Nick: Day 1 was pretty much the easiest 90k race Dave and I had ever done. Everyone was obviously taking it easy in order to complete the tour. With a dodgy sprint everyone crossed the line in a bunch sprint.
Dave: Given the ridiculous screaming that came from one rider shooting up the inside line during the sprint, as I sat in about 6th wheel trying to look for an opening before unleashing my all-powerful track legs (note – I do not have all-powerful track legs), I was happy just to stay upright in this sprint. Too many loose wheels for my liking.
Nick: Scott Gigante (racing in Saint Cloud shop kit) smashed the TT finishing 11 seconds behind the winner and putting himself in a rather good pozzy. Dave and I did shit TT’s, leaving us both around a minute down. Pathetic!
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| Our ITT specialist Nick in action! |
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| Scott Gigante on a flyer. |
Dave: Man, I was SMASHING that time trial. Absolutely flying!!! Then I started to think about my legs, and how much they were hurting, but it was alright as I was surely nearly done. 6km is nothing, right? Then I looked down and saw I’d travelled all of 500m. Then the guy who started 30 seconds behind me flew by in his orange tear-drop helmet, huge legs powering away. Fark. Bye bye GC.
Nick: Stage 3 was a lot of fun. What a course! The only bad thing was that Dave’s wheel touched my wheel and he went down. Because Dave is a mad dog, he straightened his bike out and finished the stage solo for fear of death. (Ed: Lols at you two knocking each other off!)
Dave: Yep, banger of a course. Riding through boulder world just southeast of Castlemaine was pretty sweet, especially as I was rolling along solo with barely a care in the world, soaking up the serenity. I wasn’t that happy an hour earlier though, when I went down after 30km. Turns out the loose wheel in the bunch was mine – a rookie mistake, a quick lapse in concentration, and my front wheel was overlapped and rubbing with Nick’s in front. Down I went, tearing up my left hand and banging my left knee, rolling over once or twice, and getting some gnarly bruises on my right hip and thigh.
My bars were at 45 degrees to the front wheel, and my right hood was pretty much sideways. I figured my tour was done right there. Steffo from Sunbury was in the follow car; “Hogan? You alright?” “Yeah, I’m fine, but my bike is fucked”. I didn’t really know what to do, so thought I may as well check my bike. With the adrenalin still flowing, I managed to straighten my hood, nearly punching myself in the face in the process. Nice one Dingus.
Got the bars straight, the wheels seemed true, so I jumped back on and started chasing. Death before DNF. No idea how long I was delayed, three or four minutes? I chased hard for the next 10km, hoping the peloton may have sat up, but no such luck. Eventually I caught up to Marco, another top Sunbury CC bloke (is there any other kind?), and we chatted for a while about his recent trip to the Giro. We soon caught another guy who’d been popped, but not long after I was back on my own, having left those two behind.
A leisurely ride became even more leisurely when, with 15km to go, Women’s A Grade flew past me chasing down a solo attack, only to then sit up and look at each other for the next 12km. I slotted in behind the follow car, and tried not to fall over from going so slow. I wanted to yell out; “Someone attack for fucks sake!” but with such a small bunch it was all cagey cat and mouse stuff. Fair enough, so I just enjoyed the cruise.
A few km’s before the stage end the women took off, and then D Grade caught me, a front group of 3 fairly flying, and clearly suffering. Then another small group, followed by a couple of ones and twos, all spittle and grunts and pain faces. Good to see The Climbing Cyclist up near the front, giving this racing thing a good crack.
Dave: I eventually rolled in 20 minutes down on C Grade winner, surprised to hear that the front bunch had still been 20 strong at the finish. I’d expected it to break up much more, with bigger time gaps. But this meant shit was going to be on for the final stage.
Nick: The last stage ended up being shortened to a 60k day instead of the original 90 due to fog and a delayed start. Everyone was pretty keen to make the man in yellow do all the work today, especially Col Bell (Dave: and who’s going to argue with Col?!). Scott, Tim Lier and I broke in the early stages and went on to get a 1.5 min gap on the field.
Dave: I sat in last wheel for the most of the day, happy to have a little more space to myself away from the other wheels. I couldn’t get in the drops due to my hand, so got distanced on each of the short descents before chasing back on up the next little rise. I was stoked to see Scott and Nick away in the break – whoever got the 2 KOMs on offer could win the KOM overall, and Scott only needed a handful of bonus seconds to push for a podium position on GC.
Of course, being last wheel meant I was dropped on the second lap up Bald Hill, and spent the next 10km chasing full gas to get back on, first with Col Bell, then picking up a few others, before another four big time trial lads who had been dropped on the climb caught us, and the eight of us rolled turns to get back on. It was all out, and this here was my race. I was determined to make it back to the bunch, and after a massive effort we eventually got back on, not long before turning onto Baynton Road for the last time.
Nick: We stayed away for the 1st 2 laps but were caught half way through the last. By this time Scott had collected the 2 KOMS and was feeling good. I was dropped like a sack of shit by the last climb, but Scott went on to take out 3rd for the stage putting himself in 2nd overall and 1st KOM. Good effort mate. Dave and I cruised through feeling happy to have completed such a great tour! In summing up, the 3 Day Tour was rad and riding bikes is sick fun. Thanks to Mat for buying us all beers with his B-grade winnings!
Dave: Yep, worth the pain for a pint of Holgate at the end! Cheers to all the organizers and volunteers. I’m not sure we realize how lucky we are to have races like this.
