Brooke, Trish and I made our way up to Cootamundra at 5.45am on Saturday morning for a 12.30pm start for the first of two handicap races being held over the weekend.  I had entered both the 120km race on Saturday and the 70km race on Sunday.  Brooke would be only racing on the Sunday.  After 6 hours of driving we arrived in Cootamundra just before midday which left a little over 30 minutes to get some movement into the legs.  I was riding off 12 minutes with the outmarkers being off 44 minutes.

It was a magnificent day in central NSW, sunny, about 20 degrees and only a light northerly blowing.  Everyone new it would be a very fast race with 10 bunches of between 15 and 20 riders per bunch.  I set off with a large bunch of 22 for the 120km race and as expected the pace was right on straight away, everyone thankfully were rolling through and doing good consistent turns up and down the hills at 40-45km/h.  The bunch in front of us were 4 mins out and then another 3 min to the next bunch.  At Young just before half way we spotted the bunch we were chasing for the first time and also straight away the road narrowed considerably and the hills started getting steeper.  Shortly after we joined the large bunch we were chasing and they had also caught their bunch ahead which now meant we had over 60 riders together on a very narrow road.  The key was get up near the front and continue to drive the pace along and try to forget the 50 odd riders trying to sit on and get a ride.

Just before Harden we joined another bunch or two which expanded the field even more, however luckily their was a long climb into Harden that dropped a large number of weaker riders.  The peloton had now been reduced to 50 or so and with every new rise the legs started getting more and more tired by the kilometre.  Just after the turnaround we saw what remained of Scratch and 2nd scratch.  We seemed to still have quite a sizeable lead and seemed like we may stay away.  With about 8 km remaining the pace of the field slowed considerably and with a turn of the head noticed the scratch bunch only about a minute off the back.  The bunch had now decided that they were going to get caught and thought they would let scratch come through and dictate the pace.  Personally I didn't think it was a great decision considering the final 10km was all fast and flat and driving turns hard we were comfortably sitting on 50km/h.

Once scratch came through I picked a couple of wheels I should follow, one being Trent Wilson (Colombia Selle Italia) and the other being Troy Glennan both from NSW which I thought would be the strongest.  The last 3 km consisted of a narrow bridge, a railway crossing, left hand corner and then finally a right hander in the line up for the sprint.  Line was crucial through these corners and I let a small gap open up approximately 500m before the line.  This forced me to sprint too early and in the end had a couple of riders come over me on the line leaving me in 10th place.  The organisers were paying to 20th so in the end I was very happy with that result.

Results: (120km)

1st David Whyman (4 min)              2:45
2nd Stuart Shaw (Scratch)              st (Fastest time: 2:41 - 44.7km/h)
3rd Mitch Docker (Scratch)             st
4th Eddie Salas (Scratch)               st
5th Fabio Calabria (4 min)               st
6th Mitch Chapman (4min)              st
7th Richard Vollebregt (Scratch)      st
8th Charles Gascoyne (12 min)       st
9th Malcolm Haigh (12 min)            st
10th Paul Logan (12 min)                st (Ave. 42.1km/h)