Carnegie Caulfield’s Drew Morey led his Drapac Pat’s Veg teammates Mathew Ross and Cyrus Monk to the line to claim the Fred Icke road race title at Creswick on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He did it in a time of three hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds.
It was a strong showing from team Drapac Pat’s Veg, with members Liam White (Ballarat Sebastopol Cycling Club) and James Pane following in fourth and fifth positions of the Victorian Road Series event.
Morey said he could not have claimed the title without the help of his teammates, who had remained close by throughout the race.
“It was really good to win on the last lap up the hill,” he said.
“Me and my two other teammates, who were in the break, just put the pressure on a lot and road away from the other two or three guys in the break.
“And it was about 40 kilometres from there, just swapping off as hard as we could to the line, and then to get one, two, three with Liam and James coming fourth and fifth as well was great.”
Morey said the conditions around Creswick had been tough.
“There was a fair bit of wind and (the course) was quite exposed around the back as well so it always makes it hard racing,” he said.
“But around the back there was a left hand corner and after that it was really open and a lot of crosswinds you can put in the gutter and put a lot of pressure on everyone there.”
Morey said he had good preparation heading into the event and credited his level of fitness to having raced the past five weeks in a row.
He said the outcome would mean Drapac Pat’s Veg had a “nice lead” in the teams overall, Monk would keep his individual lead on the points table, while Morey and Ross scored more points.
The Fred Icke, which was hosted by Ballarat Sebastopol Cycling Club, covered a 46km anti-clockwise circuit through Kingston, Blampied, Smeaton and Allendale.
The men's A and men’s masters A grades covered three laps for 138km, while all other grades covered two laps for 92km.
There were 220 entries across three divisions of elite men, masters men and women.