BULLISH Ben Johnson survived the most gruelling one-kilometre stretch of the Footscray Cycling Club’s winter road season to be first across the line at the SheOaks Circuit in the Brisbane Ranges on Saturday.
Johnson, a Yarraville resident, thrived on an intimidating climb that chewed up and spat out a fair share of the riders to salute in the fourth round of the Agrade section.
Jason Costin initiated a four-man breakaway with Johnson, Brett Hickford and Dom Dudkiewicz, which opened up a sizeable gap on the peloton, but it would be Costin who tumbled out of the running first of the quartet.
The remaining trio powered on and were too far out of sight for the field to reconnect.
Hickford didn’t get a chance to challenge for line honours.
“We had no idea what the time gap was; we just kept our heads down and rode tempo,” Johnson said.
“It was a pity that Brett dropped his chain on the third lap as we lost him then and it was just Dom and me.”
With Dudkiewicz one of the leading sprinters at the club, Johnson had to avoid a frantic finish.
He kept attacking and eventually broke Dudkiewicz’s resistance on the last climb.
“I knew that if it came down to a sprint, Dom would beat me 10 times out of 10,” Johnson said.
“I just had to keep on attacking and I finally dislodged him before the end of the last climb.”
Johnson time-trialled the last 10 kilometres to the finish, with Dudkiewicz finishing second, and Josh Zammit taking third in a sprint from Marco Duys.
FCC RESULTS
A grade: Ben Johnson, Dom Dudkiewicz, Josh Zammit. B grade: Peter Race, Geoff Robertson, Phil Tehan. C grade: Ben Coull, Tom Arnsworth, Tim Robertson. D grade: Dave Hughes, Jose Rojas, Glen Detering.
