Northern Combine ITT Championships 2012. Wildwood ITT - Coburg CC. June 2012

Northern Combine ITT Championships 2012. 23rd June 2012.

Even with detailed Google Maps and in car navigation, nobody can find Balliang. If you're within 20kms of the race start and you see a car going the other way with a bike on the roof, keep going, they're lost. To keep it as easy as possible, I've always driven through Bacchus Marsh to get there. This route is handy for a quick course recon as this is the out-and-back road the TT is held on. I stopped for a few minutes at the 12km turn point on the Bacchus Marsh - Balliang Rd to see how windy it really was..... and it really was... 30-40km/h WNW. An epic cross wind with nowhere to hide.

The standard banter at the start of a windy TT is "Do I run a rear disc or not?". The rear wheel doesn't steer a bike..... and with about 40-50kgs+ placed on top of it when you're riding, it takes more than a little wind to disrupt it. The front wheel on the other hand is where things get interesting. There is a reason we don't run front discs on the road, and a reason we don't use shallow rims either. The best wheel to use on the road is somewhere in between. The trick on race day is to guess which front wheel is best to use given the conditions. My selection in order of 'windiness' is a heavy 50mm clincher, Zipp 404 50mm, or HED Stinger 90 90mm. The selection process isn't very scientific. Check the wind, and ride what you can hang onto, the Zipp 404 it was. Tyre pressure is a whole new topic, in summary it comes down to two road surface types 'rough as guts' or 'pretty smooth'. Bacchus Marsh - Balliang Rd is somewhere in between. Cross winds and TT helmet selection is also something that I'll tinker with once/if KASK or another brand get the AS/NZS certification on their short stubby helmets (Team Sky TT helmets). Equipment selection sorted... that was the hard part of the day over.

What it feels like riding in a cross wind.

I was defending the title from last year, meaning I was off last chasing everyone. Nick Squillari was my minute man and was on a pretty good ride out to the turnaround. I'd pulled him back to within 20 seconds as we were approaching the turn. One last glance up to see where I needed to start braking and I see Nick sliding across the road. I wtf'ed for a moment and saw the corner marshals scrape him off the road as I hit the turn. It looked like when he got off the TT bars approaching the turn a gust of wind had its way with his front wheel and sent him flying. With the majority of the work done for the day we could switch to cruise mode with the mostly-tailwind home. I had a few catch-and-releases on the way back to the line to help keep the tempo high.

29:55. 46.something km/h. Enough for 1st place ahead of Mitch Cooper (Charter Mason Drapac Development), and Nick 'I take TT tips from Andy Schleck' Squillari who bounced back up onto his bike and lost next to no time on the return leg..... and who had also given his BMC TT bike a new bloody paint job!

Custom paint job!

Balliang was one of my first TTs on an almost real TT set up back in 2006. It was a 32km ITT back then, and I was schooled by Jake Sutherland by over 2 minutes. I'm still chasing those 2 minutes.

NC ITT Championships - Balliang. 2006

NC ITT Championships - Balliang. 2012.
Photo by Michael McRitchie

Elite Men Top 5:
1     Shane Miller       Coburg        29.55    
2     Mitch Cooper       Brunswick     31.33 +1:38     
3     Nicholas Squillari Geelong CC    32.29 +2:34     
4     Stephen Lane       Coburg        32.34 +2:39     
5     Luca Giacomin      Brunswick     32.55 +3:00

Full Results
Pics by Jo Upton (Facebook)

The Giant Celtic boys posted a nice write up of the TT over on their site too: http://giantceltic.com.au/2012/06/the-test-of-truth-in-a-testing-wind/

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Wildwood ITT - Coburg CC. 16th June 2012.

With little notice Coburg CC created and held a very successful flash-mob ITT. $5 entry, same course as round #1 of their Summer ITT series, and one hell of a northerly wind. 25 riders across Aero, Restricted, and Women's Restricted categories. With such a small charge for entry, I put the offer on the table to cover 4 people on the day, this offer was snapped up. More people, all good! I just had to do well break even.

It has taken me three time trials on this course to figure out you can't ride the first 14km pacing yourself off power. The first half is just too rough, too hilly, and the climb from 10km-11km is a leg drainer. With the head wind and climbs the first 8km was done at only 33km/h, at the same power that'd usually mean 46km/h+ on a wind-free flat road. Even though the bike speeds were low, the wind speed was a 35km/h northerly, effective wind speed = 68km/h. Tough conditions.

A hard slog out to the 16km turn, almost side swiped by a ute driver trying to 'teach me a lesson'.... who missed me, prick... Then a quick spin to the finish line with the roaring tailwind. I planted a pedal at the 22.5km turn but thankfully it didn't lift a wheel.... then I had an encounter of the grandma kind in the final few kms when she passed me and slowed behind another rider. As I went to overtake them both, nana plants her foot and drifts into me. 'Ol purple rinse kept me on my toes!

Aero - Top 5:
1 Shane Miller    36.20
2 Stephen Lane    38.31 +2:11
3 Nick Squillari  38.41 +2:21
4 Gerard Donnelly 39.01 +2:41
5 Martin Lama     39.39 +3:19

Full Results: Coburg CC Facebook.

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Random Visuals

Guess who's back?....
"Carvia"? Put some effort in you crazy bastard!

Kew's 'Free Gift' DVDs. Malware or.....?

Kew is known for a few things..... The recently passed Dancing Man, chicken parmas at the Skinny Dog, Leo's Supermarket with a fine selection of stinky cheeses, the old Kew Lunatic Asylum, more private schools than you can poke an oversized 4WD at, and now for 'Free Gift' DVD distribution..... yeah, what!?

These DVDs used to be posted into everyone's mail boxes but times are tight. They are now left in public places such as the public phone booth outside Leo's and on footpaths.

Since the rain outside means I'm confined indoors like Julian Assange at some obscure foreign embassy, I decided to finally have a good look at exactly what these DVDs contained..... *warning* Do not try this at home. I am a trained professional have a fair idea of what I'm doing.

DVD #1. Something about Myki.... with unclosed brackets!Argh!
The Myki picture on the left is just a paper print-out... nothing more...

Disc analysis:

Volume Label: LG_COMBI_RECORDER

Size: 3.94GB

All dates: Jan 1st 2007 (Faked. A news segment on disc is 30th May other content is from late May 2012.)

3x Videos (Info below)

--------------

  Disc Info:

                 dataLength: 32

                   erasable: 0

               sessionState: 3

                 discStatus: 2

                 firstTrack: 1

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    firstTrack(lastSession): 1

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                      DID_V: 0

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                      URU_V: 1

                      DAC_V: 0

                       DBit: 0

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  Track Resources:

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-------------------
File Listing:

dr-xr-xr-x  3 user  staff   88  1 Jan  2007 .

drwxrwxrwt@ 7 root    admin  238 21 Jun 10:11 ..

dr-xr-xr-x  2 user  staff  820  1 Jan  2007 VIDEO_TS

./VIDEO_TS:

total 8272772

dr-xr-xr-x  2 user  staff        820  1 Jan  2007 .

dr-xr-xr-x  3 user  staff         88  1 Jan  2007 ..

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff     163840  1 Jan  2007 VIDEO_TS.BUP

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff     163840  1 Jan  2007 VIDEO_TS.IFO

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff      59392  1 Jan  2007 VIDEO_TS.VOB

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff      98304  1 Jan  2007 VTS_01_0.BUP

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff      98304  1 Jan  2007 VTS_01_0.IFO

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff  983169024  1 Jan  2007 VTS_01_1.VOB

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff  527378432  1 Jan  2007 VTS_01_2.VOB

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff      98304  1 Jan  2007 VTS_02_0.BUP

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff      98304  1 Jan  2007 VTS_02_0.IFO

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff  983285760  1 Jan  2007 VTS_02_1.VOB

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff  983148544  1 Jan  2007 VTS_02_2.VOB

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff  105785344  1 Jan  2007 VTS_02_3.VOB

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff      65536  1 Jan  2007 VTS_03_0.BUP

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff      65536  1 Jan  2007 VTS_03_0.IFO

-r-xr-xr-x  1 user  staff  651976704  1 Jan  2007 VTS_03_1.VOB

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Just a single session video disc..... No Auto-Run that launches a fake AV installer, no infected PDF files to exploit an unpatched Adobe Acrobat, nothing juicy at all!  Disappointing to say the least.

At this point I've concluded we're dealing with a crazed tin-foil hatter. Or to be a lot more specific, a 45-60yo, white male, with facial hair, single, possible mental issues (autistic?), socially stunted, preference for brown pants and cardigans, balding, walks with a shuffle, has a faded fluro-strapped backpack from the mid 1990's with New Kids on the Block on it that he stole from St Vinnies.

So let's have a look at the content of the videos:

The DVD has a basic menu for three videos. Created using some freeby DVD authoring software. Little effort put into it. I tried a few Google Image searches with this image to determine which DVD authoring software was used, no luck there. The IFO files contained nothing other than video specifications/etc.... boring!

DVD Menu. 0/5 for effort buddy.

1st video - 41mins29sec. 
ABC1 News/Lateline. 7 News - Myki segment (34min-36min). Today Tonight.
You'd think a tin-foil hatter who makes a DVD about Myki would get straight to the point. No, it takes 34minutes of random badly tracked fuzzy viewing to get to the first Myki segment on the disc.

Argh my eyes! Seriously, sort that shit out with a HD TV Tuner or something better.

2nd video - 55mins43sec
More Lateline/ABC News/Sunrise/7 News
Public transport/Myki segment (51mins-53mins)
Again, in no hurry to cut to the chase. Almost 1hr of useless crap to get through before the Myki segment....

3rd video - 18mins20sec.
Some Christian movie... Anti Satanic info, with EuroVision! Ghost scene from Channel 10. Christian cartoons. Now we're having some fun! We're off the Myki bandwagon and are on the train to Cookyville, stopping all stations!

Wonky Jesus... in the house!

Rock'n'Roll!

Bedtime reading.....

Finland at Eurovision..... 2006.

Ghost.... Some Swayze from this crazy....

A flying baby. What the serious......

@scootaworks on Twtter points out that the disc volume label indicates the DVD was most likely made with a standalone LG DVD player. A little bit more research comes up with something like this: http://www.lg.com/ae/home-entertainment/video/LG-dvd-combi-RC388.jsp Consistent with the dodgy production values of this disc.

Conclusion: 

These DVDs that I picked up are harmless to your computer, the same can't be said about their content to your brain. There is some fairly bizarre stuff on them. My best guess is that some warped nutter has a message he wants to distribute to the world..... and optical media is the method to his madness.

With the rapid demise of optical drives, Cooky McSpaz will soon need to move to USB keys (handy to erase and re-use!) or take 'to the cloud' and go with a pure digital distribution method..... given he can't even figure out basic video capture, editing, and DVD authoring, I think we're pretty safe this won't happen any time soon.

So my recommendation for finding media? Just bin it....... or.....

Roly Kelson Memorial - Macedon Ranges CC. June 16th 2012

A 60km scratch race around the Newham-Lancefield loop in honour of Roly Kelson hosted by Macedon Ranges CC. After taking out 'fastest time' in the 2009 handicap race I've always wanted to return and have a shot at getting more glassware (they have the coolest trophies on offer!). As this was a club event there were only two grades, A and B. This was a chance for some strong B Grade riders to step up into A, an opportunity they might not get at other races.

I recall about 20 riders rolling off at the start after a humorous race briefing. For a country club race the fire-power in A Grade was not lacking. Jason Spenser (Budget Forklifts) was the stand out for sure. He is in blistering form and would easily be a GC contender at the Tour of Toowoomba, but he was stuck back in the Arctic conditions of Victoria. Croydon CycleWorks had entered five of their young chargers, with Tyler Spurrell sporting #1 for the day. With Roly Kelson being Team Kosdown's Lauretta Hanson's grandfather, we put in a good showing to support the race. A handful of other riders were also there in the bunch, Giant (HCC rider), a Wild African Safaris rider, and Coburg and SKCC riders.

From the roll out, I was on the front with zero energy being put into the pedals in the first km.... to get proceedings under way I threw in the first acceleration off the front. After the Coburg CC TT earlier in the day I wasn't expecting to ride away from the bunch... it did however cause a quick chase-down and then the fireworks started. A 60km scratch race is a large crit, if you're fresh you can keep punching all the way through it. I was far from fresh, so I had to choose where to throw my punches. For the next few kms everyone was on the attack trying to split the field. Eventually two Croydon, two Kosdown, and Spenser were clear of the bunch and were seen ripping turns like clockwork. At this point I was happy to sit back in the chase group and hope for the racing to settle down. Giant had made the initial break but was swallowed back up by the bunch. He and African Safaris then went to work on the front for a few kms before requesting help to pull the break away back. The Coburg and SKCC rider not being near the front either didn't hear their requests or simply didn't have the legs to contribute. Being a club A/B combined the latter might have been the case.

Race situation: 5 of the strongest guys up the road in the break. Peloton was 14-15 riders and unorganised as a chase group. The group I was in was four 'solo' guys, and about the same number of both Croydon and Kosdown riders. Giant and African Safaris were working together and attempting to recruit help in the bunch. The elephant in the room (or was that on the road?) is that there is no chance at this point either Croydon and Kosdown riders would help them chase the break. They'd have to entice the Coburg and SKCC rider to either help out or attempt to get across themselves away from the peloton. This being A Grade we all knew the situation. If the teams chased their own guys, with other riders in tow, they risk their spot on the team. Not to mention the ridicule from their peers (both their own team, and others who see this taking place). This situation happens week in, week out in scratch races. Be it with team mates, club mates, friends, or people just not having the legs to contribute. Giant and African Safaris were pretty vocal but didn't crack under the pressure. They went about getting the job done with what they had.  "So the two teams blocked?". No. There was no blocking of the road or stopping of any other rider getting to the front of the bunch, at any time... And I'll stand by that 100%. If Kosdown or Croydon ended up on the front it was to keep the group tempo up while the others stopped pedalling. Croydon and Kosdown had to go to the front at times to keep the bunch rolling.

The rocket-powered break was long gone. Most of us have raced the Newham-Lancefield course a lot over the years so we know being out of sight means you'll stay away. With Spenser in the lead group with a number of strong TTers I knew very well my race was over. I'd missed the break, and so had the rest of the guys I was with. It was now a race within a race, we made what we could of it. A Mexican stand-off was in effect within our group. If Croydon moved we all jumped on it. If Kosdown moved it was jumped on. If anyone else moved off the front it was shut down. A typical scratch race.

The bunch math was pretty simple leading into the second lap. We were battling our own little game for bunch line honours, 6th place, or maybe better if the break imploded/had mechanicals/or they hit that elephant on the road I mentioned before. Croydon and Kosdown would not be allowed to get up the road from the peloton, and only a solo effort would be allowed by any of the others. If two of them went, it was followed. The only thing that would break this situation was the course itself, the hills or the wind would need to come into play to shake things up.

Rolling towards the Rochford climb on lap two I launched from the group sweeping past the Croydon guys asking one of them to come with me. My recruiting was successful, the two of us were finally clear of the group and swept up Spurrell at the KOM mark who was dangling in no-man's land. He was happy to see us and the three of us got on with the job, rolling solid turns into the wind and back towards Newham. They were great company for the rest of the race. Pulling honest turns and really digging hard for our little race-within-a-race. I timed my hunger flat perfectly, getting to the final 2km downhill tailwind section with nothing in the tank. I lead the two boys out and Spurrell kicked 500m from the line. I just managed to pull back enough of a gap to get same-time with him and his team mate who rolled me on the line in our mini-battle, then sitting up for a hand shake and smiles at the end. Yeah, we were off the pace, out the arse, call it whatever you like, but we raced like nothing else getting to that line in the end.

The data from the race tells the story: On from the gun like a roller coaster. A drop in power and speed at the 40min mark (1hr5mins on the chart) when we were slowed up and passed a message by the roving commissaire confirming the time gap and that we were pretty much out of contention (confirming what we already suspected). The power/HR/speed dropped from this point on in the race. Things picked back up from my attack up Rochford and the steady-state turns with the boys to the end.... nothing like a 20km TTT to finish the day!

Up the road Spenser attacked solo with 8km to go for the well deserved win after contributing monster turns in the break, Croydon getting up for 2nd, with Kosdown in 3rd (Luca Giacomin) and 4th (Stephen Lane). The post race feed in the Newham hall was amazing, I had to take a photo of it before I demolished the lamingtons and Luca demolished the sausage rolls.

Blackburn CC Kew ITT - June 10th 2012

73 pre-entries for the 20km TT from hell yesterday morning in inner city Kew. A really impressive number in the middle of winter for such a tough course. While a few others were battling wandering cows, TT bike bans, and very interesting interpretations of what constitutes 'mass start only equipment' out in Kyneton, Blackburn CC went about running another impressive time trial. The Zonta Group are the naming sponsors of this series, so I'll give them a plug. They're into concrete slab construction and I hear they make a mean fitting pair of concrete shoes for those special occasions.

Kew TT Elevation Profile - Just as brutal as it looks.

The A Grade start list contained the usual suspects and a few new names: Tom "Thoroughbred" Leaper on his shiny new Cervelo P4, Martin "The real Lama" Lama, Big John Cain, Mal "Good Cop/Bad Cop" Sawford, Reece Emerson Van Beek just back from his Gold medal ride at the Asia-Pacific Deaf Olympics, Nick "Everyone knows @Tinea_Pedis" Squillari, just to name a few.

As seen anywhere on a weekly basis - My standard warm up set up from the back of the Subie.

The event also draws a pretty big crowd for a bike race. With people there to support 'their rider' or just passers by standing on the roadside captured by the spectacle and elegance of riders swooping past.... with big long spit dribbles hanging off their chins and their eyeballs hanging out of their heads. Wayne "The Gerbil" Gebert, Bridie O'Donnell's #1 fan, was spotted on the sidelines taking happy snaps along with the Australian editor of cyclingnews.com, Jane Aubrey. I was hoping Jane was there to cover the event, but no, she was there supporting her 'worse half', Nick Squillari.

Big John Cain

Black Caviar's bother, Tom Leaper.

Me not watching Tom ride away from the start.

The road was still a little damp from the overnight rain so the corners were still a little tricky. I was off last and chasing Tom Leaper, who looked like a race horse riding a jockey on his super slick TT bike. I had Tom within sight at the 5km turn around and was able to slowly reel him in while completing the first lap. Into lap 2 I'd over taken Tom and was committed to keeping ahead of him so I could pick the fastest line on the course without getting in his way. Ripping into the Kew TT course at speed does involve picking lines that you just don't do without a number on your back and marshals on the corners warning cars of the race that is under way. My legs were getting pretty heavy after the handicap on Saturday so I stated trying to save as much energy as I could. Coasting and tucking in on the fast sections, then jamming the hills. That pacing worked pretty well, I stopped the Garmin with a 29:46. Enough for the win, and under the golden 30 minute barrier for only the second time!

Tom and I going head to head into lap 2....

Shiv'ving it to the finish line.

Post race catch-up with the guys.

After the usual post race catch-up we'd all been done by a +11 second discrepancy on the official results sheet. Thankfully this still put me under the 30min mark. As we all had the same penalty the placings were all accurate. Rule #1 of a TT: Time yourself! Something to note for those chasing PBs based on time too. $105 for the win was well worth the 30 minutes of pain. I'm more motivated than ever to rip this course apart on a dry day when we can light up the corners at full speed!

Very generous prize pool from BBN! I'll be eating well this week.

Links:

Official Results
Blackburn CC website / Twitter / Facebook group.
Linky to my Strava ride of this event
Photos of the race were by Wayne Gebert. More here: Facebook Linky

Seymour Broadford CC Tallarook Handicap. June 9th 2012.

Tallarook - Schoolhouse loop (raced anticlockwise)

The little known secret of good racing just an hour away from Melbourne isn't much of a secret any more. With Seymour Broadford CC running races every Saturday afternoon more and more of us are making the trip up the Hume Freeway to race on new (and bloody hard) courses.

This week was the Tallarook handicap. "Out the road for two laps of Schoolhouse and return, about 58km" was the best pre-race description I could find. About 20 riders lined up for their numbers on the sleepy main street of Tallarook with John Burgess taking our $5 entry and assigning us our starting groups with a pencil and notebook. A few familiar faces from SBCC were there but put in the chopping block (second scratch group), 4 minutes ahead of Brad Wright (Preston) and I off scratch. The two out of towners who had no idea where the race went were off scratch..... No problem! John Burgess was the race follow car and soon became our lead car as I waved him past and asked him to show us the way. John drove 200m up the road in his ute, blinkering for each corner, and keeping us on course. Very much appreciated!

At 16km in Brad and I were on the 'Schoolhouse loop' but there was no sign of any groups ahead. The course had no let-up, it was either up or down, a very solid workout. It wasn't until 25kms in that we spotted the chopping block group, catching them at the 32km mark. We reeled them in pretty quick and still had a lot of time to make up to reach the limit riders off 20 minutes ahead.... the pace would need to pick up... we had a lot of work to do.

Climb - Lap 1.

Brad 'Armstrong' Wright locked on.

Up the main climb and over the top I was off the front with one rider, 'Coops', just hanging on. Normally Coops would rip some good turns, but he'd dug himself a hole on the hill. I sat up hoping he'd gather himself and be right to go. He saw I was slowing up for him and he told me to go alone. I didn't need to be told twice, so off I went up the road and Coops was soon back with the chasing bunch.

C'mon Coops! I'll wait up!

Coops was seeing God at this point. Jo captured the moment as he told me to get up the road.
That isn't a smile, more a grimace at knowing the next 20km would be a lot harder alone!

With a slight tail wind and 20km from home I played leap-frog between the out markers who were evenly spread apart. Just as I got onto a group of four riders one of them shot off the front with 10km to go. I saw it was the strong ox, Darryl O'Keefe. I needed to get across to sit behind his huge Zipp 808s! :) Just as I got across Darryl turned around and wasn't surprised to see me. I told him "I'm alone, and the rest are long gone, lets go!". We were both pretty shagged as we hit the final turn with 8km to go and still having 10 minutes to make up! We worked some good turns picking off a few riders. 5km from home I swung my elbow..... Darryl didn't come through... I turn to see him 100m off the back. He was cooked. Shit. No local riders with me to tell me where to go, and no lead car... I switched to the map mode on the Garmin 800 to follow the blue "where you've ridden" line. What a little life saver! I followed the little line until I saw the finish line 5kms later.

I rolled in with a time of 1hr28mins. Fastest time of the day and 3rd across the line. The winner was first time racer Lachlan Hurst (Coburg CC). Being slotted into the limit bunch only happens once when you win by 9 minutes! He'll have his work cut out for him next time. They paid down to 5th place, and fastest time. I came home with $30.

Winner Lachlan Hurst (Coburg CC), and 2nd place, "Mr Green."
Photo by Jo Upton Photography

John Burgess shook my hand after the race and said he was impressed with how Brad and I rode. You could just tell the smile on his face as he said it that there was an young racer in his old body who wanted to be out there with us too. People like "Burgo" run races for cyclists and for the love of it. I am thankful for people like him in our sport. This is why I support clubs like Seymour Broadford. This is why I love racing my bike.

Links:
Seymour Broadford CC web page & Facebook
Jo Upton's Photos on Facebook

 

Random Visuals: 

Spotted these guys on the main street of Tallarook. Family! 

2012 Wangaratta Cycling Club Tour - June 2nd & 3rd.

Wangaratta CC annual 2 Day Tour is getting bigger and better each year. Numbers this year were up around the 70 mark across the grades with riders from all over the state making the trip to compete. Two short sharp stages over two days only one week out from the Northern Combine 3 Day Tour, a perfect lead up event for some, a perfect drop-in replacement for others. Three of us from Team Kosdown headed up on Friday night and were staying with Tony Reeckman a few kms out of town. Stephen Lane and I were in A Grade, and Von was racing the women's grade that was mixed in with D Grade.

Lane and I were surprised by the names and numbers in A Grade on the start line. Rhys Pollock (Drapac), Neil Van Der Ploeg & Cal Britten (Search2Retain), James Boal & Matt Clark (John West), along with a number of strong locals who's course knowledge would be put to good use. Von had to get home early for a Sunday night flight to France, so we'd only be doing the first three stages. Lane was in for the whole tour.

Stage 1: Road Race 57km.
Polite turns by everyone in the bunch (except one guy!) until the attacks started 13km in. This disrupted the tempo and Lane was soon up the road solo and swept up the first 10 second sprint bonus before the bunch knew it was there. As expected, the pace was on over the first climb of Taminick Gap (1.5km @7%). This split the field in two. Similar for lap 2 and the second ascent of Taminick Gap. This time a group of 4-5 went clear over the top leaving the rest of us chasing for the 10km to the finish line. We got within 13 seconds, close, but no cigar.

Stage 2: Individual Time Trial 14.7km.
First TT on the Shiv, I was looking forward to seeing how it went under pressure. The answer? Not bad! Power was exactly where I wanted it, pacing strategy nailed with the wind having picked up a little, and I scored the stage win over a similarly TT kitted-up Van Der Ploeg by 43seconds. Boal had a strong TT for 3rd at +53 seconds.

Two 90deg turns and two U-turns (they're the easy ones to spot)

Day 1 done. I didn't snatch any time bonuses but was 2nd on GC to Van Der Ploeg by 2 seconds. Lane was sitting in 4th (or 3rd discounting me) with Tully Lyster and Pollock within striking distance of only a few seconds. Both of these guys could snatch a place or two on GC with bonuses in the next two stages. A few of the other big names would needed a few minutes advantage Stage 3 to be in GC/podium contention.

Stage 3: Hillclimb 27km (3km KOM at end)
Since I wasn't there for Stage 4, the plan was to keep Lane with the lead guys to the bottom of the climb so he could go with the moves and hold onto his 3rd spot on GC. I was on the front of the bunch for the first 20 minutes setting the pace until the attacks started. Pollock was trying to get away, but everyone was pretty fresh not having hit the wind. Through town a few more moves went, still nothing was getting away. The attacks continued to the base of the climb, they'd kick away up the road, I had no chance of going with them but as the pace eased up I came though and kept setting the tempo. 3km from the KOM/finish a kick went that Lane was in... I was toasted. I watched them tick away up the climb and sat up, took a photo, put it up on Twitter, and rolled up to the top. You have to love multi-stage races, totally different tactics come into play. At the finish line just up the road Lane delivered! Coming in only a few seconds short of the stage winner and holding his 3rd on GC.

Looks a lot like Stage 2 for the most of it....

Stage 4: Kermesse 36km.
A 6km loop with two sprint bonuses and the final sprint worth 20seconds. Of all the stages Lane could have done with a team mate this was the one! We wished him all the best as we headed back to Melbourne. The poor bugger was on his own, but he had something to fight for! I was on the edge of my seat waiting for news of how he did.... a few hours later I got a quick update.... "I held onto it, the bunch all got same time". Podium! Hell yeah!

A Grade Final GC Top 10:
1.  Neil Van Der Ploeg (Search3Retain) 3:18:05
2.  James Boal (John West)                0:48
3.  Stephen Lane (Kosdown)                1:38
4.  Matt Clark (John West)                1:47
5.  Rhys Pollock (Drapac)                 1:58
6.  Tully Lyster (Wang CC)                2:15
7.  Jordan Stannus (Jones Cycles)         2:17
8.  Matt Ross (CCCC)                      2:18
9.  James Pane (The Flying Mosquito)      3:33
10. Hugo Tolliday (Ballarat-Sebas)        3:34

A Grade Extended Podium. Top 5.

The NRS team riders put on a good show, but the stand outs were the U17/U19 riders there all mixing it up with the best. Keep an eye on the 'Flying Mosquito' James Pane over the coming season too, he was 3rd on the Stage 3 Hill Climb rolling in with a Drapac pro! Not bad! Results were posted soon after every stage, we were emailed the Day 1 results on Saturday night, and emailed a final results and wrap up on Sunday. For a little country club Wang CC are an impressive operation. The people behind the scenes up there are a credit to the club and cycling in general. We'll be back up there racing at any opportunity we get.


Links:
Full results across grades will be up on Wangaratta CC site or their Facebook Page.
Tony's C Grade report (he won GC!)

Random Visuals:

The back of Tony's place. Best shadow ever!
www.tonyreeckmanphotography.com

Sunset on the way out to Tony's place.

Von getting into the fire cooked spuds! One of many magnificent meals we had on the weekend.

 

Fire toasted marshmallows - Good carbs!
www.tonyreeckmanphotography.com

What happens when you eat pasta over your coffee?

Ker-plunk! Caffeinated pasta! The secret to Stage 4 for Lane!