The Bay2Bay Classic was held for the second time starting in Rosebud and would travel 100km over 2 laps from Rosebud towards Flinders and then up a long gradual climb to Red Hill and Arthurs Seat before a long descent back down to Boneo Road. B Grade had 2 riders from Coburg, Paul Logan and Stuart Morgan.  The race started at just after 8am and after a very sedate first 7km Logan (Coburg) attacked from about 10th wheel.  The peloton seemed content to let Logan ride away early with strong NW winds and a very tough parcours to follow with only up and down the entire way.  After my disastrous start to the morning I decided I had nothing to lose by going out on an attack early and just see how I feel.  Quickly, Logan opened up a handy 30 sec or so gap and within 5km or so Knight (St Kilda) was trying to cross the gap on his own, Logan saw this and when Knight was close enough to cross sat up to let him get on.  The two of them worked really well for the next 10km or so dancing over two or three steep nasty climbs along Boneo Road (approx. 10% for 500m - 1km) before turning a hard left into a stiff northerly wind and a long gradual climb to Arthurs Seat.  Before soon Franklin (Leongatha), Morgan (Coburg), Nicholls (Croydon Cycleworks) had also crossed the gap which resulted in a very handy 5 now working really well together. 

 At the end of the first lap the gap had gone out to 1.10min and before long 1.35min.  When the leading break hit the long gradual headwind climb again Knight (St Kilda) was starting to miss lots of turns and seemed to be struggling having spent  a long time now working turns out in the strong winds.  At 73km down with less than 30km remaining Knight popped leaving only 4 out in front.  Nicholls was now also foxing or struggling perhaps and also missing many turns however the break decided that we had to keep working as 90 sec in these conditions was not a impossible gap to bring back. 

 Getting to Arthurs Seat for the final time was a huge relief to the break knowing that it was basically down hill and tail wind down to the finish saving the final 4 km to the finish.  The commissaire now was reporting we had a gap of 2.30min and the four of us were now thinking about tactics for the win, when out of the blue 2 other riders, Rolland (Blackburn) and Clark (Croydon Cycleworks) flew across the gap and then went straight past us in excess of 60km/h.  There were minor expletives in the break just wondering where these two had come from and why the commissaire hadn't mentioned these two in the time gaps. 

 The break had now swollen to 6 and with only 4 places up for grabs meant the attacks were about to start.  Coming into the remaining 10km a number of attacks went but no one had the strength to open any sizeable gap.  Turning into the headwind for the remaining 4km a number of attacks went again but once again the headwind was too strong and the rest of the break  were now very attentive to them.  Coming into the final 500m, Nicholls went for broke but Logan and Morgan jumped onto him straight away, then with 200 to go Logan opened his sprint just to have Morgan overtake just before the line giving Coburg a 1/2 sweep. 

Results:

1. Stuart Morgan (Coburg) 2hr 55.45

2. Paul Logan (Coburg) st

3. Brett Franklin (Leongatha) st

4. Roy Clark (Croydon Cycleworks) st

5. Andrew Rolland (Blackburn) st

6. Andrew Nicholls (Caulfield-Carnegie) st

7. Russell Edgar (St Kilda) @0.57

8. Stefan Kirsch (Caulfield-Carnegie) @0.57

9. Dylan Hately (Camperdown) @1.07

10. Jamie Goddard (Blackburn) @1.08