THE Mount Gambier Cycling Club headed to Kalangadoo on the weekend for Race 8 of the Kidman Law Co spring/summer series.
It provided a change of location and the chance for riders to use the ride out as a warm up, plus enjoy the hospitality of the country town after the race was over.
The Under 11/13 riders competed over a 4km out-and-back course along Kangaroo Flat Road, which the riders would complete twice.
Once again Eddie Buckland began with a 2:30 gap before Molly Opperman began her chase.
A southerly breeze gave them no respite as it was a cross wind in both directions of their race.
Opperman was ultimately unable to catch Buckland, who claimed the win, but Opperman recorded the fastest time.
For the Seniors, Jason Buckland was to be the rabbit for everyone else to chase.
He was given a six-minute head start over Damian Buckley, Jen Buckland, Elmer Buckland, Dave Delaland, Mike Bakker and Chris O’Donnell, who made a welcome return to racing. They would in turn have an eight-minute gap to the next group consisting of Spek Peake, Dean Zeven, John Cranwell, Craig Andre, Bruce McLaughlin and Harry Opperman.
The second-last grouping contained Matthew Opperman, Jami Buckley, Rob Mann and Malcolm Tirabassi, starting two minutes later, while the lone rider charged with the task of riding through the field was Nick Kidman, starting one minute further behind and some 17 minutes after Jason Buckland had begun his race.
With the wind starting to pick up, Jason Buckland headed off to the turnaround mark at the Mount McIntyre CFS station, with the cross winds turning into slight tail winds and headway was made.
Those in larger groups used the shielding provided by the other riders to great effect, cutting into the lead and making the pace difficult for Kidman to catch up.
Unfortunately Damian Buckley found the pace of his new group a bit too high and was dropped before the turnaround mark, consigned to the difficult task of trying to hold on to the wheels of faster riders as they came by.
As the riders turned around, the benefit of that slight tail wind became more apparent as they pushed into the slight head wind.
Out in front Jason Buckland was caught by the first group with approximately seven kilometres to ride.
They continued on with their task of trying to stay away from the faster groups behind them.
Some of the groups started to break up on the way back as riders found their limits.
Andre and Zeven managed to hold on to the wheels of Matthew Opperman, Mann and Tirabassi as they caught their group and continued to try and catch the group ahead.
That task was achieved with three kilometres to ride and they continued to push hard towards the finish line.
With one kilometre remaining the riders turned from Mount McIntyre Road towards Kalangadoo and the finish line just outside the post office.
In the final push to the line, Andre was able to just sprint ahead of Mann to take the victory, followed closely by Matthew Opperman and Tirabassi.
While Kidman pushed hard throughout the race, Mann took advantage of riding in a group and recorded the fastest time.
Attention now turns to this weekend when the club, with the financial support of Mount Gambier City Council, will host a coaching clinic with AusCycling coach Tim Decker.
Decker will take Academy riders and interested club members through some track coaching across the weekend, as well as participating in club racing on Friday night and Sunday.
Track racing starts at 6pm on Friday night, with the Sunday race to be a 25km handicap along the familiar Caves Road course.
