Tour of Bright 2009 - B Grade Elite

Stage 1 - Rosewhite loop. 108kms.
The pace was on. The StKilda/NA-CIO-AL/Capo(?) dudes were out in force on the front. They had the numbers and drove the front hard to the sprint. The whole bunch was flying! I don't know any of these guys personally, but we've all seen them. Mr Massive Chops crazy-hair, Malachi (Mal-a-kai, Mel-and-Kim?), a few guys on those Ronald McDonald sponsored Pinarellos, and a few others. These guys _were_ the race on the flats. I was tucked away mid pack for most of the 'transitional' sections but from what I saw, these guys dominated the front. Their pace kept things safe, the bunch strung out, and every time I had a chat to Massive Chops he seemed to be loving every moment. Great work guys, I hope someone sends you a link to this blog so you can read my man-love I've just dished out! haha!

Through Ovens and towards Rosewhite was a little slower. On one downhill #100 had the wrong brake pads on his rear carbon wheel - each time he'd feather the brakes his bike would BARK... at one point he had the rear wheel locked up in front of me (and 40+ others) at 60km/h. Note to self: don't descend behind this dude! A short lull while the peloton had to pass about 30 cows a farmer was moving on the road. Through this rolling road section a few riders were pushing the boundaries when it came to crossing the double white lines. There was plenty of room in the pack not to creep over them - and the marshal on the moto was soon policing the bunch closely. A young TFM rider pushed things a bit too far for a bit too long - the moto was soon beside every TFM rider giving them heaps of 'advice'. He was very lucky not to get thrown out of the race. He is riding well, too well to get thrown out of the tour for picking a bad line.

No fireworks on Rosewhite climb. We ticked it off under 10 minutes and were flying down the other side. More double white line action by a Ronald McDonald Pinarello rider - and the moto was on him. Gone. DSQ. From what I could tell, the move was a bold one on a bend and the moto was on it. Word quickly spread through the pack that the moto was DSQ and everyone was well behaved. Towards Mt Beauty there had been a stack in one of the women's grades. One ambo passed us with its lights flashing - our race was neutralised for 20 minutes(!!!!) - 70-80kms into the race and everyone got to soft pedal for 20 minutes. Everyone would have fresh legs for Tawonga so I was expecting fireworks there. Race back on and the pace was on for the sprint point. I was well back and had no idea who took it, looked like there were two escapees who'd spoiled the party for the bunch. (top work guys, I love a good break away!) :)

Tawonga time! Right turn up the climb went a bit like this.... "wowa, guys, wrong side of the traffic island, fark, 4WD!". The corner marshals threw down their signs in disbelief. Whoever was on the front of the bunch (and who are ultimately responsible for the line AND SAFETY of the entire peloton) took us up the right hand side of the turn... right into an oncoming 4WD. These riders needed to be DSQ. Whoever it was you've got 78 riders who were very unhappy with your decisions or misjudgment. Argh! ok - so over to the left of the road and still alive, the climb started. I slowly filtered my way towards the front. The main pack was down to about 30 riders - and getting smaller by the minute. I was sitting on the back and as soon as the guy near me started to fade, I went around. I was attempting to conserve as much as I could for the TT but I wanted to see how well I could hold up against the leaders. A few very short attacks around 3kms in went nowhere. By the time they'd sat up and the ripple effect reached me around 10th wheel, I didn't need to do anything. 3kms to go a short gap opened to 6-7 leaders. I watched them drift about 20m up the road before getting off my ass and bridging. #175 from Adelaide, Merlin Spranz saw I was on the back of the lead riders and kept encouraging me and the others to hang in there. We had dumped the field on the climb and it was a boost to have someone talking it up - getting us to hold in there and keep things moving to hold the advantage we now had. I held onto the leaders until they fought out the KOM points. Descending Tawonga a few of us were caught behind cars and things split up - a few kms down the road a Cycle City rider and I latched back on and started working turns to the finish. There were now 10 of us at the head of the race. 3kms out the pace was dropping as riders started thinking about the stage win. I did a few turns and tried to get others to swing through, the contenders for the stage were happy to give up some of their time advantage for the shot at the stage. 1km out a few moves went but nothing that split the bunch. 500m out the bunch sped up - nothing that set the road alight. Calvin Watson took the sprint easily - I didn't contest, happy with same time knowing I had a good shot at the TT later on in the day. In the wash up I was 9th across the line with ST as the winner. The 10 of us put a minute or two into everyone else - a very handy lead!

No sign of the SRAM neutral spares for B grade, or the moto with water up Tawonga we were told would be on the climb. Did anyone spot them? I'm all for having the support supplied - but they can't claim kudos if they didn't follow through and were not questioned! There was water at the feed station before Tawonga but I hope nobody was betting on water up the hill!


Stage 2 - Time Trial.
No hiding now! All or nothing effort for just under 16kms. At the start line #154 Calum Middleton (Colac CC) in front of me turned and said "don't pass me too soon". I got him just under 2kms in! After the turn around as I passed him coming the other way, he was screaming at me to go hard! It was awesome to get that kind of support from a fellow competitor. I ended up having a good ride, 21:14 @44.37km/h. I pulled off the stage win by 40 seconds. I was happy with the pacing I rode and the power I managed even after 108kms earlier in the day. This put me in GC by 40 seconds. No real pressure going into stage 3 as I knew some of these kids would excel when the road went upwards greater than 10%! Presentations at the brewery, $50 for the TT win, and awesome pancakes at the Cosy Kangaroo - which I almost renamed to something else starting with 'c' after they forgot my order!




Stage 3 - Mt Hotham.
All aboard the StKilda/NA-CIO-AL/Capo(?) train (minus one Ronald McDonald rider)! Steady pace out to Harrietville where Simon Welsh (Kosdown/Coburg CC) and I had to pull some swift moves to get at the front of the race. A lead pack of about 30 riders made it to the base of 'the meg'. Along the way I had a chat to the TFM rider about crossing lines as we were on some dodgy blind corners and the bunch was dangerously close to the wrong side of the road. The moto was hot on our tail and would be DSQ'ing riders without notice! I was playing 'police man' for a while in the pack as people were pushing over the single solid line. (technically not a double white, but the road laws changed as at Nov 9th this year!)

Up the Meg the pressure was on and my choice of gears saw me pick through a few popped riders and keep with the main bunch. We were down to about 15 riders through to the false flat where the pace was SLOW. So slow that within a few kms another 10 riders or so had bridged back on. No major attacks on the easy gradients, the lightweights were saving their energy for the really steep kicks. And like clockwork there were fireworks up the Toll Booth climb. I was caught at the back expecting to ride the rest solo - but I manged to tag the back of the leading bunch and hold on a little longer. We were caught up behind cars (argh) before the descent towards CRB. I latched back on but there was an acceleration on the front that was my undoing. 10% gradients and my TT motor just don't mix. 6kms to go, I cranked away and ramped things up towards the top of CRB managing to hook up with two other riders, one being Footscray crit DOMinator, Dominik Dudkiewicz. Dom had been struggling just before the false flat but manged a monster effort to haul himself up to CRB before tailing from the main pack. Dom and I worked a few short turns before he wished me luck on my mission to the top. I was soon on another dropped rider and working turns. I could see the B grade leaders on the final climb but I wasn't in their watts-per-kilo league today and did what I could to limit my losses. I rolled in 1min 40secs down on the winner - A lot less than what I thought I'd lose up the monster climb that is Mt Hotham.


The Wash Up
I ended up only 41 seconds down on GC, in 5th position overall for the tour. They were paying GC money down to 5th so that was a nice little addition to the wallet before leaving town. After stacking on Tawonga last year and not even reaching the TT start ramp, it was nice to get this race out of the road, keep it upright, collect a TT stage win, and top 5 on GC along the way.


The event was run beautifully, it seems to get better each year. Registration was fast (phew!), commissionaires and traffic marshals were on top of their game. Things ran on time. The instant time results posted to the web was awesome! Can't ask for anything more. This event is a credit to the Alpine Cycling Club and its management. B grade riders were much less agro than what I've encountered in M1/2/3 - the past two years there has always been some agro prick in the bunch thinking he's Lance Armstrongs missing left nut and is out to prove it to everyone. B grade had a whole swag of up and coming future stars - the majority of them were safe, respectful, and were enjoying the event.

Von's Photos Link

All results

Coburg CC National Boulevard Crit 21/11/09

The image on the left was taken from my Garmin, has an amazing amount of detail when zooming in! I'm loving the little device... I'm thinking of doing a blog post about it, but Garmin are not paying me to tell everyone to go buy their product... so that is on the backburner.

Anyhow - the race. Just a touch under 42km/h in the bunch... nothing that lit up the road. A good lot of attacks and luls in the race. I tried to get away a few times early on with Elliot and Steffers, but the sleepers in the bunch came out and chased hard. Once the break was away I assigned myself marking roles if the move was dangerous. Nothing like spotting a move, getting on the wheel, and just ticking over a big gear as the rider puts in a big effort in the wind. Usually I'll pull through for a hard turn if someone has put in an effort, but I chose to play it differently after being chased down a few times - revenge I'll call it! :)

Mid race we had a rider up the road with two others... then our chasing bunch had to stop due to a truck on the course. Very much like the train stop in Paris-Roubaix, but nothing like it. :) The three riders in the break had a good gap out of sight and held it for the remainder of the race.

Our sprinter was still in the bunch so we set him up for a shot at the bunch kick for 4th. I was planning on cranking the back straight, but ended up on the front early. On the front for the final 1.076km, *lots of* watts, 108rpm, 49.1km/h, 1min 19secs.... the final 20 seconds before I swung was 50.3km/h. That stopped anyone from trying to attack the bunch early on the final lap. I was toasted when I swung off, but it was awesome to see the Kosdown boys slingshot past me and up the road to successfully contest the bunch sprint.

Results for A/B Grade:

1st Nathan Elliot (Brunswick)
2nd David Holt (Hawthorn)
3rd Lindsay Tunbridge (Coburg)
4th Sam Liley (Coburg)

NC: Hell of the West '09

Just the name of the race makes me want to race it! After being rescheduled from earlier in the year, we had our very own spring classic, in 30+ degree heat. They'd knocked a few kms off the starting point so we could get organised near the Mt Wallace school/hall. Crit season is well underway for the summer so the numbers were down. The standard handicapping system was changed into grades chasing grades with a few minute intervals. Our bunch (A grade) had around 8-9 riders, B grade a few more, with the biggest group being C.

The first 20kms or so were downhill with a nice tail wind. Nothing to be made up here on the bunches up the road with those conditions. We all rolled good turns, but nothing too hard. Back into the wind through Balliang the pace backed off - right where it mattered! People were rolling through for hard turns but as soon as you were off the front the pace was a little too easy. I was thinking of getting Jake and a few others to work with me to escape from the bunch and work shorter harder turns - but that may have upset a few of them enough to chase us down. We only just spotted B grade at the turn towards Rowsley at the 48km mark. Over the rolling hills towards 'the wall' we caught them napping, they weren't too organised and were happy to sit on A grade as we swung past.

4-5kms out we could see the final climb, and a few small bunches already on it, so we were out of a shot at the overall. If we had we caught and worked with B grade back into the wind from km 20 we would have been in for a shot. 3kms out B grade still sitting on not helping the cause to get to the line. I sat back with the B graders as A graders Welsh, Elliot, and Sutherland were working turns. I tried to pull a sneaky and let those three escape off the front, giving team mate Welsh a shot against the other two... but B grade were happy to keep coming around me and close any gap. At the base of the climb Welsh set the pace, soon to be rolled by Elliot who upped the hurt again. 200m later it was Sutherland leading the charge to the top, with Elliot and me in tow. Sutherland slowly clawed away from Elliot and me, and I was soon losing touch with Elliot. I pegged him at about 10m and held it to the final few meters - where I tried to catch him napping to the line - I put out everything to the line and only missed it by 1/2 a wheel. If it wasn't for the road side cheer squad telling him I was coming I would have snaked him on the line for 2nd in A grade. Next time Elliot! Next time! :)

The overall winner was super-lightweight rider Stephanie McGrath who rode away from the C grade bunch before the road even kicked up!

Pain pictures here: Von's Photos

Coburg CC National Boulevard Crit 31/10/09

The perfect conditions saw a few more starters in A grade this week. Around 30 degrees and a ripping northerly wind. Lap 0.5 was done easy, too easy, so coming into the home straight I attacked and got things stared. Joining me after a few 100m was Kos (Coburg CC) and Dane O'Keefe (Broadford Seymour CC), we had a good gap on the bunch but we were reeled in on the next lap. Back in the bunch we did a few moderate paced laps. Phil Smith (Coburg CC) then goes on the attack, nobody joined him so he was solo up the road. Phil is a good time trialler, and a new Kosdown team member, so he wasn't chased by any of our guys. Phil spent a good 10 minutes up the road before a few riders in the bunch pegged him back. Still wanting to get away up the road I countered the second we caught Phil, such an obvious move, but I was hoping a few others would read that like a book and be ready to get off the front. Only Dane came with me. I expected the rider in QuickCycle gear to come across too, but he'd just pulled hard on the front closing the gap to Phil.

One, two, thee, four laps later Dane and I were well up the road and sharing the load. We were only 25mins or so into the race so it would be a long day off the front if it was to stick. Dane started to fade and it wasn't long after he waved goodbye and went back to the bunch. As long as I was up the road the Kosdown boys should be getting a good rest back in the bunch, so I kept my head down and was lapping solo until the 1hr mark when the bunch picked up the pace to pull me in. I was toast, well over 30 degrees and the headwind on the back straight required 350W+ just to ride at 33km/h! I sat back in the bunch and kept well clear of the front. Two laps to go the cat and mouse started, two laps to go (again!? What was with that time keep!?), 33km/h average. The pace was well down. Into the final corner Lins (Coburg CC) attacks and pulls Sam (Coburg CC) and another rider clear of the bunch. I was around 6th wheel and thinking the guys between us would cover it. Lins was on a mission and kept pulling the other two clear! I wound it up in the final 200m and was closing on the top 3, but there wasn't enough road. At 72km/h that final straight comes and goes very quickly! Sam had taken the win and Lins held on for 3rd. Vaughn Allan (Blackburn CC) took a well deserved 2nd after no doubt having to work extra hard against the Kosdown swarm!

Von took some awesome photos across the grades: Check them out here!

A Grade Results:
1st Sam Lilley (Coburg CC)
2nd Vaughn Allan (Blackburn CC)
3rd Lindsay Tunbridge (Coburg CC)
4th Shane Miller (Hawthorn CC)
5th Dane O'Keefe (Broadford Seymour CC)

Coburg CC National Boulevard Crit 24/10/09

There was a good turn out for the first of the summer crits at National Boulevard, but nobody wanted to step up and enter A grade except Kosdown riders! Seven or eight of us all up rolling around the first few laps wondering if it would be ok to attack our own team? Lindsy was the first one to try it on at about 25mins - and that opened up the flood gates! Every attack was chased down, every move was covered. Frustrating yet awesome at the same time to have the team working so well that nobody could move!

Into the final laps I attacked the bunch three times in one lap, but I still didn't get away! Ian was allowed to roll off the front before we were all back on his wheel a few 100m later. I tried to jump across and see if it split things up - nop - group still together when I reached him!

Into the last lap at 68mins and we didn't need to lead anyone out, so it was cat and mouse at 32km/h until somebody moved first. That someone was Ian. He launched at about 400m to go. I had to scramble across a few lengths to get onto his wheel, but once I was there I had a good sit and launch to the line. 200m to go and nobody had come around so I went for it. Kos and Jason were on my right and closing the gap - I manged to keep clear of them and hit the line at 61km/h, and it was a head wind! Personal best max power too, by 1 watt! I'm not a fan of sprinting but its a buzz when it all comes together.

A grade results:
1st Shane Miller
2nd Kos Samaras
3rd Jason Laird