Success at Brisbane Blast

The first big open road race for the three squads was the Brisbane Blast, which was to be used as an unveiling of the teams on the road. It was especially exciting to see the debut of the women's team and the first full force race for the B grade team. It also saw the debut for some new riders in the A Grade team.

Women's Race
The women started the day off in style. With a great line up of female talent, the race was anticipated to be an aggressive race. The four girls went out to be aggressive from the start and started the race with some strong riding by Lou Betts and Corissa Smith. Sally Cowman then put some pressure on the field, which softened things up for Jasmin Hurikino to follow a counter attack.

This counter attack saw a group of four girls ride off the front, where Jazzy then worked well to establish the gap. The finale saw some more attacks, but in the end it was a three girl sprint, where Jazzy was able to take third place. Great work Jazzy.

B Grade Race
The B Grade team were almost at full strength and really did dominate the race. Aggressive riding early on by JJ and Gleggy allowed Adam Baron to get a gap and force the other teams to chase.

Coming into the finale, Mark Pierce and JJ were able to support Ben Chambers in holding position and controlling the race. This allowed Ben to time his effort in the final 500m to go solo to the line for a fine early season win. Good work Ben.

A Grade
The final race of the day was the A grade team. The class field of top quality riders saw the race average incredible speeds from the gun. The field was always strung out with limited opportunities to attack being presented.

As such, the race was one of attrition, with many riders dropping off. In addition, a large crash mid way through limited the chances of some of the team, however Mick Hill and Dan McCulloch were able to get through the crash to contest the final. Despite Dan crashing, he was able to dust himself off and be in contention for the sprint, where he was able to take a top ten finish. Not bad considering the 49kph average speed and crashes.