On Saturday the 7th of May 2011 Calder Park Raceway saw the 3rd running of the Tom Probert Club Teams Challenge. The race was again kindly put on by the combined efforts of the Sunbury and Coburg Cycling Clubs.
Brunswick, Hawthorn, Sunbury and Coburg all entered full teams. Brunswick and Hawthorn in particular were packing a significant amount of firepower with Cameron Clamp, Shane Miller, Ross Mueller, Ollie Phillips lining up. Sunbury had the classy Steffanoni at the head of a strong all round team and Coburg had breakaway man Kos lining up.
We suffered a blow with a late scratching of workhorse Adam “kung flu” Elford and lined up with a tight team of only 6 riders. Italo was represented by Marc Loecherer, Fraser Short, Adam Gibson, Renato Liucci, Alex Marchese and Brendan Spinks.
On paper it looked like the strongmen from each club might form a break so we opted to protect Marc with a view to ensuring he got in anything. He was not to contest sprints to save energy.
Brendan, Renato and Alex were to try and help Fraser pick up some points. Adam Gibson was to stay vigilant near the front.
As it turned out Brunswick used a strong all round team to take the first sprint and despite Brendan pulling a huge lead out for Fraser we realised that we didn’t quite have the power to beat them without using Marc in the sprint. We switched tack for the second sprint and Fraser started helping Marc out. Marc took 1 point in sprint 2.
Adam got in a small break shortly after and then a group of 4 or 5 riders joined him and others to make almost 10 riders – all the strong teams were represented but Adam was outnumbered up the road. The bunch was looking like letting this go.
Fraser took an opportunity to get over to the break with one Brunswick rider and that made 12. Sunbury, Coburg, Brunswick, Coburg all had 3 riders. Ollie, Cam Clamp and Kos had made the split but plenty of firepower was left idle back in the bunch.
Adam worked to help Fraser in Sprints and in number 3 Fraser picked up 2 points to Ollie. At this point Brunswick were still very much in control.
It was here that Marc started the real ride of the day. Jumping clear of the chasing main field he soloed in pursuit of the break for about 2 laps. With about 50 metres to go before making contact, the break began to wind it up for the next sprint. This meant that Marc was not able to bridge the gap. Instead of giving up he continued chasing for another lap and finally got back on by himself. Having joined the break the guys switched tack, Fraser to protect and Adam to cover moves.
Sprint 4, 2 riders were clear. Hawthorn and Coburg and Fraser led Marc out for the last point. It was all down to the finish.
Adam stayed vigilant at the front closing gaps and Fraser took Mark up to the final bend before Brunswick opened up the sprint.
Fraser held on for 4th place, Adam threw a wheel over for 8th and Marc took a well-earned victory.
Brunswick had faded and our places meant that we picked up 10 point, 7 points and 3 point, 20 points from the last sprint taking us to 24........equal on points with Brunswick.
The decision went to a count back and the Italo boys took a well-deserved victory.
Well done to all the guys who rode….you made the club proud.
