Last Sunday morning, 21 riders faced the handicapper in round 4 of the Griffith Cycle Club Bertoldo's Bakery Cup.
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The race was split into five groups, with the two limit riders, Paul Muir and James Macintosh, getting a handy 18-minute start, followed by the 8 minutes markers of Brendon Sinclair, Adrian Piccoli, Michael Wynne, Jordan Piva and the ever-improving Mia Stockwell. This group really had their work cut out, but good teamwork would see them as a hard chase for the backmarkers.
Riding off at 4 1/2 minutes, Brad Hart, Peter Stockwell, Steve Bertoldo, Dick Hore, and visiting rider Andrew Richie had to decide, do they chase the 8-minute group or save some energy and hook up with Chopping Block to form a powerhouse of cycling brilliance and chase victory.
Chopping Block of Allan Jones, Chris Fuchs, Mat Smith, Angus Harris and Matthew Nugan had 1 minute 15 seconds off Scratch and may have had a different idea of how this race might unfold as they were picked up by a strong Scratch group of Malcolm Blake, Craig Tilston, Nigel Dunstone and Jason Minato on lap 1. These backmarkers could sense a win very early in the race and worked hard to make it happen.
The 8-minute markers were rolling it over like pro cyclists until they lost Piccoli with a mechanical, which took some of the wind out of their sails. Meanwhile, out front Muir and Macintosh were working well at a pace that looked promising come the finish line.
At the back of the race, Scratch and Block were eating up the kilometres at over 40kph, showing no mercy, they rounded up the 4 1/2 minute bunch halfway round the 3rd lap and the 8-minute group a little further in the lap.
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Limit was cleaned up early into lap four, allowing Scratch to dictate the terms of how this race would finish, or so they thought. Coming into the sprint finish, Malcolm Blake made it quite clear, he is the man, taking first place and fastest time (59:35), followed by Block riders Mat Smith and Angus Harris.
The Bertoldo's Bakery Cup points score after round 4 is:
Steve Bertoldo 58 points
Brendon Sinclair and Michael Wynne on 55 points
Chris Fuchs 51 points
Paul Muir 50 points
Next Sunday will see the running of the Dean Carter Memorial Race.
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