Amy's Otway Classic 2014

11:09 pm Unknown 0 Comments

The last few years I have competed in Amy's Gran Fondo and had an absolute ball! First year winning the women's team classification and last year just off the podium for 4th in my age category. It is such an amazing course with fully closed roads and we were again blessed with fine sunny weather without much of a strong breeze.

This year I was offered a guest ride for the inaugural Amy's Otway Classic. Same course, 1 hour before the Fondo and racing proper as part of the National Road Series for Building Champion Squad. It was hard to say no to trying to better my result in the Fondo last year to see if I could make it onto the podium. But this was the first year they were going to run this race as a Spring Classic, it was NOT to be missed!!


I arrived Saturday night to watch the hotly contested Amy's Wall which was a 120m hill sprint up a side street off the Lorne main drag. You could pretty much pick any side road to run this kind of competition and it would be a good choice. We found a vantage halfway up to watch the carnage. The first rider snapped a chain and other riders had gear mechanicals. But the victors at the end were Liam   Hill (who was staying with us) and Peta Mullens (freshly back from Europe season).


We arrived at our share accommodation to find a palatial guest house at our disposal for the weekend. A king size bed, private balcony and bathroom was allocated to us and we setup for the race the next day. Many thanks to the friends of BCS for hooking this up for the weekend!

The next morning Shane was on team car duties and we had a full set of soigneurs on the job with Jill and Adam helping out.  Our other guest teamie was Nikolina Orlić and it was team duties for Minda and I to get Tayla positioned well for the sprint at 20km and Nik for the start of the climb at 40km. From there on in - I was not so confident that I would be able to help out much, but I'd give it a good stab.

Tracey Gaudry spoke about the race and then we were off and running!

1.4 kms of neutral to start up and then 40km of roller coaster! I have to admit that I had a lot of fun over this section. Punching over the small rollers, driving the pace on the descents, cruising in the bunch to recover - rinse and repeat. I saw a bike change, a police motorbike wedged into a wall, what sounded like 2 crashes and I just kept moving up. FOCUS. There were a few attacks but nothing was going away before the climb.

Close to the sprint point Minda moved up to the front and set the pace, it took me a few minutes to get around the bunch to join her then take over. I kept it at a slow simmer and then kicked it up a notch at about 500m to go and swung my elbow for the sprinters to do their thing.

Things were going pretty well with Tayla getting up into 3rd or 4th place on that sprint and I went in search of Nikolina. I moved her up to the front and she stayed perched in top 10 position for the first climb.

Nikolina in BCS kit

Unfortunately by this time I found myself about mid pack through the apex of the corner onto the climb, I had a close encounter with the concrete lane divider and was pushed back further. Just to spice things up, someone broke a spoke and pulled over in front of me and then the whole bunch was up the road and I was playing steam train with the stragglers. We'd formed a group of 10 or so up the climb and pretty much stayed together all of the rest of the race.

After the descent, flat section and climb back up Deans Marsh I was starting to get my second wind. We all rolled in to finish 18mins down on the leaders time of Holden's Ellen Skerritt at 3hr15min. I came in 36th place with a slower overall time than last years Fondo, but much better climb times.

Von on far left in the BCS kit

I think it was a great race and well run. The fully closed roads were absolute bliss to be able to climb and more importantly descend using the whole road. One addition would be to open registration the night before so numbers could be pinned and timing chip stickers stuck on with lazer accuracy before  the early start the next day.

With 55 entries in the first year it was great to see so many ladies racing. This will  be an epic one day classic on the women's race calendar for the climbers that will endure. I just hope the weather so good every year!

Next race up for me is the Australian Masters Road Championships (TT, Crit and Road Race) in my home town of Ballarat. The courses are the same as the elite nationals that are run in January each year except for the criterium that is in Victoria Park. Here is the metal race pace version of one lap.

St Kilda Cycling Club (World) Road Championships 2014

3:06 pm Unknown 0 Comments

I like to support my club in racing most of their events and without bias. SKCC put on some of the BEST local racing right down to the minor details. Safe, Inclusive, Fun, Organised.

We had beautiful weather all weekend and the wind had picked up to a nice ripping northerly breeze. Not only was I excited to start the race, I had not ridden the course, so only knew the distance and that we were doing 3 laps of the main route.
 
The day's lineup
It was great to see the ladies out there again and we were ready to go, albeit without much of a warm up. The 11km to the start of the looping circuit was all head wind. All the ladies grades started together and were playing nicely until the first few kms, then we were all in the gutter trying to find shelter.
 
The calm before the HEADWIND. Photo: Peter Monagle 
 
I'd done a long ride in the hills the day before so I was not sure how the legs were going to go, as I assumed it was a flatter and more rolling course. In the end it was both a good thing and a bad thing that we didn't know what the course was like - We raced the first lap together and we didn't know how it was going to go. Then the second lap it was ON to try keep up with the front runners.
 
Trying to keep my cool - not sure what Bridie is pointing at...  Photo: Peter Monagle
After Bridie O'Donnell had taken off up the hill on the second lap, Margeaux Thompson and Clare Morgan were with her then Hannah Vine jumped across to them. We had almost bridged the gap with Dale, Annie and Brooke but it was all over by the last kicker hill and the tailwind section. There was still 1 lap to go!
 
We'd been dropped from the leaders, but still had to finish so it was "once more with feeling" as the corner marshal put it. I had to chuckle as we were not feeling the gusto at that point. Brooke Anderson and I set the pace up the hills and then worked with Clare Morgan when she dropped back from the leaders to get to the tail-wind section. It was sooooo good to hit that last 11km home with the full tail wind and knowing there was going to be some sweet fresh water at the end.
 
 
By this time Clare and Brooke were recovered from the hills and we were just getting pushed along the downhill home. I had a few stabs at getting the pace higher or trying to initially break away, but for some reason they were not interested in playing that game :) In the end I tried and failed again at about 600m to go and was going about 70kmph across the finish line for 6th overall.
 
There is always a game of patience when climbing, but positioning is also crucial.  Another thing was that I ran out of water - only took 1 bottle. Fail. Many thanks to Clare and Brooke for helping me get back to the finish.

 
I drank about 1 litre of water back at the car and once my system had absorbed that, I was ravenously hungry! The good peeps at SKCC had a free gourmet BBQ and drinks to get us through and safely home.
 
While munching on a vege burger with the lot and some chicken strips, we had the presentations complete with a shower of sparkling white wine. Shane won his race and we had a lovely afternoon drive back to Melbourne with the promise of a nap on the couch to top of a lazy Sunday afternoon.
 
Next Race UP: I've been invited back to Building Champions Squad to join their escapades in the inaugural spring classic NRS race - Amy's Otway Classic.
 

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