"A day at the races with the Raging Bull and the Odd Couple"

Fine conditions with enough breeze to make sections of the St Leonards course tough greeted the combined A & B grade fields as they started the first of three laps on Saturday.  Pretty steady along the foreshore and through Indented Heads with a number of riders having a look see at the sharp end.  Settling into the first of the grinds on the exposed straight dead road past the golf course to the Queenscliff Portarlington road intersection and the bunch started to assume the rubber band formation.

Swinging around onto Queenscliff Portarlington road first time and the ever reliable Marcus Wettenhall decides to spin the thighs and soak in the collective sighs (and groans) of the wheels who can’t go with the surge as the rubber band is snapped.  As Marcus pulled away from the peleton it looked a little ‘all over red rover’ as he opened up a sizeable gap and a collective inability to organise the chase behind him.

And then in one of those iconic moments in Geelong Cycling club racing folklore we witnessed the arrival of the ‘Odd Couple’ as Paul Jane “the Quiet One”, and Darren Gray “the Fringe Dweller” made their move.  They rode off the front of the chasing peleton and assumed a forward position between the suffering bunch wheels and the raging bull out in front.

As the Odd Couple found they possessed a watch and one of them had the smarts to work it, they then settled into 60 second rolling turns and ever so gradually started to get closer to Marcus Wettenahll.  Down Mooraduc Road, onto the foreshore for the second time around and back onto the Queenscliff Portarlington road.  The Odd Couple kept up their relentless creeping and beeping of the 60 seconds and by the swing around onto Mooraduc Road the second time they surprised themselves by merging into the”ménage a trios” as they joined Marcus Wettehall.

As the three of them swapped some turns down towards St Leonards it looked as if they would cruise around for the last lap and do the sorting out in the run to the finish.  By this time the remnants of the peleton were well and truly out of the picture.  But of course the anxiety of the Odd Couple was well founded as swinging around past the St Leonards hotel for the last time Marcus Wettenhall called “last orders” and blurred the thighs as he popped first the Fringe Dweller, and then the Quiet One sitting up as he decided it was better to just hurt than be burnt alive in the heat of the Raging Bull’s afterburners.

As luck would have it the Odd Couple found their watch had survived the heat of Marcus’s effort and so once again they settled into their 60 second tappity tappity routine and the natural order of things was re-established.

Off the foreshore, past the golf course, and onto the Queenscliff Portarlington road for the last time and Marcus Wettenhall well in control.  And then ever so slowly the Odd Couple appeared to be getting closer and closer.  It was like groundhog day and was unlikely to have a happy ending for them.  But lo and behold they finally assumed the “ménage a  trios” position again.  It was like seeing a couple of children coming upon an unexploded bomb as they docked with the Raging Bull again.  They sniffed and they prodded and waited for the bomb to go off!

Onto the Mooraduc Road and the race director in the lead car had to check his rear mirror to make sure it was working as he observed the Odd Couple put it to Marcus Wettenhall as first Darren Gray and then PJ made jumps that the Raging Bull only just managed to hang onto.  And so the three of them a tight little bunch as they approached the gradual left hander for the straight run to the finish line.

And then one of the moves of the road racing season as the Quiet One, on the wheel of the Fringe Dweller, and with Marcus Wettenhall sitting behind him, backed off faster than JFK from Marilyn Monroe when the FBI called out “the Russians are coming”.  And commeth the gap commeth the wheel as Darren Gray took the Jens Voigt option and “put it in ze big ring und poonched his luck”.  Twenty metres became fifty and then one hundred as Darren drove to the finish line in the 53/11 spinning his head around 360 degrees waiting for the charge from behind, but alas PJ and Marcus Wettenhall with nothing left and the Quiet One taking second ahead of the by now all “raged out” bull.  The Fringe Dweller allowing himself a little pump of the air on the line in recognition of a mighty effort, and then quietly reflecting on a racing strategy built on “60 seconds at a time”!  Marcus Wettenhall last seen heading towards Mt Baw Baw for a training camp with photos of the Quiet One and the Fringe Dweller taped to his head stem and his parting words to the race director “Tell them I’ll be back……”

B grade turned into a sprint finish with Anthony Renjies showing the value of those Ceres bunch training rides and turning on the power to hold off Matt Oliver with a further gap back to Simon Masters in third place.

C grade showing the strength and ability of the female wheels in the Geelong club with Felicity Wilson showing her sprinting prowess to finish ahead of Philipa Read, and Robyn Smith in for third.

Juniors completed a time trial lap of the course under the watchful eye of Paul Rabbas with fastest time taken by Steve De Gallo, followed by Nicholas Ross, and Callum Harvey.

A Grade

1. Darren Gray
2. Paul Jane
3. Marcus Wettenhall

B Grade

1. Anthony Renjies
2. Matt Oliver
3. Simon Masters

C Grade

1. Felicity Wilson
2. Philipa Read
3. Robyn Smith

Juniors

1. Steve De Gallo
2. Nicolas Ross
3. Callum Harvey
   

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites