Tales from the llama...: 2012 Victorian State Masters Road Championships. August 4-5th 2012.

Frame numbers provided by the local primary school.....?

Time Trial - 21.7km. Saturday August 4th.

Von and I had driven the TT course a few weeks back after the Phillip Island TT so we were not riding it blind. Apart from a small rise at 1km, it was dead flat. The north westerly wind made the conditions the toughest in the second half of the course, right when you're hurting the most. The road surface through this section was best described as 'pretty shitty'. No potholes but a rough/cracked surface that was rhythm sapping. Just as you were able to find a smooth line a gust of wind would ruin it. Enough of my course analysis, the Strava segment has the goods: ITT Strava Segment

I was off last in MMAS1 chasing Michael Gallagher (Jayco VIS) at 1 minute. Team mate Stephen Lane (Kosdown) was at 2 minutes. Stock standard TT, go hard, look down at the Garmin, only 1km in, shit.... do that 20 times more or until you can see the finish line. I had Gallagher in sight at the first turn 6.5kms in and could see I was still gaining at the 11km turn. From there I pegged the effort into the wind and aimed for the top corner where the tailwind would kick in... from there I tried to catch and pass him but came a few bike lengths short on the line. Fast enough for my 5th State Masters 1 TT title and fastest time of the day which helped secure the 2012 Victorian Masters IRTT Aggregate Series (actual time). Gallagher came in with 2nd best time of the day which meant he was the best wheel to measure my effort from out on the road. Lane was only 6 seconds off the Silver too.

Getting away with the high socks while I still can!
Photo (c) Michael McRitchie

MMAS1 ITT Results:

1 Shane MILLER      Coburg Cycling Club    28:06.0
2 Michael GALLAGHER Carnegie Caulfield CC 29:05.1
3 Stephen LANE      Coburg Cycling Club    29:11.3
4 Tristan PARKER    Southern Masters CC    30:55.5
5 Nicholas EDWARDS Brunswick Cycling Club 31:29

MMAS1 ITT Podium

Gallagher is now off to the Paralympic Games in London. Lane and I will prepare for the less prestigious 20km ITT in Ballarat.

Full Results: Cycling Victoria
ITT Photo Gallery by Kathryn Feldmaier

Road Race - 95km. Sunday August 5th.

We were in Lang Lang early for the women's race.... and were met with dangerously windy conditions. I'm not talking it up either. Later in the day after taking 2nd place in the MMAS4 race Andrew Weightman (Cycling Inform/CCCC) was knocked off his bike by a gust and is now recovering from a broken femur. Andrew and Carole are at every single race I do and are always up for a friendly chat. I was gutted to hear he would be out of action for a few months.

Back to our MMAS1 race starting at 1pm, it was a pretty casual affair at the start. 9 entries only 7 racing.... They were going to merge us with MMAS2 but 9 was enough to make our own race. 7 was a bit of a let down.... but a race is a race. 8km of rolling along, a few attacks, chase downs. Still too early for a 95km race. I put in an acceleration on the front up the climb at 18km in, everyone not willing to let me go anywhere.

Driving it up the hill.... note the trees/wind!
Photo (c) Jo Upton Photography

Stephen Lane (Kosdown) attacked 1km from the top of the climb, another rider attempted to bridge across but was caught in no-man's land. While watching this unfold I was pretty confident I could get across to Lane..... so I jumped and did. The no-man's rider didn't spot the move and I was around him before he could accelerate. Lane saw me coming and put the hammer down as I got to him. Getting him the win was the plan, a 75km two man time trial wasn't...... We had a good gap from the chasers and had to take the opportunity.

20km in we started heading into the wind..... for the next 75km, give or take a few km on the top part of the course where we had a downhill tailwind. Lane was flying up the hills and having a hell of a time with the 50mm front wheel in the wind. I opted to switch to a shallow front wheel, and to the amusement of almost everyone, a $5 Melbourne Bike Share helmet with no vents thanks to the category identification head-bands we had to wear on the day. When trying to ride at 30km/h+ into a 40km/h head wind, give me proven aero advantage over looking cool any day. Even my TT shoe covers were used for the first time in a road race.

Leaving the style points to artistic gymnastics at the Olympics.
Photo (c) Jo Upton Photography

Lane easily out rode me on the hills, I had to tell him to back off or we'd both be riding solo. We kept an eye on our time gap until around 40km in, at this point we could no longer see the bunch follow car in the distance. We passed the time by eating fruitcake, trying not to get blown off the road, discussing front wheel choice (it was agreed shallow was better), and in the last few kms when the rain came, we started yelling at our legs and the follow car blocking our view of any approaching riders.

Don't tell the UCI... but I ran the MotionX tracking app on my iPhone
so Von could track the race and knew when we were finishing.

Although Lane was clearly the stronger rider up the hills and over that distance, and my motivation all day was to work my arse off for him, at 1km I still tried to make him 'buy' the win..... a Vinokourov style $100,000 figure was refused. Even a not-so-pro $10,000 figure was refused. Jokes aside, we knew we were well clear at that point and would 1-2 it. I told Lane to get to the front and drive the final km. No questions asked he did just that, and kicked to the line for the Gold. 2hrs and 75kms off the front in a break Lane started, seeing him take the win, and being a part of it was the highlight of the weekend for sure.