The Grafton Experience

Hey all,

Terrance, Nikki and I have been down at Grafton and raced our respective races. I'll leave Terrance and Nikki to talk about their experiences. I'll try as best I can to give you an idea of what the 'Grafton' is like. I came into the race quiet nervous. I had lined up last year to race the event with the Virgin Blue Cycling team and it was a terrible experience! The race was the final in the National Road Series and three riders where all in with a chance of claiming the NRS title with a good ride in Grafton. My team mate, David Kemp, was one of those riders and I was required to cover every early break that I could and keep constant information coming back to the team car and team mates about who was in the moves and the situation. Normally the early break goes quiet easily in such a long race but with the NRS title on the line today was going to be different. After about 50km of aggressive flat out racing, I found myself riding half way between the main field and a 4 man break off the front. Out of nowhere came Chris Jongewaard and he rode across to me and dragged me into the 4 man break further up the road. I radioed this back to my team mates which sent the whole team into a wave of panic. The response I got was something like”don’t you roll one single turn! Do nothing! Bernie is halfway across you need to get him across!” Anyway, the race came to base of Gibraltar after 75km with no 'nature break' and an average of near 45 km /ph. I went blew up straight away on the climb and pulled out at the feed zone, along with some other 40 riders. This being my only Grafton experience created a great deal of nervousness for the race.

The 2009 race started quiet easily. We had a neutral zone and I quickly found a few familiar faces and old friends to catch up with before the real racing began. The neutral zone ended and the race began with a flurry of attacks. I had spoken to Stuart Cowin (fellow A grade data3 rider) before the race and he just told me to try to find the 'light-pedalling-zone' as early as possible and relax. I had made the decision to not follow any early moves today. I was quiet comfortable until Richard Vollebregt was joined in a early break with a rider from Budget forklifts and Fly V. Vollebregt is probably the toughest cyclist in Australia. If you doubt this, then read this article http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20579429-2,00.htm l. He is known as 'that crazy guy' who rode 450km a day for 9 days straight to cross Australia on a bike in under 10 days. He is also a former podium finisher at Grafton after a 200km break away. Heathy was in the follow car and drove past the break which has swelled to 8 and he gave me the breakdown of the riders. I made the uneasy decision to let the break go down the road and not bother going with it. I knew at the time that it was unlikely that many riders from the main field would see those guys again. It was a strong group, but I had made my decision and there was no going back as the break quickly gained a decent lead.

The main field rolled along sedately until the base of the Gibraltar range, travelling some 7 minutes behind the break. The pace up the 17km climb was reasonably fast but I settled myself into the top 15 wheels and was never in any real difficulty. I had spent a lot of time working on my high-cadence climbing technique and I was riding at around 90-95 rpm at a speed of around 23 km p/h. The Fly V team were setting a false tempo on the climb; they were riding hard enough to discourage attacks, but not really giving it 100%. The main field reduced down to around 30 riders over the summit as former winner David Pell decided to increase the pace over the last few kms. I came over in the front group feeling reasonably comfortable. About 20 riders managed to scramble back on over the top of the climb. The next 40kms until the 120km feed zone was marked but a massive amount of attacks and counter attacks. What shocked me was that riders who were seen as potential winners were playing there cards already. Budget Forklifts had 4 strong riders putting in a lot of attacks and Fly V also had a few riders following the moves and trying to get across to the two team mates they had placed in the early break. Praties were also playing their cards and had a lot of their riders starting to show there form. I was taken aback because I thought this would occur in the last 70kms, not the last 140km. I picked few riders to focus on and follow. I knew I could not follow every move but had to try to cover as many as I could. A group went clear and dangled at 30sec and eventually the elastic snapped and that I was in either had no legs left, or did not want to roll through. A couple guys realised this and tried to get across solo. I held back abit to long and realised at around the 150km that the race was over for me. About 25 riders had gone down the road and my group of 20 guys were happy to just finish.

The next 70kms where quiet boring as the group shrunk down to about 10 guys, with the same 3-5 guys rolling through and the rest sitting on. The terrain over the last 100kms was not that challenging, apart from Waterloo range (170km mark) and Wire Gully (210km) climbs. I felt absolutely fine as was extremely annoyed that the race had gone down the road without me. I didn't suffer any cramps or major fatigue and crossed the line feeling like I had a lot more in the legs to give. Despite the slowish pace from our group, we came in to Inverell in around 6h 40minutes, some 14minutes down on the leaders. It’s always hard to be happy with your performance, and I'm definitely not in this occasion. I was expecting to cross the finish line in a similar style to Stuey at Cunningham after racing as hard as he could for 160km (on little water!). Although I was happy that I came in to Inverell feeling good for another couple hours, it also brings with it a great sense of disappointment about what could have been had of I made the front split which went after Gibraltar. These things happen in racing though and it’s all part of the learning experience.

2010 GRAFTON

Andrew and I discussed the race and we came to the decision to try to have at least a dozen riders racing this race next year spread across multiple grades. It’s not an easy race, I'll be honest. But with these challenges and experiences comes great memories. I had a great time. We had a great dinner at this quiet pub restaurant on Friday night, some 50meters from our accommodation. We also got to visit Terrance's family property just outside of Inverell on Saturday night which was great. The place would be great to host 10-20 people next year with a massive camp fire (just make sure no one throws there bike into the fire!). There is also a massive amount of wood work for Stuey to critique, and I'm assuming a massive amount of beers to be drunken post race. I can imagine 2010 being one of those occasions where people say 5 years down the track ' remember that time in 2010 when we did the Grafton with data3, wasn't that something'.I think Terrance has a set a perfect to everyone that may be worried about the event. IT IS ACHEIVEABLE. With 12 months to prepare, I think we can achieve the kind of team building mass participation event in 2010 the Andrew has dreamt up. Bring it on!