Tales from the llama...: Cycling Victoria & CCCC Phillip Island TT

Not a lot of blog updates lately, but a lot happening. I'll start with the racing...12 months ago the CCCC Phillip Island TT was my first TT after my hip/collarbone/etc break. I had a good ride and hit a new power PB, but it wasn't good enough. I was beaten by 13 seconds by John Cain (TFM-Celtic). Between then and this weekend I'd been to the Monash Uni wind tunnel, spent more money on my setup, done a few more TTs..... I was ready to get my 13 second revenge!

This year the TT event was an Open run in conjunction with Cycling Victoria, so we were up against some of the young guns from the Victorian Institute of Sport and a few National Road Series team riders. Thankfully those quick kids didn't qualify for the Masters IRTT Series, which was our own race with a race, and there isn't much you can do about your competition in a TT. The clock is our main competition, not them.

With a late start time I did the rounds of the car park warm up area, catching up with all the familiar faces, getting in some pre-race trash talking. The sun was out and everyone was looking forward to getting out on the circuit.

My start time finally rolled around, 12:10pm and I was off. With the data from last year I knew what lap times I had to ride. Lap 1 went well, under 6 minutes and right on schedule. Once I knew where the wind was coming it was a lot easier to pace the course. 18kms in 23:21. Another power PB on the TT bike over that distance. Nothing like a tail wind and home straight to really leave everything on the race track, the last km was 460W.

I was aiming for a podium, but wasn't sure where I'd end up given the young guns rolling around on the day. I am very very happy with the win. I still have a long list of things to check-off the improvement list too, so I'm still super motivated to keep my head down and riding hard!

Results - A Grade.

1 MILLER, Shane       MMAS1 Hawthorn CC           23:21.08
2 SHEPPARD, Eric      M23    Carnegie-Caulfield CC 23:46.57
3 GALLAGHER, Michael ELITEM Carnegie-Caulfield CC 23:46.93
4 SMITH, Stuart       M23    Leongatha CC          24:08.16
5 DENNIS, Peter       ELITEM Hawthorn Citizens YC 24:08.50
6 SPENCER, Jason      ELITEM Blackburn CC          24:09.37
7 CAIN, John          ELITEM Carnegie-Caulfield CC 24:20.91
8 LAMA, Martin        MMAS3 Blackburn CC          24:40.99
9 KAH, Danny          MMAS3 Carnegie-Caulfield CC 24:53.40
10 CUMMINGS, Jack      JM19   Carnegie-Caulfield CC 24:55.68

Full Resutls (PDF)
Carnegie Caulfield CC Report and Photos
Jxpphotography Event Photos

HTC Desire S - Brand Ambassador

If you've been following my Twitter you may have seen my post about this already. I was runner-up in a promo competition with HTC during the Tour de France. The winner getting a week long trip over to follow the final stages of the Tour. So close!!!!....... As a runner up, HTC have sent me a brand new HTC Desire S to use (and keep!) and some HTC Highroad kit... in return I've been writing up short snippets of things about the phone for their Facebook page. I'm up to 15 articles, and I think they've published them all so far! Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/HTCau?sk=app_251315594884338 if you want to see what I'm on about. Pretty cool experience being part of the marketing side of things. All honest write ups too, nothing up my sleeve. As an iPhone die-hard it's been good to see what the competition (Android) is up to.

Finally - The new TT frame has arrived!

I've been banging on about looking for new TT frame for a few months now. My current TT frame is a few years old, and the new ones have a few nifty 'aero' features that would knock a few seconds off my times. We spoke to a few frame distributors, resellers, etc, but nothing eventuated. With precision timing, our team sponsor Kosdown Printing has just stepped up their commitment to the team and with their help I'll now be ripping around on a new Malvern Star Oppy TT frame. Now I'm on the hunt for an ANT+ crank power meter... garage sale time to fund that one!

By the way, the team has put out the call for U23/Dev squad applications, more info on the team website.