A reduced field was met with howling southerlies and chilly conditions for this years edition of the Green Island Taieri Mouth return. The race saw a strong limit set off with second limit at 8 minutes, second break at 12 minutes, break at 14 minutes and scratch at 19 minutes.
Second break began to find it rythmn with Tony Chapman, Mike Lormans, Barret Wilson and Stevie Grant pulling some strong laps to take 4 minutes out of limit by Brighton. Strong cross winds saw the front of the race swept up by second break shortly before Taieri mouth with break and scratch hot on their tails.
At this point Davies felt his time in the bunch was up and launched a solo move on the Taieri mouth bridge, which saw him stay clear for 10 or so km. This promted Chapman, Wilson, Grant and Lormans and a couple of others to chase and saw them drop their fellow co-markers.
This group of 7 riders stayed clear until they were swallowed up by scratch on the decisive climb at Waldronville. The hammer went down in a fast approach to the sprint, which oddly enough saw a large truck backing across the road almost blocking the road. However Jimmy Fairweather being the professional he is triumphed in an adverse situation to take another strong sprint victory. Jan Brosanhan walked away with fastest women after the elite women within the club failed to show up. Perhaps the weather was just too cold for them?
Other strange happenings from the race included an ODT photographer stalking of Kat Jones and taking several action photos. On returning to the finish line he approached Jones for an interview only to find out she had abandoned the race and was not in fact the race winner like he thought. However, Brad Evans was only to happy top fill the void and provided an interview on his recent sucesses and selection into the New Zealand Team.
Next weekends race looks to be an interesting affair with Melrose confirming he will start broken rib and all. But can Fairweather be stopped or will it be three in a row for the infamous batwing?
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