Lakes Oil Tour of Gippsland
After some hectic weeks of training on a programme set for me by my coach Mark Fenner (www.ftptraining.com) I was psyched and amped for the next NRS tour, Gippsland… and then I got crook on my taper week. Over a week of the bike, and three days where I could barely even get out of bed to drink a coffee, let alone anything else. Let’s just say it was less then ideal preparation for racing at the pinnacle of domestic Australian racing.
Couple that with a parcourse that doesn’t really suit my physical characteristics 9 stages with 5 of them being crits… it was going to be a tough tour.
A great road trip down, picked up ring in team mate (and fellow ginger) Lukie Dale, we rocked up at Dean’s place in Cockatoo on Monday lunch time, and Robbie Hucker turned up not long after for his swan song with the team. I then had a Solestar inner sole fitting by Jenni King (https://pedallab.com) and am looking forward to getting them in the post and trying them out.
After a quick roll that afternoon around the great roads near Emerald and a necessary brew stop (my first ride in over a week and finally managed to stop coughing).
Racing started on Wednesday with a fast and tough little crit course in San Remo, personally the legs felt good but as soon as I went into the red the lungs could back it up and recover so I spend the first half of the crit about a third of the way back just conserving myself.
They were super fast crits, and because this tour was going to be won on time bonuses and with sprints every 2 laps on all the crits, the big teams wouldn’t let anyone get more then 10m off the front of the bunch. This resulted in some very fast average speeds for the whole tour.
With 5 laps to go I moved up nice and close to the front to try and play pilot fish for Brenton Jones, but a crash on the bell lap brought him and Robbie tumbling down although Brenton got straight back up and some how managed to get right back to the front of the bunch but on the wrong side of the road to me. BJ managed a strong 8th considering he was on the deck just minutes before. I backed out of the sprint and rolled in 41st.
After throwing a Torq Recovery down our necks, it was time to roll across the bridge and off the mainland of Australia and over to Phillip Island and the GP Circuit for a Kermesse for stage 2.
With such an open course and the wind blowing in from the Antarctic, positioning was going to play a big role (And an extra 10kg and the horsepower to go with it wouldn’t have gone astray).
This was a super fast stage and the bunch was as nervous as anything with quiet a few moments in the peloton. I was really struggling, with my lungs not happy. This was going to be the story of the tour unfortunately.
15 laps, plenty of gutter action and a nearly worn out 11 tooth cog gave a stage with 47km/h average and a middle of the bunch finish again for me.
That night we used the hospitality of the Jones family for a good night kip before getting on the road for day 2 and stages 3 and 4.
The Moe criterium was a carbon copy of stage 1, a fast paced crit, with primes every second lap and no one getting far off the front of the bunch. Robbie and Brenton rode really well again to stay up the front and out of trouble and mixing it up in some of the primes and finish.
Me, well I rolled in at 57th place and because of some dropped wheels in the finish was docked 7 seconds.
Stage 4 was finally a proper road stage with some lumps and bumps. I wad crossing fingers, legs and toes that my breathing would behave and I’d be able to have an impact and play the team role. Straight away I could feel the difference in the bunch and could move around with ease and found myself at the front helping my team mate Brendon Shultz get up the road, and then as soon as the road pointed up hill saw Lukie Dale hit it off the front! It was great to see… as I was going back wards working on about half lung function. I managed to just stay in contact as the bunch went over the top of the first climb and bombed the decent and onto the twisting valley road and very quickly made the front of the bunch to do some controlling for the team and worked with Budget to limit the break that had already formed. I knew I was struggling and that when the road pointed up again would go out the hoop, so I buried myself to make myself useful.
And I was right, turned right, over the bridge and the road went up and I went back…
I rolled in with the Groupetto completely stuffed to hear that BJ had pulled a great second and Robbie was in the mix up the front. All good news!
Stage 5 was the Sale crit, a great course that I was really enjoying until I went out the back not breathing. And then, while hypoxic had to start signing autographs for the local school kids who flocked me back at the Torq trailer. The poor kids getting my signature!
Stage 6, Maffra to Dargo, and I finally managed to control everything in my body, breathing, legs, it all went right. The first bit was playing domestique which I loved, keeping Robbie and BJ out of the wind in the early cross winds and then we hit the climbs proper which quickly thinned out the bunch and I found myself in the first selection. Win!
As the kilometres clicked over I kept an eye on BJ and Robbie, making sure they had what they needed. Next climb, still with the bunch. I was stoked with how I was riding and feeling. Unfortunately the false flat drag up to the final climb was just too much after burning biccies early in the piece, and I came in 57th, 52sec down on the front bunch. Robbie and Luke were up there and BJ got another podium with a 3rd.
The long transfer had me chewing on Torq bars and sipping my Recovery, and the night at Lakes Entrance with pizza and pasta waiting for us on our arrival.
We were over halfway and Saturday morning dawned grey and wet, with the next stage a crit at Bairnsdale, proved to be carnage, with quiet a few guys not able to cope with the corners plus the rain. I held it up and finished up the front of a very reduced peloton, right next to teammate Robbie.
Stage 8 saw another road stage and a good course, again nice and lumpy with a break going early on in the piece with Robbie representing, leaving me and Luke, with Jarryd and Billy the kid to look after Brenton when it came down to the finish. Coming into the finish in Metung, for some reason the bunch wound it up for a sprint for 17th place so I played pilot fish again for Brenton giving him a nice sit up the front of the bunch out of trouble for the last dozen kilometres.
The final stage was a(nother) crit at Paynesville. My cold had returned and I suffered like a dog but still managed to get off the front going into one prime only to get mowed down by the Search to Retain Train fighting for Vandy. But that was about all I had and proved the end of my tour.
All in all personally it was a very average tour. I rode like a busted arse on all but a couple of occasions and felt more like a dead weight for the team then anything.
Luckily insult wasn’t added to injury as my Cube, with SRAM Red, ENVE wheels and Continental rubber kept me upright on more then one sketchy occasion.
Dean and Gen at Torq Australia were wonderful and supportive, and the product kept me going, the bars to nibble, gels to race on and the Recovery post race kept the body going as strong as it could.
Admittedly it wasn’t my style of racing with way too many crits, but I would like to think that if I was well I could have done more for the team, either getting coverage or providing a better wheel for our team leaders.
A big congratulations to Robbie and Brenton who are moving onto bigger and better things at Drapac and Genesys respectively. Now the rest of us at the Torq/Bicycle Superstore team have to step up and fill that void!
At the end of the tour, I finished 75th, +21:34 on GC. Now time to catch up on Uni and get well.