Whyalla Cyclists honoured the milestone birthday of local Kath McMahon who turned 100 years old on Monday May 10, with the Senior riders competing in the 'Auntie Kath McMahon Whyalla 50km Road Race' on Saturday and Mrs McMahon was there to see the riders begin their race.

Cyclist Bob Panter returned to Whyalla on the weekend for the celebrations, competing in the handicap race along with Bob Baird from Adelaide, whom he hadn't raced with since he was 15.

Mrs McMahon looked after Bob Panter when he was four years old while his mother was ill, taking him around on the back of her bicycle with Bob saying 'go faster, faster', crediting her for his cycling career.

A strong field of 25 riders raced out along the Iron Knob road finishing at Freyers Cutting in good conditions with the Junior field of seven riders also using the Iron Knob road for their 15km Handicap race.

Some riders struggled with the pace in the first few kilometers with Wes Fisher losing contact with Tim Fulton, Ryan Ware and Adrian Wilson, but was able to join the scratch riders Paul Berkett, Rhyse Carpenter, Malcolm Clasohm and Ben Young as they caught him.

These two groups joined at the Middleback Station and worked well to make up four of the six minute gap to the group in front of them by the turn around.
Hayden Gill, who is usually on his own, was joined this week by Gary Carpenter and Scott Cramer forming a strong team, setting out to chase down the front marker Malcolm McLeod, in his first race.

Cramer, Gill and Carpenter held a six and a half minute lead at the turn around, with the last group a further 13 minutes behind. Carpenter started to lose contact with Gill and Cramer half way between the turn around and the finish as they set about maintaining a steady rhythm in their quest to hold onto their lead.

Ross Campbell and Alison Ward, both in their first road race, were aided by experienced riders Sam Campbell and Nicole Goldring making a strong group, began to slowly reel in Gill and Cramer on the return to Whyalla.  Although Gill and Cramer were in their sights approaching Mount Laura, they weren't able to catch them by the finish and Gill and Cramer were left to sprint it out for line honours.

After puncturing last week and being the last rider to finish it was a reversal for Cramer, out sprinting Gill in a hard fought contest for first place.  Sam and Alison sprinted for third place a minute and a half later, while Ross and Nicole were not far behind. 

Five minutes separated the 24 riders who finished the race with Malcolm Clasohm crossing the line ahead of Paul Berkett to finish in the fastest time.

The Junior handicapper will have to make some adjustments for next week after Chris Margaritis who started off at 1 minute with Leyton Gould, dropped him and easily reeled in front marker Heather Cutting holding his lead to the line.  Corey Gibbons (off 8 minutes) was second, ahead of Connor Margaritis (12 minutes), Jacob Hughes (13 minutes), Dana Prater (nine minutes), Gould and Cutting with the fastest time by Hughes.

FULL RACE RESULTS HERE