Albany Cycle Club hosts iconic 45km JW Smith Handicap to close out 2025 season

Albany Cycle Club’s last race of the season was the newly reconstituted JW Smith Handicap road race, held on August 23 along the Torndirrup Peninsula.

The field started in three groups at intervals calculated to give everyone a reasonable chance at holding the trophy aloft.

First off were Paul Clifton and Paul Gibson along with stalwart Jimmy Watmore, making his return after a long layoff recovering from injuries sustained in an unfortunate crash in June.

They had seven minutes on the next group and 13 minutes to stay ahead of the scratch group.

The scratch group of Michael Gardiner, Colin Rose and Damien McAleese looked capable of getting through for the win after setting a strong pace from the start. By the time they turned back onto Frenchman Bay Road, after the Quaranup leg, they had started to collect riders jettisoned from the groups above.

Unfortunately for Gardiner, the pace of his companions proved too much and he gradually lost contact.

The middle group of Ashton Graham, Mike Staude, David Beckwith and Joel Gray became three early on, after dropping Beckwith before Quaranup. Staude then found that he couldn’t match the pace on the climb out from Frenchman Bay, leaving just two to try and catch Clifton who was now out on his own.

Somewhat inevitably, this pair of Ashton Graham and Gray were caught by the scratch group, with Ashton Graham doing his best barnacle impersonation and latching on for the high-speed descent back to the finish.

With about 5km to go his legs gave out, and it was just Rose and McAleese powering along in pursuit of Clifton who was still solo in front, albeit with a rapidly diminishing margin.

In the end, Clifton was triumphant by just 100m or so with Rose out-sprinting McAleese for second and completing a successful debut season with the club, rarely finishing off the podium.

Gray, in his first race for the club, overran Ashton Graham on the final stretch to finish fourth.

Fastest time on the day was Colin Rose who completed the 45km course at an average speed of 37km/h.