In only it's third year, the Mt Cotton Kermesse has quickly established it's reputation as one of the toughest races in the first part of the season. This year the race was held in some pretty testing conditions on the tough Mt Cotton Driving Centre course. Data#3 had a strong contigent of 6 riders present; Richard Allen, David Brown, Matthew Chew, Nikolai Razouvaev, Sam Wood and me (Reuben Donati).
The pace was on right from the start, with a number of early attacks. The boys were very attentive and placed a rider in each of these early moves. It was at the 10 minute mark that the break of the day would establish itself.
Darren Rolfe rode off the front and quickly got a small gap. Knowing the strength of Rolfe, I didn't hesitate in jumping across the gap, joining Rolfe in the lead. Very soon after we were joined by Matt Chew and Hayden Brooks, making it two Data#3 riders and two Fly V Australia riders in the 4-man break. Unfortunately this wasn't to last, as Chew had an untimely mechanical and was forced to abandon the race.
Over the next 80 minutes the gap slowly increased, getting out to over 1 minute, with both Rolfe and Brooks pulling some pretty impressive turns. Back in the bunch the rest of the team rode intelligently, marking any threatening moves. However with Chew gone I was in a somewhat vulnerable position. Being outnumbered by the Fly V pros, the writing was on the wall; I was looking at 3rd. And this was how it turned out, with Rolfe taking a well deserved win and Brooks 2nd.
The bunch sprint for 4th was taken out by last years winner Mark Frendo (Giant Brisbane), with the in-form Peter Thompson (Tinelli) 5th. Unfortunately an earlier puncture prevented Sam Wood from contesting the sprint.
With some solid results behind us, the team now looks ahead to the start of the much anticipated QLD Team Series.
Reuben Donati
