Tour of Geelong

by SteveM
Stu & myself made the commute each day to race the Tour of Geelong which wasn’t ideal but great to have the comfort of home every night. A few good quality days of racing was had but unfortunately the tour was cut short with the cancellation of Sundays stage due to Melbourne’s extreme weather conditions… surprise.. surprise.. however it was very windy and wet!

Wednesday, 50km Crit Nth Shore, 80km road race Lara – You Yangs
Stu finished 12th on stage 2 which had quite a few bends and some nice cross winds.
I know they ramped it up on the final climb so for Stu to be up there was very impressive, ending up 21st on GC – 40 seconds down after the first 2 stages.

Thursday, 150km hilly road race – Anakie
Good tough classic 3x 50k road race course, 4 x climbs per lap.. nice.
I finished in what was left of the bunch and was quite happy to be there.
Unfortunately Stu busted his front wheel at the end of lap 2 and after making the trip to his car to swap wheels over at the start finish area he finished about 10 minutes down for the day. Where’s the team car when you need it..

Friday, 28.2km TT
The sun was shinning and Chris also came out to ride the TT.
Great experience for myself to compete in a TT, my legs where still a little tired from Wed / Thursdays efforts but really this comes down to experience.. I have some work to do on my TT if I want to be competitive.
Some good times by Chris and Stu

• Chris – 40:16 – 42.01kph avg
• Stu – 40:27 – 41.82kph avg
• Steve – 43:31 – 38.88kph avg

Saturday, Geelong Crit 46km
Great to have some more sunshine today and build on the recovery for Sundays road stage which was my focus. I was very happy to sit in the bunch and stay out of the way, I did just that.

In the end I was a little disappointed the tour got cut short as the opportunities to race these bigger events are few and far between. My performance was good and the experience I gained from this type of racing is very important for me. I look forward to the tour of geelong next year and building on my form in the coming months.

Full results check out cycling news.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-geelong-ne

Ararat Junior Tour 09

by Ben Hickman (TFMAVANTI Junior rider)

The first day was a 20-km time trial and a 50-km road race, the weather wasn’t the best for the time trial drizzle and strong winds but that cleared later in the day for road race.

I’m not exactly sure of the placing for any of the events because they only posted top 4 on the website, the other one’s are just in entry order.

They did put the times up for the TT after the race but not in order and from what i could see i got 8th (A grade) although i think there were a few errors with the timing because me and quite a few other riders had different times recorded on our computers. because of my time i got selected to race A grade.

The road race started off pretty relaxed for the first 5-km but then some attacks started trying to get away which caused the race to string out for a few km’s. We then caught them and I had a shot at breaking away that lasted about a minute then the pace was back down and we let a large breakaway get a bit to far away, after a while a chase was formed, but we were unable to catch them, I’m pretty sure I got 11th.

The next day was a 60-km road race, it started of with the pace being quite high, the course had lots of rolling hills which is good for me but on one of the bigger climbs on the course my chain came of, I then caught up to a dropped rider and we rolled turns to get back on to the main group, all I could then do for the rest of the race was sit in, I finished in the middle.

Overall i wasn’t very impressed with my results but hopefully i can get placing and wins and the next big events.

Tour of Canberra 09 (NRR)

National Road Series

Tour of Canberra May 2009

By Stu Payne
Been hearing this race was one of the best on the calendar from “cycling tips blog” Wade Wallace, was canceled last year so had to make the pilgrimage. The trip up was like a Saturday morning in the Nongs painful in parts but a damn good yak! CJ gives his usual thoughts (always honest), Wade always full of great sporting yarns and me my usual farmer/punk Stu stories.  Prime Estates strong man Reece Stephens joined us in Canberra… he decided it made more sense to give his bike to us and fly “smart guy”.

The weather was absolutely perfect! Saturday stage 1 no wind sunny and 18c what more could ask for. The first stage (144km) was three laps of very undulating full of 1 to 2km climbs. A number of early breaks didn’t succeed, a small break finally stuck and proved to be the winning break as William Clarke (Praties) smashed his group & took a 2+min lead into stage 2. The Pelaton through out the day slowly broke up as the accelerations up those hills almost halved the starting line up.

I’ve been working on my sprinting up hills (intervals) and I tell you this helped. Once or twice a week I head to Two Bays for the sprints. Each session I work on getting further up the hill before blowing up this was perfect for the Canberra Climbs. I did forget to mention that I lost 5kg the week prior and have a super stiff new Avanti Quantum which helps.

Sunday stage 2 (133kms) I could have gone with the very early break I was in the right spot but I usually don’t pull up well second day so I sat in “better safe”. The ride out wasn’t too bad however had a lot of climbs. Towards the last 50kms we hit a 6km climb which just kept getting steeper Pete McDonald (Aussie champ) and Tim Roe (Tour of Malaysia winner) and couple of others Drapac guys were gone. The field was smashed I was lucky enough to jump form a group which was heavily armed with the two major teams. Reece who was climbing sensational was up the road a bit we caught his group. The hammer was on we had William (tour leader) so his team members absolutely smashed themselves. There must have been 6 or so of them one by one they hammered themselves.

The final climb (KOM) last 10km was absolute mayhem what was left of the bunch of 30 or so just exploded. The first part of the climb I was at the back of the front group of (15 riders) I looked back every one was gone so I had no choice but to painfully stay with them. The second part of the climb they smashed It again I couldn’t sprint my heart rate was close to max I opted for my seated high cadence tempo they pulled away. Then they slowed as I assume they blew themselves up I caught them with some nice fast tempo and one last sprint. Once over the final climb I knew I was home although the chaos continued as the Praties guys had to get there guys home. The Praties team boss pulled along side and yelled “1 minute” the boys reacted we were flying single file and stretched. Final turn and then the crit course for a final lap….. I was smashed yet stoked just 2min 56 down on overall GC.

Mt BawBaw Classic 09

by Danny

After a solid training block over Easter, Stu, Tristan and myself lined up to contest The 9th Warragul Nissan Mt Baw Baw Classic.

Tristan got in the early break and finished an impressive 4th! Nice work champ!
His stats:
Race time: 3hrs 38mins
Ave HR: 178 bpm
Max : 197 bpm
Lowest gear: 39×27

I finished 13th, and sat comfortably top 5 wheels most of the race, knowing T-dog was in the break with a 4minute gap!
I ran a 39×29

Stu had some bad luck and broke a spoke, so he’s going to be back with vengeance next year!

Tristan on the podium…

Thanks to Hannah, Caroline and Nyssa for their support on the day.

Next race is Phillip Islands Teams. Check out the race calendar

Tour Of Coleraine

By Danny

Last weekend, we headed to test our legs at the Tour of Coleraine. A few words sum the race up:
Windy, rain, crosswinds, hilly, windy, dead roads, windy, murderous pace up the climbs, windy and even more crosswinds!

Pikey lost a couple of minutes on Stage 1 due to a mechanical but got in the break on stage 3 and managed to finish 15th on GC!
TDog rode an excellent Stage 1 and landed up 16th on GC!
Chris protected us from the winds during the stages, delivering us to the hills in one piece. He also blasted the criterium, closing down breaks and stringing it out for lap after lap!
I struggled a bit in the crosswinds and my climbing needs a bit of improvement. I landed up 29th on GC.

Overall the team rode well and learned a lot. We agreed that racing is a great motivator and litmus test.

The next race is the BawBaw Classic on the 18th.

Till then ciao