After the mornings time trial we had 3 riders in the top 10 (might have been 4 had Mitch not been made to take his TT bars off when it was noticed he was missing a bar plug..) Mat currently in 2nd was our highest placed GC contender. TT's are sort of fun to do but hugely boring to hear about unless you like stats on how much snot can make it from your nose to your mouth or how to clean a beard covered in boogers and Gel's. I'll spare you...
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| Mat on a flyer for 2nd |
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| Spiro looked the biz. Derr... |
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| Ask Mitch what happened on the start line. I dare you. |
Before the start of the stage Duggan, who had a punny the day before made it known that he was headed up the road from the gun. Being 20+ minutes down it was unlikely anyone would give too much chase, this plan was however nullified when during the neutral stage Spiro decided exercise his knowledge of the rule book and sit right on the pace car. Calls from the peloton to "GET OFF THE CAR" were easily shaken off by the man in the fancy shoes, he was briefly joined by Chris Mason who though better and rolled back to the bunch.
As we ambled toward the proposed start Spiro was joined by a Sunbury rider in Paddy Mac (rumours abound that Paddy may have been chief instigator in the calls to remove thyself from the comforting low pressure area trailing the car....?) Luckily however the blue of the Sunbury kit closely matched Spiro's shoes and with color co-ordination taken care of as soon as the flag dropped the two were away in what I'm calling...
THE SICKEST MOVE OF THE WEEKEND
The two worked well, quickly getting out of sight. Leader on the road and fellow Brunswick CC member, Brendan O'Loughlan, looking noticeably nervous as we crested hills with no sight of the opportunistic escapees. Most of the bunch however happy to let them have their fun. Pace escalated briefly before the KOM with Italo CC's Fraser Short and (Saint Cloud Nemesis) Team Canard's Lynton Zawadzki still fighting it out for the last point up for grabs. Pace then slowed again and people took on food and water round the flatter back side of the course. 55 or so Km in we started to see our earlier break of two yo-yo back towards us always just out of reach from the concerted efforts to bring them back, with about 35km to go however they were bought back into the fold receiving pats on the back all round for having a red hot crack at it.
With the kilometers ticking over, as if by osmosis Mitch, Adrian and I decided the pace needed to be lifted in the run up to the last hill to make sure nothing else got away. Big rings were selected, top tubes were tea bagged, calls of WOOT were exchanged; bike racing is FKN awesome. As the hill loomed we paid for our earlier tomfoolery drifting from the front to the back of the remaining buch (Ed. - Duggan totally owned the clowns up the climb) but just managing to hold on for the flat-ish finish.
With much of the peloton having not seen the front all day, the finish was surgey and sketchy with many riders trying to gain position by crossing the centre line. With our notable sprinter, Duggan, thinking better of the situation after being blocked by numerous punters' massive 5 meter effort to failure on front of him, we all rolled in happy to take bunch time and not lose any skin.
Looking around after the finish we noticed the absence of Brendan O'Loughlan, thus making Mat the new GC leader in a tightly grouped top 5 going into the final day.
Other notable mention of the day goes to Riley Terrens who scored second in the sprint after having (allegedly) stopped to take a leak. Picking up a whole swag of gnar points to go along with his sprint winnings.
BAM
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| Fonz outling where all the dicks who made position on the wrong side of the road had been all day. |
