Thursday, August 27, 2009
Alpine Cycling Club
Their new webpage is up and running, check it out here or at the link on the left
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
tour to tour
Well at the moment, im on a train, it seems to be a regular occurance for writing. Last week I rode the Tour of Gippsland, next week it's the Tour of Geelong, currently its a transition of food and sleep.
Tour of Gippsland marked my return to real racing since Feb when I broke my wrists, and as we all knew it was going to be a slaughter fest. Stage one went well, although it hurt, big crosswinds, fresh riders and an uphill finish that no one knew where it was. Still I finished in the front group about 30th, out of trouble. Heaps of crashes was the theme of the morning, Peter Aquilina rode into a motorbike and put a guy into a coma, (he now wants to sue the organisers, sorry pete, if you sit at the back and the 140 people in front make it through no problems, then you have issues). Stage two was a little different, it had 2 laps of a difficult town circuit then a nasty climb followed by a big decent and some rollers, into churchill i think? After surviving the town circuit on the front, it was time to tempo the climbs, I didnt want to box myself on the first day of a 5 day tour so I never recover, I got to the top and I was out of the convoy, out of the rolling road closure, and about to decend on a tricky, slimey, wet decent. Awesome, Apart from almost getting killed by a few cars, well about 8, I managed to catch and pass a number of groups, eventually finishing with 3 others about 8 minutes off the leaders, not bad for 40km solo.
Day two was a little different, the crit hurt and the road race was lonely, I lost a big chunk of time, after a massive hunger flat, and a tip for young players, a bag of lollies and sculling some energy drinks only cause extreme nausea not improved wellbeing, but hey i was desperate.
The third day was a turning point, I was feeling good finally, even launched some attacks in the crit, i knew nothing would come of them, but sometimes its good just to know you can try. That afternoon was to licola, it was to be the last big hills stage of the tour, so it was about conservation and efficency. So the eaarly break it was, about 30km in I was in a group of 15 about 2 minutes up the road, unfortunately this group was always doomed, but it placed me far enough up the road, so that when the hitters came past us attacking we would loose much time, at the base of the big climb we were about 500m off the lead group of about 30, and we switched off the pace and survived, the next group behind us was about 19 minutes down on the lead, 12 minutes behind us.
Fouth day was where the tour I thought relaxed, although, when you look at the results, alot of people still got shelled and there were still crashes, Johnny got taken out by a dude who decided to bunnyhop a roundabout mid peleton in the neutral, Luke and I pulled over and got him back in, just as the neutral car pulled off and it was game on. The crash and a back injury from the crit put johnny in a bit of difficulty (with at least 80 others) on the first major climb, but we paced him up and back on, the next climb you could physically see his back jolt, followed by a "Ah...wait, hey I feel good!", by this point luke was up in the break, which ended up being the winning move to get him 3rd, we were just holding position in the pelo and making sure deon and johnny were out of trouble.
Reece who had been DSQ a few days early (due to some stupid commersaires and poor race organisation) was riding the course before we raced it everyday and calling through conditions. When we got this news on the Radio, Johny thought he'd pass it on to David Pell.
"Hey Pelly, we just had a call through, the last 5km is in to a really strong head wind"
"No, Fucking Shit"
He went on to pay the toll for his awesome effort in the crit and finished behind the pack.
The last day was relaxed, well until the racing began, the bad thing about the last day of any race is everyone thinks they have something to prove, and that is always a recipe for carnage, and two of the most spectacular crashes of the tour occured, one to good mate Jono Lovelock, who at one point I think was sliding along the pavement faster than the bunch, luckily just skin off and bruises, all due to some hero trying to pick a gap up the gutter.
After the tour I felt fresher than when I started, I woke up the next day feeling like I should be racing.
A lazy week then followed....
Until friday when on a coffee ride with Pip a phone call was received as a call to arms, from Johnny. The Kings Men ( melbourne riding/racing group/team) were sending a team to the northern combine to try to dominate it. Now its fair to say that Johnny isnt the biggest fan of them, and he was mounting a resistance, Myself, Johnny, Chuggy and Dylan (dennis) both from praties were it. I think it was made a bit personal when Reece (from Prime Estate) informed johnny that he was riding for the kings men not Prime estate in this race.
Saturday, was amazingly cold, we got out of the car at woodend and it was 3 degrees. A grade had about 40 riders in it and we were out to engineer it to our favour. By the end of the first lap (of 4 25km laps) I had got myself in a break with Reece, Wade Wallace (O2 networks), Stuart Payne and a rider from Degani. I drove it abit at the start to see if would stick, then waited for the boys to jump accross, Chuggy came first and I sheltered him so he could recover, then we could see Johnny coming so we sat up dropped back and drove it back on. This was a near perfect situation for us. Then Reece and Johnny attacked and hovered about 100metres off the front, the others sort of chased but not. Chuggy and I then got the jump and bridged up, and the 4 off us worked well, Then we could see dylan coming up so we sat up, he brought Stuart and Wade up too. About 8km later reece attacked again, this time we left him with about a 50m advantage, then it was time to act, I played the dummy block for Johnny and Chuggy as they bridged and sat on the chasers of Stuart and Wade, Dylan had burried himself to bring the gap back to a jumpable distance. Wade then Forced the Pace and blew stuart out the back, with my guys still just ahead I wasnt doing a turn in a hurry. Until he sat up and looked the other way and I went bang, I Time Trialed slowly making ground on the leaders, But i knew the last 5km was into a block headwind, so i needed to make it on by then or it wasnt going to happen and I didnt, i was about 200m off at the turn, I looked back and I could see a lone rider behind me, so I soft pedalled to recover, Stuart caught me with about 3.5km to go, as expected he tried to get me to do a turn, he was afraid that Wade was going to catch him, and rightly so, that guy has amazing calves!! No matter, with 2 guys up the road I was happy to just sit back, roll over the line and not contest, until he attacked me on the climb, so I hit him at the same time with about 5 times the acceleration, and rolled over the line for 4th.
A good day, 1st, 2nd and 4th, some weird cycling products and $70 each.
To sum it up Chuggys victory speech said it all
"Thanks to Johnny and Rob for letting me win today"
Good effort!
until next time
DT
Tour of Gippsland marked my return to real racing since Feb when I broke my wrists, and as we all knew it was going to be a slaughter fest. Stage one went well, although it hurt, big crosswinds, fresh riders and an uphill finish that no one knew where it was. Still I finished in the front group about 30th, out of trouble. Heaps of crashes was the theme of the morning, Peter Aquilina rode into a motorbike and put a guy into a coma, (he now wants to sue the organisers, sorry pete, if you sit at the back and the 140 people in front make it through no problems, then you have issues). Stage two was a little different, it had 2 laps of a difficult town circuit then a nasty climb followed by a big decent and some rollers, into churchill i think? After surviving the town circuit on the front, it was time to tempo the climbs, I didnt want to box myself on the first day of a 5 day tour so I never recover, I got to the top and I was out of the convoy, out of the rolling road closure, and about to decend on a tricky, slimey, wet decent. Awesome, Apart from almost getting killed by a few cars, well about 8, I managed to catch and pass a number of groups, eventually finishing with 3 others about 8 minutes off the leaders, not bad for 40km solo.
Day two was a little different, the crit hurt and the road race was lonely, I lost a big chunk of time, after a massive hunger flat, and a tip for young players, a bag of lollies and sculling some energy drinks only cause extreme nausea not improved wellbeing, but hey i was desperate.
The third day was a turning point, I was feeling good finally, even launched some attacks in the crit, i knew nothing would come of them, but sometimes its good just to know you can try. That afternoon was to licola, it was to be the last big hills stage of the tour, so it was about conservation and efficency. So the eaarly break it was, about 30km in I was in a group of 15 about 2 minutes up the road, unfortunately this group was always doomed, but it placed me far enough up the road, so that when the hitters came past us attacking we would loose much time, at the base of the big climb we were about 500m off the lead group of about 30, and we switched off the pace and survived, the next group behind us was about 19 minutes down on the lead, 12 minutes behind us.
Fouth day was where the tour I thought relaxed, although, when you look at the results, alot of people still got shelled and there were still crashes, Johnny got taken out by a dude who decided to bunnyhop a roundabout mid peleton in the neutral, Luke and I pulled over and got him back in, just as the neutral car pulled off and it was game on. The crash and a back injury from the crit put johnny in a bit of difficulty (with at least 80 others) on the first major climb, but we paced him up and back on, the next climb you could physically see his back jolt, followed by a "Ah...wait, hey I feel good!", by this point luke was up in the break, which ended up being the winning move to get him 3rd, we were just holding position in the pelo and making sure deon and johnny were out of trouble.
Reece who had been DSQ a few days early (due to some stupid commersaires and poor race organisation) was riding the course before we raced it everyday and calling through conditions. When we got this news on the Radio, Johny thought he'd pass it on to David Pell.
"Hey Pelly, we just had a call through, the last 5km is in to a really strong head wind"
"No, Fucking Shit"
He went on to pay the toll for his awesome effort in the crit and finished behind the pack.
The last day was relaxed, well until the racing began, the bad thing about the last day of any race is everyone thinks they have something to prove, and that is always a recipe for carnage, and two of the most spectacular crashes of the tour occured, one to good mate Jono Lovelock, who at one point I think was sliding along the pavement faster than the bunch, luckily just skin off and bruises, all due to some hero trying to pick a gap up the gutter.
After the tour I felt fresher than when I started, I woke up the next day feeling like I should be racing.
A lazy week then followed....
Until friday when on a coffee ride with Pip a phone call was received as a call to arms, from Johnny. The Kings Men ( melbourne riding/racing group/team) were sending a team to the northern combine to try to dominate it. Now its fair to say that Johnny isnt the biggest fan of them, and he was mounting a resistance, Myself, Johnny, Chuggy and Dylan (dennis) both from praties were it. I think it was made a bit personal when Reece (from Prime Estate) informed johnny that he was riding for the kings men not Prime estate in this race.
Saturday, was amazingly cold, we got out of the car at woodend and it was 3 degrees. A grade had about 40 riders in it and we were out to engineer it to our favour. By the end of the first lap (of 4 25km laps) I had got myself in a break with Reece, Wade Wallace (O2 networks), Stuart Payne and a rider from Degani. I drove it abit at the start to see if would stick, then waited for the boys to jump accross, Chuggy came first and I sheltered him so he could recover, then we could see Johnny coming so we sat up dropped back and drove it back on. This was a near perfect situation for us. Then Reece and Johnny attacked and hovered about 100metres off the front, the others sort of chased but not. Chuggy and I then got the jump and bridged up, and the 4 off us worked well, Then we could see dylan coming up so we sat up, he brought Stuart and Wade up too. About 8km later reece attacked again, this time we left him with about a 50m advantage, then it was time to act, I played the dummy block for Johnny and Chuggy as they bridged and sat on the chasers of Stuart and Wade, Dylan had burried himself to bring the gap back to a jumpable distance. Wade then Forced the Pace and blew stuart out the back, with my guys still just ahead I wasnt doing a turn in a hurry. Until he sat up and looked the other way and I went bang, I Time Trialed slowly making ground on the leaders, But i knew the last 5km was into a block headwind, so i needed to make it on by then or it wasnt going to happen and I didnt, i was about 200m off at the turn, I looked back and I could see a lone rider behind me, so I soft pedalled to recover, Stuart caught me with about 3.5km to go, as expected he tried to get me to do a turn, he was afraid that Wade was going to catch him, and rightly so, that guy has amazing calves!! No matter, with 2 guys up the road I was happy to just sit back, roll over the line and not contest, until he attacked me on the climb, so I hit him at the same time with about 5 times the acceleration, and rolled over the line for 4th.
A good day, 1st, 2nd and 4th, some weird cycling products and $70 each.
To sum it up Chuggys victory speech said it all
"Thanks to Johnny and Rob for letting me win today"
Good effort!
until next time
DT
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