Club Races
Blackie Snatches Last Minute Victory
Mount Arapalies Handicap - Sunday 2nd March 2008

Last years Baw Baw Classic winner Ian Blackie surged to the lead in the last 50 metres to take out last Sundays Grampians Vets 46k Mt Arapalies handicap, held from Horsham to the very top of Mount Arapalies.

Five separate bunches of would be mountain climbers set off in ideal conditions, with hill climbing ability generally increasing at an accelerating rate from limit to scratch riders. In a race that was almost as challenging for the handicapper as the cyclists themselves, the handicapper had to aim for the bunches to come together on the mountain without giving too much away to the limit riders.

	Ian Blackie

First away on 25 minutes was David Cariss and Les Power, who took full advantage of the first wind assisted leg. Ten minutes later Shauna Heard and Meg Parnaby left the starter in hot pursuit of Power and Cariss, hoping they could form a strong bunch and get onto the mountain before being caught.

However, they only managed to catch Carras, after Power broke away at about the 35km mark, getting onto the mountain first, well clear of any other riders.

The strong 6 minute bunch of Gerard O’Brien, Tom Eldgridge, Dan Heard and Tony Lloyd had no intentions of allowing the limit riders to get even part way up the mountain and worked well to overtake Parnaby and Heard at the very base of Arapalies

Meanwhile the scratch bunch of Ian Blackie, Steve Monks and Chris Scott were wasting no time and had caught the 3 minutes riders 35k into the race. This strong bunch which now included Alan Barnett, Frank Kean, Harvey Lang and Tim Schneider still had a lot of work to do with no other bunches in sight, but powered on with the knowledge that the front riders would be going very slowly once they hit the mountain.

Les Power still had a commanding lead and was well up the mount when he cramped on a very steep incline and was forced off the bike. He was quickly overtaken by a Gerard O’Brien, who was flying up the mount ahead of the rest of the pack.

Over the closing stages, it came down to individual climbing ability, with the outstanding Blackie quickly gobbling up most of the field. It became a race in two with Blackie just managing to overtake O’Brien on the very last slope. Tony Lloyd was third with Steve Monks taking fourth place.