The Footscray Cycling Club returned to Altona’s Drake Boulevard for the Eric Turner Memorial Club criterium championships.
Melton’s Dominik Dudkiewicz, 31, won the A-grade event.
“The last few years I’ve had a great run into the champs and then inevitably I over-think the race, change my tactics and don’t get the job done,” he said.
“This time, I decided to race as I always do as it seems to work: just keep attacking, attacking until a breakaway sticks.”
The feature race was dominated by an early breakaway that saw Dudkiewicz, gun sprinter and rival Matthew Heath, triathlete-turned-bicycle-racer Alister Tubb and young gun Andrew Bonello jump away and build an unassailable lead.
“The bunch chased really hard for a while and were right behind us,” Dudkiewicz said.
“Alister asked me if we should keep going and I just said, ‘Hell yeah, don’t look back’ – the elastic will break and we’ll be away.”
Sure enough, the elastic did break, but not without claiming Bonello as its first victim, the valiant young travel guide drifting back into the bunch.
The trio of Dudkiewicz, Heath and Tubb built up a 30-second lead, but again the pace claimed a victim, with Tubb losing the back wheels of Dudkiewicz and Heath in a momentary lapse of concentration, but to his credit he kept chasing the duo.
Back in the bunch, Gen O’Rourke made the brave decision to go off the front and solo to the finish, stuck in the hellish no-man’s land between the bunch and the leaders.
As the race drew to a close, Dudkiewicz and Heath started their end game, unaware that Tubb was closing in.
After Dudkiewicz tried and failed to drop Heath, on the bell lap they found themselves accompanied by Tubb, who had smashed out a couple of hard laps to catch the pair.
When it came to the sprint, Tubb had nothing left in the tank, with Dudkiewicz leading Heath down the straight and taking a well overdue criterium championship.
“I was a bit worried that Matty might come around me in the last 50 metres, but I put it into the gutter and made sure if he did it would have to be on the windy side,” Dudkiewicz said.
“Luckily, I kept my head down and crossed first.”
The other winners were Darren Payne (B grade), Adam Kavanagh (C grade) and David MacPherson (D grade).
