After the Time Trial on Saturday,Sunday's race was with the Hume Veterans Cycling Club. A 52km handicap race starting in Benalla.I was riding in the block group for only the second time,which consisted of 4 riders.Riding out of Benalla we had quite a strong cross head wind to contend with before turning into the rolling hills around Lurg.

Not long after the first climb,in fact I think it was on the second climb,Tully Lyster from the following scratch group passed me.I had been expecting them but was surprised the other 2 riders were not with him.Jumping onto his wheel with the rest of my group we continued riding hard slowly making up time on our competitors.

Laurie Lyster whom was riding in my group was riding very well and doing strong turns on the front swapping off with son, Tully. I did turns when I could and had the occasional rest on the back just to make sure I didn't get dropped myself.By the time we turned back onto the main road to head back toward Benalla we had passed a couple of decent size bunches. 
We had a few riders hanging on the back so every time we hit a rolling climb the hammer went down.I was hanging in there but could feel the effects of Saturday's TT.Sweeping up more riders from the front groups I was thinking we must be close to the front of the race.

When Tully attacked with Laurie, I found myself a little caught behind one of the other riders who didn't respond to the attack.By the time I realized what was going on and jumped myself I had missed the boat.Trying hard to TT across the gap with Ashley O'Farrell joining in we couldn't bridge.Time to put the head down and not lose to much time. I figured maybe I could get 3rd.Rolling turns with Ashley for the last few km we also had Chris Wilkins sitting on.When we hit the overpass with about 1km to go I hit it with all I had left.Getting a gap there was about 1km of pain left.I was holding about 42kmh and had probably
stretched my lead over the little chasing bunch to 150meters.It was hurting and I was pleading for the finnish line to come. It seemed to be moving further away rather than getting closer.Head down,keep pushing,not long to go,surely,gap still there,relief over the line,3rd? no 5th 2 of the Limit riders crossed before the Lyster train.    

April 29th, 2012
Location: BENALLA
Race Title: n/a
Race Distance: 52 km
Weather: Cool, Strong S.W. Wind
Total Riders: 26entries (DNS 0 : DNF 1)

1 – Rick Anderson (22.30) – 1.41.12 (30.83kph)
2 – Mick Cathie (22.30)
3 – Laurie Lyster (3.30)
4 – Tully Lyster (scr)
5 – Anthony Reeckman (3.30)
6 – Ashley O’Farrell (6)
7 – Chris Wilkins (16)
8 – Colin Stokes (11.30)
9 – Mark Currie (scr)
10 – Peter Gottschling (scr)


Fastest Time: Tully Lyster (scr) 1.19.53 (40.05kph)   

The first race of the weekend was a 20km Time Trial held by Wangaratta Cycling Club consisting 2 x 10 km circuits of Reith's Estate.
We again had some visitors to the club, Shane Miller,Australian Masters 1 Time Trial Champion,who would make sure the A Graders,including Wangaratta's Tully Lyster, who is the Victorian Masters 2 Time Trial Champion would have their work cut out.
But the race I was interested in was in B Grade.It seemed there was in fact,a race within a race.Now I'm not exactly sure when the Time Trial gauntlet was officially thrown down,but it appeared Dr. Gav was hunting the B Grade TT and I was in the way.After our last TT at Glenrowan,which I managed to get the win in C Grade and besting the good Dr. by around 2 minutes.
Gav had purchased a shiny new (second hand) machine in the shape of a Cervelo TT bike from Rhys Lyster.Well, maybe purchasing would be the correct way to put it, as Rhys said to me before the start."If you beat Gav in the TT I'm going to unfollow you on Twitter"as he is test riding the bike.But with honour,and beer,on the line there would be no holding back.

I was even threatened with a drug test,handed a sample pot and surgical gloves as well.But it was obvious to me who would have access to the best gear.Time to get down to business and the starters left in 1 minute intervals and I was in the slightly fortunate position to start 1 minute behind Dr Gav.By no means did we have B Grade to ourselves with Laurie Lyster easily capable of winning B Grade and also Heath Mullavey from Rutherglen who is a very strong rider.I reckoned after the first lap I'd made up some distance on my minute man, but after being passed by Allan Thrum like I was standing still, I was not so sure. Comfortable I could hold my pace for the next lap, and hopefully go a little harder, especially into the head wind across the top of the course,I could gradually see Dr. Gav getting closer.I was hoping that I might overtake him but I couldn't quite achieve that one.Riding TT's hurt big time,my average heart rate was 173bpm or 93%hr max for the full ride,crossing the finnish line was a great relief and I'd managed to achieve one of my goals for the day.I'll keep the other one to myself for now.
 

Just received this flyer via email. I've never done this race before so this year will be my first. Hope to see you there.

Thanks to Frank Loki for forwarding me his race report.I have copied it as written into the blog.I was going to change a few things but decided being Big Tony for the day might be quite interesting.It's got a Sopranos type feel to it.I did take the photos below and I've also included my Strava file for the race.I'm really quite happy to only lose 4 1/2 mins to the winners.I rode from the Boweya Rd/Taminick Rd intersection alone. It was a very tough race and I've got plenty of work to do if I ever want to be competitive in B Grade.

Hi all,

Had 20 starters today for the race over the U17 States course – 57km.  3 riders in A grade, 13 B grade and 2 each C & D. Including 2 riders from Albury Wodonga CC, 3 from Mansfield Mt Buller CC & John Kent from Alpine CC.

A & B rode together as a bunch of 16 as did  C & D in a bunch of 4.

First time up Shanley St Thomas McDonald flatted, for the 2nd time, and his day was over. The bunch was together at the cross roads, but this had split significantly first time over Taminick Gap, where the fast boys had split the bunch in 2.  The front consisted of Tully & Rhys Lyster, John Kent (all A grade), Heath Mullavey(AWCC), James Fox, Ryan Allen (AWCC), Tomarsh Loki & Gavin Frawley, closely followed by Tony Reeckman and Jason Desailley with the rest scattered..

This bunch got together not long after turning R at the crossroads for their 2nd loop.

Meanwhile C& D Grade got together at the top of Taminick Gap for the their 2nd loop.

Up Taminick the 2nd time Tully Lyster held a slight advantage over Rhys, John Kent, Heath Mullavey & Tomarsh Loki, with the others in order being Frawley, Allen, Fox, Desailley and Big Tony all dropping off and the gaps increasing.

Along Warby Range Rd the front group had splintered with Tomarsh riding off the front of the other 4.  Turning into Shanley St Tully bridged to Tomarsh & these 2 fought out the finish with young Loki (B Grade) prevailing for a 2nd week with his mentor Tully (A Grade) close behind.  The best of the rest was a sprint won by Rhys (A Grade)ahead of John and Heath following in 4th & 5th (or 3rd A grade & 2nd B Grade).  Then followed  Gavin (3rd B Grade), some time later with Ryan(4th B grade) close, a gap to James, Jason & BIG Tony rounding out the top 10.

The winning time was 1Hr 31.07 (faster than last years state U17 race)

C & D Grade rode in together with Nicci doing only one lap

Juniors, Alex Little, Aiden Corke, Riley Corke, XJ Loki & Nick Metcraft, did laps of the carpark and some straight line sprints and a secret handicap race all in prep for the Tour Of Wang in the 1st week of June. 

On Sunday I decided to head down to Warragul for the "Baw Baw Classic", which incorporates Victoria's Mountain Climbers Championships.The race is run by the Warragul Cycling Club over a tough undulating 103km course starting in Warragul and finishing on top of Mt Baw Baw,which in itself is a reasonable challenge,the final 6km averages at a 13% gradient and peaks at 21%.As I was already in Melbourne, having driven down Saturday, and there were two local riders,Matt Clark and James Boal competing in A Grade, it was the perfect opportunity to check out this prestigious event.The A Grade honour roll includes names such as David McKenzie,Simon Gerrans and Simon Clarke to name a few. 

Finally I've finished editing the photos taken last week at the Junior Mountain Climbing Championships-Alpe de Buffalo.
Have a look at them in the Galleries I've created,I had lots of trouble with my wireless internet coming into Easter so only uploaded the last Gallery on Saturday

A bit of an update on the Mt Buffalo Challenge Competition is local cyclist Matt Clark became the new leader with a time of 49min 30sec, which will be pretty hard for anyone to beat. I've now also added the descent as a separate competition.You can see results underneath the climb competition.I rode Mt Buffalo on easter Sunday for the first time this year and managed the climb in 1hour 4min 30sec which is 1 min slower than my best time and then turned around and completed the descent in 21min 53sec.So far Shane Miller is leading the descent comp. at 18min 39sec.   

I don't normally have much to say about Professional cycling here as there are many websites that specialise in the pro scene. However, watching Paris-Roubaix last night was so exciting to see Tom Boonen ride the last 55km by himself.The following group,including a number of Team Sky riders,were powerless to close the gap as Boonen powered away to his 4th Paris -Roubaix victory.

If you haven't seen any of the GreenEdge backstage pass videos,have a look at them,really gives you a feel for what goes on inside a professional team.Below is the Paris-Roubaix one but I really love the Milan-San Remo video they did, when Simon Gerrans won they just went ballistic.      

Finally it was lovely to have my sister and mother out for dinner on Saturday night and we cooked up an excellent feed on the outside BBQ.Just lately I've become quite accustomed to lighting a fire then cooking on the coals,there is something very special about cooking on a fire.