It was a cold winter morning for round 4 of the Tom Cycle City Cup. Twenty One riders were split into four groups.
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The front markers Jack Trimboli, Michael Wynne, Tom Graham and George Rigon, were buoyed by the 17 min 30 sec start on scratch and fancied their chances of a victory.
Bunch three comprising of Leanne Irvine, Sarah Trotter, Tara Payne, Michael Andreazza and Adrian Piccoli, followed the limit group 6 minutes later.
Bunch 2 were also looking strong with a five minute start on scratch and included Peter Stockwell, Jenni Massey, Tony Del Gigante, Greg Pattison, Michael Taylor and Bron Jones.
Scratch was also a six man group with Malcolm Blake, Craig Tilston , Dennis Irvine, Alan Jones, Kingsley Massey and Jason Minato.
Limit were enjoying a good ride with Jack Trimboli riding strongly and the improving Michael Wynne making a solid contribution to the group.
Bunch three was having an excellent ride and all riders working very well together.
However their hopes were dashed in the second lap by a mishap which left a rider out of the race and the rest the group as non-contestants.
Coming into the final lap, chopping block, assisted by some very fast turns from Greg Pattison were down to three minutes on limit and were getting quite excited.
Meanwhile scratch were slowly bringing down the deficit and started the fourth lap 2 min 15 sec down on block and 4 minutes from the lead bunch.
Coming into Murrumbidgee Avenue, 3 km from the finish line, it was still limit in the lead and Graham was rallying the troops.
Chopping Block had limit in their sights, and checking behind for scratch, assessed the race was in the bag.
However, scratch had upped the effort in the last lap and a monster turn by Tilston along Beaumont Road, positioned scratch 50m behind chopping block.
Scratch was not in a charitable mood and half way down Murrumbidgee both remaining groups were picked up within the space 100 metres of each other.
Again, Tilston was on the front and upped the pace yet again, the rest of scratch tightly on his wheel.
Coming round the corner into the final straight, sprinter Jason Minato shut the gate, to ensure a scratch quinella.
Still on Tilston’s wheel Mal Blake started the sprint from 250 metres from the line and was not to be denied victory.
Alan Jones put in a tremendous sprint to claim second from a fast finishing Kingsley Massey.
Craig Tilston had to settle for fourth place whilst a wary Jason Minato used all his sprint experience to hold off the balance of the pack.
A determined Jenni Massey hung on to scratch to claim sixth place, whilst seventh and the final points of the day went to Tony Del Gigante.