Coburg CC - Evolution Cycles IRTT Series - Round Three. March 4th 2012.

Humevale road surface.

Coburg are banging out TTs faster than Bakers Delight bangs out their Hot Cross Buns after Christmas..... Round 3. Humevale. 2.5km flat then 7km of bone shaking hill. Not a very steep hill, big ring all the way, the 'gotcha' is the dodgy road surface. Calling it "rough as guts" doesn't do it justice.

It'd been a while since I'd ridden the course so I was out there last Wednesday for a roll around. 37 Watts more up the hill and 28 seconds slower than my PB back in 2010. I was hoping the go-fast bits on race day would help out.

The competition: Jono Lovelock (Genesys) was a notable absentee with team commitments over in Tasmania (Mt Wellington Challenge). Stephen Lane (Kosdown) was exited to be on a goat-ish course that suited his skinnyarse stature. 1988 Australian Ironman winner, Gerard Donnelly (Giant-Celtic) is defying the age gods and keeping us honest. Gerard brought along team mate BIG John Cain to flatten out the bumps on the road before we raced up it. Nathan "E DOG" Elliott (Charter Mason Drapac) was a last minute entry in the non-aero category, making that field a little nervous.

The pre-race pit stop in Whittlesea was amusing. It looked like someone had murdered a Ninja Turtle in the public toilets. I've no idea what this was and holy hell it smelt bad.

WTseriousF is that!? I can still smell it now. #upchuck

Not many people out on course for a warm up. I rode my warm up with James Singleton who'd come out to the event to see what it was all about before taking the plunge and becoming a CA member so he can enter some TTs and test himself against the clock (and his power meter). That was a good 20 minutes of chatting and cleaning sticks and junk off the road (not only was the surface bad, there was crap all over it too!). A few others were doing the same further up the climb.

The race: I'd opted for the road bike with clip-ons. A gamble between lightweight, being somewhat aero, and dealing with the rough surface and corners. I'm still not sure this is the optimal choice. With little variation in the course it was a case of pegging the watts to a number and holding on! All went to plan for the first 10 minutes then I dipped a little. With no sign of my minute man I lifted the effort a few % in the final km and managed the win. SLane had his best TT yet, coming in 2nd place. Simon Welsh (Kosdown) stomped to the line making it a full Kosdown podium in the aero category!

Aero Category:
1  Shane Miller    17.54
2  Stephen Lane    18.18  +0:24
3  Simon Welsh     19.03  +1:09
4  Gerard Donnelly 19.36  +1:42
5  Stephen Bick    19.47  +1:53
6  Jose Areta      20.06  +2:12
7  Tom Donald      20.17  +2:23
8  Martin Lama     20.50  +2:56
9  John Cain       20.54  +3:00
10 Von Micich (F)  24.58  +7:04
11 Gavin Wright    25.10  +7:16

Full Results: Coburg CC Facbook Page. E DOG took out the non-aero category with a storming 19:00.

Pics thanks to Mrs Rod Upton (again):

BIG John Cain.

E DOG putting out the massiffff power.

Simon Welsh after a catch and release.

Finish line cheer squad. Good turnout.

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And in other news...

"Cycling Victoria Announce the Club Teams Premiership" - Linky

A yearly three-round series for all Victorian clubs to participate in. Two track events, one road event. A nice way to help promote club event participation. An incentive for clubs to enter teams for these CV events. A good thing all around..... 

BUT

There is always a 'but'. This was announced a week AFTER the first two events had already been run! Clubs who didn't participate in the State Teams Track events are out of the running for 2012 already. Not exactly fair on all of the clubs under the Cycling Victoria banner is it? You just can't invent something as prestigious as a "Premiership" series after 2/3rds of the events have already been run. In the inaugural year of the premiership, the value of the win is watered down. Not ideal.

The solution? They should have kept this one under wraps until November. Announce it for the 2013 season onwards just as the track season was getting underway for 2012-2013, giving clubs enough time to inform their members, pick teams, train, and enter.