Race Results
Footscray CC Graded Scratch Series (2012) - Harry Jones Memorial @ You Yangs
Round 7 of the Footscray Cycling Club’s Winter Road Season saw riders tackle their second handicap of the season, the coveted Harry Jones Memorial. This handicap saw 80 riders split into six bunches that leave at intervals based on their abilities, with Scratch leaving 28 minutes after Limit, and whilst it appeared that all bunches dug deep and worked well together, it was the riders of Third Scratch who dominated the podium today with 80 kilometers of very consistent and fast riding.
Third Scratch was the largest of the bunches today; 18 evenly matched riders who were spurred on by Anthony Rebesco’s words at race start, swapping turns and keeping the pace high; making sure that at each corner very little pace was lost and that riders took care of each other in an effort to hold off a very determined Scratch bunch. As they swept up each group ahead of them, they maintained the pace, allowing only a handful of riders to join them; most notably Peter McQuade and Vito Depetro from Third Limit, who not only survived but handled their share of the workload and were in the money at the end. By the last lap, with Scratch and Second Scratch still a minute behind, the combined bunch at the head of the race knew they were sprinting for the winner’s sash, and several riders threw in an attack; first off was Graeme ‘Coke’ Cole, then Robbie Stocker, and then the winning attack launched by Bob Shannon and Anthony Rebesco; Shannon sprinting clear of Rebesco and Bernie O’Sullivan to take his second win on the road this season, with Scratch rider Dom Dudkiewicz taking the Scratch bunch sprint to claim Fastest Time. 55 year old Shannon, who has raced all of his life, was absolutely rapt to take this particular memorial, as the late Harry Jones is held in the highest esteem by Shannon as he epitomised the quintessential club volunteer, having given 50 years of his life over to serving the Footscray Cycling Club, and as second placed Anthony Rebesco pointed out, ‘What he did for the Club can’t be quantified; him, Hughie Cram and a few others set this Club up to be what it is today.’
1st Robert Shannon, 2nd Anthony Rebesco, 3rd Bernie O’Sullivan, 4th Peter McQuade, 5th Mark Micallef, 6th Trevor Perry, 7th Vito Depetro, 8th Antonio Marino.
Fastest Time: Dom Dudkiewicz (Scratch)
