Geelong and Surfcoast Cycling Club 70km Jack Griffin Trophy Race 2015

Geelong and Surfcoast Cycling Club 70km Jack Griffin Trophy Race 2015

The weather was perfect for the 33rd edition of the Jack Griffin trophy race over 70km out and back Forest and Nobles Roads twice finishing at the top of Nobles Rd. The longest and toughest club race of the season. With 57 riders from GSCC, Colac , Warnambool and Northern all the groups had good numbers so the race pace was going to be high and the big test will be the endurance of all riders.
Ken Mansfield and Don Stuart were off limit today with a sizable advantage of 25 minutes to second limit and 52 minutes to the strong scratch group of seven. These two club stalwarts shared the workload and stayed together on their own for a large majority of the race. The big movers over the first half of the race were the 21 minute group of  Chris Shay, Paul Bubb, Noel Said (n), Jamie Robinson, James Stuart, Dave Phillips, Mandy Hosking, Neil Maurer and Tony Spark they had caught the 27 minute group by the end of Forest Rd for the first time. 

The scratch group of Gary Wearmouth, Anthony Seipolt, Rick Buckwell, David Newett, Richard Lyle, Andrew Goodwin and David Lunn were flying down the road working well as a group over the first half of the race, they splintered up a bit after the turn around at Nobles Rd and were down to 5 riders with David Newett suffering from leg cramps and David Lunn not quite up to the pace of the scratch group. Only a couple of traffic delays around the course could slow this group down, it took till the second return leg of Forest road for them to start catching the middle few groups who were all still on there own, firstly second scratch then gradually all the other middle groups till the finish line where they finished 27 seconds short of the winner and just behind other placings amongst a big group of riders.

The 16 minute group of Grant Edmonds, Gerard Hickey (c), Paul Allen (c), Robert Baydle (w), Andrew Booth, Grant Rogers, Frank Gasperis and Brian Weppner  were finishing the race really well and joined the lead of the race with about 16km to go. The combined leading riders of the 16, 21, 27 minutes groups had stopped working saving some energy for the final 15km of the race, Noel Said was trying to motivate the other riders to keep working as there were still a lot of stronger riders behind catching fast. With no help Noel decided to have a go on his own and break away from the other riders, Jamie Robinson joined Noel for as long as he could but Noel's light stature and determination was to much for Jamie. Noel pushed on to take a great race win finishing solo over the finish line completely exhausted. Grant Edmonds help of Frank Gasperic for 2nd and 3rd respectively.

1st Noel Said (N)(21min 2:04:56), 2nd Grant Edmonds (16min), 3rd Frank Gasperic (16min), 4th Barry Warlod (W)(27min), 5th John Bell (27min), 6th Grant Rogers (16min), 7th Paul Bubb (21min), 8th Mandy Hosking (21min), 9th Gerard Hickey (C)(16min), 10th Tony Spark (21min), Fastest Time Gary Wearmouth. (scr) 1:44:11

Thanks again to Jack Griffin for supporting a very prestigious club race and again for providing the fabulous trophies and also for your humorous stories during the presentations. Thanks to Richard Buckwell snr for refereeing and all the other marshals and helpers on the day.

Kane Airey

President

GSCC inc

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