It all began on Friday when, by 7pm the majority of us had arrived for a weekend of sweat, km's and eventually beer. Blackburn again had a good participation rate in most grades with a total of 15 or so riding throughout the weekend, 7 of which stayed in a shared house, in the dead centre of Bright.
After tucking into a large pasta dinner, prepared by none other than Brian, the house decided that the 6 O'clock start warranted an early night, so by 10pm or so we had hit the hay and were dreaming of the torture that was to come the following morning.
Saturday arrived, fortunately not to cold, and the house begin to stir at 6am, slowly revealing themselves, one after the other to tuck into a big breakfast that would hopefully stop them from suffering from hunger flat during the race. Steve Martin, after making a miraculous recover from the crash only weeks earlier, was the last to reveal himself at about 7:15am and even then protested being woken up. Timmy inspired us all by hitting the trainer at about 7:20am, so we all got our acts together and headed down to the start line to hand in our spares and get a bit of a warm up in.
It had been decided the night before that this year we wanted to get the clubs name in lights and that Steele would be the man to do this for us, via his "unbeatable sprinting prowess". With 3 sprints for the stage it would be important to get as many points from them before the serious hills began, because we all knew that lugging him up Tawonga would be near impossible. The first sprint hit at 10km into the race and I had Steele firmly set on my wheel, taking advantage of the TFM train that had formed at the front. With about 800m to go we let loose and Steele got up to take the first points along with the bottle of red to coincide with the win. There was a 14km rest before we had to do it all again, so the 2 of us dropped back into the field for a rest while a few of the others kept an eye out for breaks that may go away from the bunch.
24km came and we added Jamie to the mix, helping us with the lead out on this occasion, unfortunately I miss judged the line slightly leaving Steele vulnerable to Simon Clarke on his wheel and he just got piped into 2nd place. Still we were looking good in the overall scheme of things with the leader on the road. The first hill came and went with Guy Green scoring some KOM points and Steele making it over and joining us on the decent to stay in the hunt for the 3rd sprint. At 79km he went, not having the legs from earlier but still managing to finish in 3rd place and collect some valuable points for the Sprint King.
Tawonga Gap came and went, with our GC contender puncturing over the summit to ruin his chances of an over all win. Richie Knight and I climbed together and rode in to the finish in the same bunch to finish 21st and 20th respectively some 6 minutes from the winner followed by Jamie, Guy, Owen and Steele (who tried for bonus points of slowest time).
The Time trial would follow that afternoon, and after not enough recovery we all headed out to ride as hard as we could for 14km. While Steele and myself were both a little disappointed with our times as a club we still featured heavily in the top 20, with myself, Jamie and Guy all riding sub 20 minute times and finishing 9th, 10th and 12th respectively. After that pain barrier had been crossed we headed home to shower, and moan about how hard the day had been, but still rather happy with our work for Steele.
Sunday morning arrived we were all pleasantly surprised that it was not raining for the assent up Buffalo. Again we steadily hit the kitchen from 6am, with Steve not showing till even later today. I was particularly unmotivated until we started the theme some for the weekend, which completely reversed my attitude and I became revved up and ready to go. With only 2 sprints before the climb I told Steele that I was going to try a break and wanted to take him with me for the points before we hit the mountain. We tried and were unsuccessful, but we weren't deterred and this instead started a flurry of attacks from Steele, Guy and myself, until about 10km into the race we finally got Guy away in one of them. Jamie and myself, with 4 in the break up the road stealing all the points, took it upon ourselves to slow and control the bunch, giving Guy more time and watching that Michael Ford (Steele's closest rival for Sprint King) could not cross the gap to the break.
With the sprints gone and the climb approaching we settled at the back and Steele and I made our best attempts to ascend the mountain as slow as possible, and save ourselves for the criterium in the afternoon (sorry to everyone else but I was too far behind to say where everyone finished). After it was over some of us rode down the BIG hill and others of us hitched rides to get back home and recover.
The crit quickly approached, and after a quick nap I was feeling rejuvenated and fresh. With only half an hour of racing left it was all or nothing and from the gun the attacks were thrown thick and fast. All the Blackburn riders rode aggressively and many of us could be seen attacking off the front of the bunch throughout the race. Steele collected some points to steer further clear of Michael Ford, but with David Tanner in need of time bonuses for the overall victory, it made Andrew's job a ver difficult one. With half a lap to go in the race, I took advantage of some momentum I had gained moving up the front and attacked, getting a decent gap to try and steal the race. Coming into the home straight a mucked up gear change cost me some time, and a flying David Tanner out dove me on the line to take the race by less than a cm. 2nd again, just to match up with my last years crit result in C grade, Oh well better luck next time.
It was a great weekend's racing, with the above mentioned results and Steele taking 2nd in the Sprint King, behind David Tanner, who collected all his points in the crit. We also collected a top 10 finish in the masters category with Andrew Hall and some great results from our only female representative in Emily Philips, along with the other competitors finishing well in the other grades. Overall results will be posted on the Cycle Sport website soon and can be located there.
I HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE AGAIN NEXT YEAR
Richard England