Albany Cycle Clubs’ Denmark Teardrop Handicap ends with sprint finish as Colin Rose takes top honours

On the most recent event on Albany Cycle Club’s calendar, riders ventured west to take on the hilly Denmark Teardrop course on March 15.

From a very damp and gloomy morning, the weather had transformed itself and conditions were ideal for the 50km race.

The small field was handicapped into five groups with Liz Cooper, Jacob Greenwood and newcomer Becky Lewis getting things under way on the climb up to the Alpaca Farm.

While not especially steep, it is 15km of climbing and approaching the turn there was a definite sense of the later starters closing in on those who had started earlier.

By the first turn for the McLeod Road descent, the seven-minute group of Paul Gibson and Martin Depiazzi had split, and the following group of Matt Bascombe and David Beckwith were still together but only just.

Behind them Colin Rose and Damien McAleese had proved to be a bit quick for Sean Crisp who was doing his best to stay ahead of a hard-charging Brett Dal Pozzo.

The steep 2km climb back up McLeod left a complete rearrangement in the race.

Greenwood accelerated away from his companions to take a solo lead, a position he clung to for the next 12km before being finally overwhelmed by Rose, McAleese and Depiazzi as they stormed down the hill for the finish.

Behind this, new groups were forming and reforming as the constant climbing started to take its toll on the legs.

As the leading riders neared the finish, it was clear that a two-up sprint was on the cards with Depiazzi unable to match the speed of Rose and McAleese.

Behind these three, Dal Pozzo was closing in rather rapidly having left all other riders in his wake.

In the final kick for the line, Rose proved too strong and took the win, closely followed by McAleese.

Depiazzi just held off Dal Pozzo to complete the podium.

Cooper was the fastest female, Greenwood the fastest junior and Dal Pozzo had the fastest time of the day, completing the course in just over 89 minutes at an average speed of 38.4km/h.

Thanks as always to the volunteers who did the signage, managed the start and finish and the turn-arounds, and thanks to Rockcliffe for hosting the event.