With a strong and blustery north-westerly howling and dark clouds threatening rain, Footscray Cycling Club riders converged upon Altona’s much-loved Drake Boulevard circuit to contest the Eric Turner Memorial Club Criterium Championships.
A series of blistering tailwind attacks in the A-grade race saw the field thinned down considerably before the 30-minute mark, at which point the riders unleashed a series of serious attacks.
Reigning club criterium and road champion Dominik Dudkiewicz was a marked man stuck in the bunch.
“I think the head and tail wind meant it was hard breaking up the bunch and everyone seemed to have a plan that I wasn’t part of,” he said. “Every time I got into a break it seemed to stall. With five laps to go I was frustrated and stuck.”
So Dudkiewicz took a gamble and set out to get to the leading riders.
“I knew I had to bridge to the guys up the road or I would regret it,” he said.
“I got to Brad Erickson, who was in no-man’s-land, hoping to join forces, but he was cooked. So I kept going and got on to Miles DaCosta and Lachlan Marshal and recovered somewhat. I knew that once I got there I could take the sprint.”
Dudkiewicz did indeed take the sprint, finishing three bike lengths clear of DaCosta and Marshal, with Jason Costin taking the bunch sprint in behind.
In the women’s open race, after a civilised few laps, the attacks started and within 20 minutes the field was split into two bunches. The front bunch of four then split into two bunches of two after Diane Edwards threw in an attack in an attempt to get away solo to victory.
That left Edwards in a great position with Erika Gosney and reigning champion Sarah Dam in hot pursuit with Jill Stevenson.
Gosney and Edwards kept the pressure up and maintained their lead over the chasers and then began positioning themselves for the sprint to the line.
As they headed into the sprint, Edwards’ gears refused to index for several precious seconds, which meant she lost valuable momentum.
Edwards and Gosney approached the line side by side, with Gosney taking the win by a tyre width.
Williamstown youngster John Ross took out B grade, Altona Meadows rider Ben Redpath won C grade and Werribee veteran Tommy Gray took out D grade at the age of 75.
Mark Micallef
