Chandler in charge

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
MORE than 70 cyclists took part in graded scratch races at Steels Creek on Saturday.
The cyclists, from Eastern Veterans Cycling, competed in four grades and raced either 62 kilometres for grades A and B or 48km for grades C and D.
The course was 16km, along Steels Creek Road from the Yarra Glen cemetery to Mount Slide Road, out and back again.
Tony Chandler won the A Grade race against 24 starters, with eight teams made up of three riders each. Peter Howard came second and Peter O’Callaghan came third. The three winners broke away early on the first lap of four, and stayed away for the whole race.
Eastern Veterans Cycling member Nigel Kimber said there wasn’t a great deal of co-operation in the bunch to catch them up.
“Five teams didn’t have a representative in the break and they should have been working to close that lead,” he said, although there was a bunch sprint at the end for fourth place.
B Grade started with 14 riders who also stayed together the whole race. It came down to a sprint to the finish, won by Warren Smith from Northern Veterans. Second place was R. Harvey, and third was Ron McCurdy.
C grade, with 20 riders, was won by Jim Swainston, J. Kearney came second and Dean Niclasen came third.
With 16 riders, D Grade was won by Gary LeRoy, Tim Mortensen came second, and Cube Taylor came third.
Mr Kimber said there were no accidents or injuries, although there were quite a few punctures.
“The road traffic was generally understanding and well-behaved,” he said.
“Although there was one incident where a driver became upset and tried to overtake a group of cyclists across a double-white line, nearly wiping out an oncoming car.”