Patterson and Ray Challen (Marshalling) Rod, Jenni (Timekeeping) Deano and Stan (Starting team) with John N floating about generally and Lorraine doing everything else after her ride having already spent much of yesterday ensuring there were refreshments on hand at the event.

Now we have an '80' to organise Many thanks to The Department of Planning And Infrastructure, Balanced Transport System and the Hopeland Community