The striking thing for me in reviewing this race is that in viewing the photos it puts a true perspective on how superlative this race truly was. From sharing a pre-race conversational with Phil Liggett in the Buninyong Public Urinal about the potential affects the wind might play to my ‘attacking’ the group on the hill only to be humbled by the Sky team freight train coming from behind (I saw an SBS TV opportunity, it’s not something I would advise on lap 5 of a 16 lap race), this race was a learning experience.
Matt Chew, Dave Melville and I rode really well as a team, supporting each other and at the same time attempting to be economical as the fatigue took its toll. The 10.2 km circuit involved an Mt Gravatt-like 3km climb that got steeper at the top to a crazy technical fast downhill back to the start/finish line before having to repeat it all over again and again.
My race goal was to be efficient and help the other guys and not too over-cook it before the time trial on the following Tuesday. It was a disastrous start with chain problems at the top of the hill leading to a long chase to finally catching up with the group on the second climb of the hill. I learnt my lesson quickly and tried to stay forward on the future accents while deciding to use only the ‘big dog’ ring as my gears were playing up. I played the good domestique and got drink bottles from the Data#3 Cisco Capilano Support team of my partner Anna and Stu Mulhern (‘recovering’ after his top effort in the U23 race the day before), although I learnt quickly that carrying that much more weight up the hill really did hurt.
After being dropped for good on the 11th lap, as the Peloton ramped the pace up in response to Jack Bobridge’s breakaway lead and with my seat unwittingly being lowered after going over a bump, it was time to call a day. Getting some food and compression stuff on and then helping out in the feed zone, it was fantastic to watch the other guys in our team toil away almost lasting the frenetic nature of the pace at the end of the race, which saw the top team leaders of the pro teams battle it out.
IN terms of our performance as a team, the following pictures provide an insight of the effort Dave, Matt and myself put in, a foreshadowing of the quality of performance we aim to have in the Elite A team this year for Data#3 Cisco Capilano.
By Dave Brown.
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