With many of Cycling Otago's elite riders out of town competing in the Benchmark series, it was a small but highly competitive bunch that took on the shifting winds on the fast, flat Fortex circuit just out of Mosgiel on Saturday.
Category one and category two were combined to make up a field of 11 riders, with Shane Melrose edging out Mark Spessot in the sprint finish.
In the category three race, Steve Rolston and Steve Green rode away from the breakaway bunch to take first and second respectively.
With five laps of the 12km circuit ahead of them, the category one field wasted no time in launching multiple attacks in the early laps.
Spessot, Phil Turnwald and Brendan Hastie were the ringleaders of these attacks, which led to some early casualties when some category two riders were unable to sustain the pace.
The attacks continued throughout the remaining laps but failed to produce a breakaway, playing into the hands of the powerful sprinters in the field.
It was Spessot who bolted first, 350m from the finish. But with Melrose, Hastie and Kevin McCormack on his wheel he was never going to have it all his own way.
Melrose made his move 50m from the finish and, despite very little racing in recent times, he showed his power to take the sprint by 2sec from Spessot, with McCormack and Hastie following.
Category three raced four laps of the circuit and comprised a field of 11.
At the beginning of lap two, Rolston broke away from the field and five others managed to stay with him.
At the beginning of lap three, Rolston attacked again and took Steve Green with him.
The four remaining from the original break failed to organise an effective chase while Green and Rolston worked well together to extend their lead over the next two laps and comfortably take first and second.
By lap four, the chasing bunch of Peter Hart, Jan Brosnahan, Jan McClelland and Brian Murray had finally organised themselves into some effective lapping and were led into the home straight by Murray.
McClelland started the sprint 80m from the finish with Hart on her wheel. Hart timed his run perfectly to pip McClelland on the line for third.
The ride of the day went to Jan Brosnahan who, despite riding most of the final lap with a punctured front wheel, took fifth place.
- Janice McClelland
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