Road: Edwards goes solo to win at Snake Valley

The BSCC road race committee's deal with the weather gods is still in force. Conditions for Sunday's BSCC senior road race on the Mt. Emu circuit at Snake Valley were perfect: sunny, crisp and almost windless. Race entries were significantly down on the previous weeks' road races, thanks to a number of other events on the same day, including another of Peter Canny's ever-popular RecTTT events, the first InterWinter MTB event at Woodend, the Ararat Junior Tour, and a Eureka Veterans' road race. Molly Hegert, carrying the bulls-eye as lone limit rider, set off first, chased by Roger Bade, Don Stewart, Will Maddams and Sam Edwards. Four minutes back were the 10-minute bunch: Craig Lightfoot, ex-footballer Thayne Turley, the in-form Aaron Blomley, and Shane Butler. Out front, Roger Bade and Edwards left their co-markers half-way through the first of two laps, and collared Hegert to take the lead. The 10-minute bunch behind them remained intact, but in the light wind, their numbers did not give a huge advantage.

Behind them was the evenly-matched 5-minute bunch of Australian M19 team pursuit champion Harry Bade, the wily Les Bilney, and strongmen Ben Clark and Jason Haire. They had a 2-minute start on the second scratch bunch of young guns Charles Martin and Jarrod Boyd and oldster Jonathan Lacey. On paper, second scratch's chances of closing the 2-minute gap looked slim, with all the 5-minute riders as strong as Lacey, but Martin and Boyd started fast, rode smoothly and powerfully, and nursed Lacey on the climbs. As a result, they had the 5-minute bunch in sight at the end of the first lap, and made contact with half a lap to go.

The scratch bunch of Andrew Weightman, John Polkinghorne, Damien Keirl, Ciaran Conaughton and James Crafter lost time trial machine Weightman early to a mechanical problem, and so took somewhat longer to close the 3-minute gap to second scratch. The back three bunches combined on the fast southern run on the last lap, and in theory had the power to close a large gap and mow down the front groups on the drag to the finish. But the frenzied chasing to bring these three groups together had taken its toll, and the drive went out of the chase. In front, Bade senior and Edwards were coming back to the Blomley group, but not fast enough. Edwards skipped away on the climb up to Snake Valley, and despite a late charge from Blomley from the chase group, hung on to take a gutsy solo victory. Roger Bade was swallowed up by the chase group, with the consistent Craig Lightfoot and Thayne Turley taking third and fourth, respectively. Some minutes later, Conaughton and Crafter exploded the back bunch on the last climb, but Damien Keirl did his now-customary resurrection to shut the gap on the flat final kilometer and blow away his rivals in the sprint for fastest time.

Thanks to chief marshal Stuart Grigg, and marshals Tim Oliver, Ian Nunn, Warren Faneco, Jeremy Doolan, and John Carmody.

1. Sam Edwards (14:00)
2. Aaron Blomley (10:00)
3. Craig Lightfoot (10:00)
4. Thayne Turley (10:00)
5. Roger Bade (14:00)
Fastest time: Damien Keirl (scr)

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