George Gill Casterton 40

The Annual George Gill Casterton 40 was held on Saturday the 14th of June.
The 64 km course led the field of 52 riders from Casterton out to Digby and back to Casterton.
Peter Radcliff from Portland crossed the line first, but the line honours were closely contested by Steven Mutch from Mt Gambier & Darren Sheldon from Hamilton, the trio sprinted fiercly for the line. The three place getters broke away from the rest of their bunch at the top of Sanford hill. With around 13 riders chasing all the way home.
The top ten all came from the 18 minute and 12 1/2 minute bunches, it was pleasing to see 4 of these being from Hamilton. Darren Sheldon Showed guts and determination, to come 3rd, Dean Mclaren leadingthe chasing bunch back home came 5th, Stuart Robinson continueing his good form came 7th & Mark Hermon came in 9th.
Nick Cockrel, young rider fromHamilton Cycling Club won all three preme sprints during the race.
Fastest time honours were won once again by Brendon schultz of Hamilton, in a time just outside the course record he set the previous year.

Results, Peter Radcliff ptl 1st Steven Mutch MG 2nd, Darren Sheldon HAM 3rd, Thomas Tower CLC 4th, Dean Mclaren Hamilton 5th, David Jones MG 6th, Stuart Robinson HAM 7th, Steven Jones MG 8th, Mark Hermon HAM 9th, Steven Kelly Hrs 10th.
Fastest Time B Schultz HAM 1 hour 46mins.

This Report Courtesy of the Hamilton Cycling club, who would have guessed!

Well done to all ofthe top 3 riders a decisive move and well earnt palcings!

A couple of things I would like to add to the above report, Nick Cockrel who rode with me from the 25 minute mark rode exceptionally well, unfortunatelly he clipped a wheel and came off on the Sanford hill. I feel if it were not for this accident he would have also featured in the placings.
The move of the race Had to be when Steven mutch from Mt Gambier went on the Sanford Hill, of the bunch of 18 riders only 2 others could match the pace on the hill, young Nick Cockrel was a "Victim" of the "slowdown" at the back of this bunch!

I think the "Guts & Determination" comment posted above comes in at this point of the race.

Great to see a move like this not so great to be at the back of the bunch when it happens!

Juniors Race

Five Juniors riders contested the 15km junior race, which was contested out the Dunrobin Road, starting at the Small bore rifle range in Casterton.

Mount Gambier under 17 rider Sam Dwyer won convincingly riding from scratch, With Alex Bosch J15 Ham coming 2nd, from 2nd Scratch.

Results, 1st & Fastest Samm Dwyer MG 25mins 26 seconds, 2nd Alex Bosch, 3rd Dylan Lyndsay.

If you didnt get "Enough" at the Casterton 40, see you at the Casterton 50, you get to do the juniors course then the seniors as well, now thats value for your money!

Click on comments below for aggregate.

Very Wet long Weekend of Racing

The Queens Birthday Weekend of Cycling once again seems to have been a success.
Although a very wet weekend, each of the 3 events, The "Greg Gleeson", "Greame Woodrup" & "Stan Mcphee" were all very well attended.
The "Greame Woodrup" hosting the largest field for the weekend.

Saturdays event the "Greg Gleeson" was well won by Monica Kelly from Horsham, Monica rode off limit at 22mins. Limit although losing 2 riders early in the race were able to combine well, once 2nd limit made the catch there were enough workers to keep this bunch away.
second over the line was Mark Hermon (Hamilton) 3rd Stewart Robinson (Hamilton)
Fastset time once again Brendon Schultz (Hamilton)

The Greame Woodrup at Port Fairy was almost a carbon copy of Saturdays event.
2nd limit 25 mins stayed away for around 50km of the race, although back to 4 riders working a good pace was maintained. Once second limit 17mins caught the two groups were able to hold off any chashers for the line honours.
Stewart Robinson (Hamilton) showed his strength by driving the leading bunch right to the finish, even though only 3 riders were still working from about 4km out, Stewart one of them he still had power to hold off any of the would be "sprinters" in the bunch at the Finishline.
1st Stewart Robinnson 2nd Melissa Mckinlay (Mt Gambier) 3rd Gordon Cramm (Mt Gambier)
Fastest time went to Brendon Schultz (Hamilton), Brendon crossed the line 1min 42 seconds after the leading bunch.

The Stan Mcphee once again was looking like an outmarkers day, both Erick Gstrien and i had Picked Mark Mclaren as the winner in the unlikely event that the remaining 4 riders from limit would get up.
Limit stayed away for well over 3/4 of race distance, then once caught by the following two bunches that had combined and set an even pace, Mark Mclaren was the only limit rider to have the strength to hold on to that bunch.
Once back on to the last run back up to the finishline it was inevitable that today was going to be a middle markers day.
This group was thrown into confusion at the Falls circuit turn when some one indicated another lap was required, some riders turned some stopped, after discussion the bunch rolled up to the line, however as the Warrnambool Standard reported Mark Mclaren from limit got the Win, through his counting ability!
The backmarkers who had David Tozae and Brendon Schultz both trying to make a break for the fastest time honour, although Tozer and Matty Gstrien were able to get away and establish a sizable gap, these two also got involved in the confusion, once again Brendon Schultz took fastest time.

After much deliberation between officials and riders the order that riders crossed the line was the accepted finishing order.
1st Mark Mclaren, (Hamilton) 2nd Richard Schilling (Mount Gambier) 3rd Arno Vanderschans (camperdown)

In Summary the whole weekend was a good weekend of racing, although quite wet and cold, all events well attended.
Port Fairy recorded 100mm of rain over the weekend and Warrnambool 90mm of rain, the wettest day being the Monday.
Both Monica Kelly who is the current female leader in the SWS and Stewart Robinson the current male rider leader in the SWS had well earned wins on the weekend, congratulations to Mark Mclaren for "Out Foxing his rivals on Monday.
The Warrnambool Standard and the Moyne Gazette both had good write ups about the weekend of racing and there are a few Pictures available by looking at the Wannramboool Standards website.

The Next Event in The South West Series will be the Casterton 40, one of the toughest and always well contested events in the series.

The full leader board can be viewed by clicking on comments below this post.
Both Stewart Robinson (Male Riders) & Monica Kelly (Female riders) have a firm hold on their respective positions, consistnecy will help them stay ahead but there is enough races left in the series for them to lose That spot!
It also appears we have had over 160 roders compete in the series at this stage, not including the juniors, so we have seen nearly 200 competitors in this series.