A Grade 

The western suburbs 2 great cycling clubs battled for the prestigious Challenge Cup on Saturday. Knowing A-Grade were fighting for the pride of their respective clubs, the attacks began on first climb of the She Oaks Racing Circuit out of Steiglitz, leaving only 2 Geelong and 2 Footscray riders to fight it out; Daniel Wilson, Mark Bellew, Dominic Dudkiewicz and Geoff Robertson. On the 2nd lap at the same spot, Geelong’s Mark Bellew attacked again and put 400 meters into his rivals, and never looked back, despite the cold and windy conditions. On the final lap, Dom Dudkiewicz attacked, leading to a strung-out finish with Geelong’s Bellew crossing way ahead of Footscray’s Dudkiewicz, followed by 3rd placed Robertson and Wilson in 4th. 

B Grade 

By far the biggest & most competitive group racing on the day were B-Grade, where team tactics saw both Footscray & Geelong riders trying to cause the opposition pain; attacks, counter-attacks and covering your mates being the tactics de-jour. (A special mention must go to James Fitzgerald who managed to blow himself before the end of the first lap). The large field was severely whittled down by the second lap, with Geelong riders Steve Cuunen and Darren Gray trying to get a few riders a good break out the front, only to be reeled in by the Footscray riders each time.

The second lap again saw a number of attempted attacks off the front mostly by the Geelong riders however all were closely checked resulting in most of the remaining group staying together well into the 3rd lap. 

Half way up Steiglitz hill the last time, the remaining B grade riders broke into 2 smaller groups of 6.   The break of 4 Geelong and 2 Footscray riders ripped out a strong lead, but again tactics by the Footscray riders (and lack of intellect to keep the bunch away from the Geelong riders) saw the groups rejoin 5 kilometers from the finish, where the day’s only bunch sprint saw Geelong’s Ben Veith and James Stokie take 1st and 2nd, with Footscray’s Rhys Treloar and Tim Kirkham taking 3rd and 4th. 

C Grade 

Decided to be the civilized group for the day, sticking together for the first lap.  A number of attempts were made Lee Evans to break up the bunch, but this was to no avail.  Finally Footscray’s Jason Roberts attacked and ended up finishing 3 minutes up on the peloton; with Geelong’s Nick Ross and Footscray’s David Lane a distant 2nd and 3rd. Challenge Cup Points saw Footscray and Geelong draw with 9 points each, leading to a sudden death playoff at our next inter-club race, the Ross Bush Memorial on September 13. 

Thanks to all marshals for the help on the day.  A big thanks to our friends at Footscray for making the effort to get the inaugural Club Challenge off the ground. Our next club race will be held at Parparap on the 30th August.  It’s a 55km handicap, with a start time of 10:30 sharp.  It would be great if all members could pre-enter as it makes it much easier on the day to get organised on time.  Our Marshals for the next race are Rudy Schmidt, Terry Stacey, Mark Hooper, Paul Rabbas and Colin Smith.  If you can’t make it, make sure you get someone to help you out. 

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