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| Late Friday night, Western Hwy. |
We were back in Horsham last weekend for the annual triathlon. A great excuse to get out of the city and enjoy more time in the country.... and race bikes while we're there.
Carbon copy conditions from last year, bloody hot! Our swimmer came in about 6th or 7th out of the water, so I had a few carrots up the road to aim for on the bike. The first lap was great, then the heat took its toll on the second and third lap where I switched to economy mode to survive. It took 13km to mow down the carrots and have the lead car all to myself. It is nice having a car tooting other riders off the center line. I was first off the bike and into transition. Our runner, my sister Kate, was now the carrot up the road for the runners.
We won the mixed team category by 4 1/2 minutes. A three-peat for Team Tripod! Lots of spectators on course and at the presentations. All well fed by the 'gold coin donation' snags that the Lions club were cooking up.
Full Results
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| Mark, our swimmer. |
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| The Superman position is BACK! |
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| Run Forest! Kate takes off for her 5km run. |
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| Watching on with my nephew Logan. He was on spray bottle duties for the day. |
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| Kate finishing her run. |
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| Team Tripod! Winners! |
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| Our team, my brother in law (2nd in 40+ short course), and Callum (my nephew who did the kids tri) |
Grampians Vets Rifle What!? Rifle Butts!
46km handicap race on a flat-ish loop. A perfect summer morning roll out to the start with Von, 20 degrees at 7:30am. Lovely!
15 starters, four groups, spread across 18 minutes. I was off scratch with three others who I'd ridden with on the same circuit in early October. Von was in the 6 minute bunch. One scratch rider mentioned he was a little nervous as he didn't know how much it was going to hurt. I helped cement his fears with a friendly, "this is going to hurt, a lot, so hang on". The others chuckled as they knew I was just having laugh.... kind of... :)
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| Old school racing. No fuss. No worries. |
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| Pre race half-smiles. |
5km to go nobody was rolling through. All eyes were on Von and I as the 'visitors'. We'd ridden the final few kms before the race so we had a good idea of where to get away from the bunch. Those plans were soon thrown away as everyone was getting a good rest. Time to go solo! Yes, I attacked the wife and left her to fight it out with four other guys. (I pity anyone who doesn't understand cycling terms who reads that last line! hah!) Von was soon just off the back of the four chasers. I managed the gap for the next few kms then was able to get off the gas for the final 2km tail wind to the line. 1st & Fastest. Von rolled across the line for 6th and was the first woman home. It is so good being able to roll up to a country race and be so warmly welcomed, even after putting them through a little bit of pain.
Grampians Vets race report.
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| Post race big smiles! Time for a coffeeeeeeeee!!! |
2012 CV Awards Nomination
Victorian Masters Cyclist of the Year (Male)
Finalists: Roy Clark, Shane Miller, Simon Quirk
I had a nice surprise in my inbox the other day, an invitation to the Cycling Victoria 2012 awards function. I don't know the exact selection criteria but I had a pretty good year at all of the events I did under the CV/CA banner here in Victoria and interstate. I'm not sure of my chances for the win, if it was a three up sprint from a break away I'd have them covered... :) I'm pretty happy with just the nomination. Fingers crossed!
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