A hardy group turned up for Wangaratta Cycling Club's long ITT today.Intermittent light showers and a reasonably strong westerly wind greeted the participants.40 km is long for a club ITT with most of our club's other Time Trial's are around 16-20km in length.I was slotted into the A Grade group and finished at the bottom of the leaderboard (sounds better than last).
It was a great course with a few changes in direction and some gentle up and down gradients thrown in.I'm pretty content with my effort and realise there is plenty of room for improvement.

Below are the details of this years club tour. As I know a couple of people are considering the trip up from Melbourne,have a read of these particular paragraphs.
 "This is a club tour and riders from outside the combine area must provide written approval from your club to
race at alternative club or combine event. An email, with proper identification from a club president or secretary
at time of entry will suffice".

Clubs in the combine area include: Albury-Wodonga, Lavington Panthers, Alpine, Mt Beauty, Mansfield-Mt
Buller, Benalla, Shepparton, Cobram-Barooga, Echuca-Moama.

                                                     A little more on the above from the Club Secretary. 
This is a Cycling Vic requirement.The club tour is a club race.  ie it's not an OPEN.
Clubs will have no worries with letting their rider ride, so it's just a formality really.  
Most of our other club races, usually only draw from our nearby areas.  This one, tend to draw from a wider field and so we just need to follow the CV requirements.

We pretty spoilt in the country when it comes to riding on quiet roads with no traffic lights.So it was a novelty for the bunch to have to wait at traffic lights on the way home from Beechworth yesterday.We actually had to wait at least 5 minutes for a roadwork crew who were busy repairing a causeway on the Markwood-Everton Road where it crosses the Ovens River.Long enough for me to wrestle my iphone out and get some pictures. Looks like the bunch captain is throwing his hands in the air.  

Late this afternoon I realised I was out of milk.Living out of town this meant a slight dilema.Either go without for my morning coffee, or slip into Rutherglen for supplies.Thinking of something to make for dinner, I decided that pizza cooked in the wood stove would be a good choice.Being a little light on pizza ingredients the trip to town was confirmed.


On my way into Rutherglen I drive past various vineyards.Bullers,Stanton and Killeen and Campbells.At the moment with Autumn upon us, the leaves on the vines are changing colours and with the late afternoon light they looked beautiful.I had a little Panasonic camera I recently purchased second hand with me so took the opportunity to take a few shots.When I got into town the golden light also made everything look great.Below are some of my images from this little expedition

The Pizza turned out pretty nice too.I made the dough in my bread maker.Very simple tomato sauce with onions and garlic.Cheese,olives anchovies and bacon. 

Today was my third attempt at this race which runs from Benalla to Wangaratta. The first year I was in the limit bunch and got dropped after 20km,last year I was in second limit and made it through with my group to the finnish and this year I was in the group in front of what is called block and managed to ride with the group pretty well.I ended up losing contact a few kms from home whilst trying to hang on the back of a long line a little after the scratch riders flew past. Considering the quality of riders in that group I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed.  

This is Frank Loki's take on the race.Thanks Frank for forwarding this to me.
We had 49 starters for todays Ian Bullus Memorial – Benalla Wangaratta Handicap race over 64km (Tomarsh’s SRM) with fantastic NE Vic weather, partly cloudy mid teens temp,

Limit (5 riders) set off just after 10am from Tekkers Rest in Kilferra Rd Benalla.

Other groups were 22 minutes – 9 riders, 16 minutes – 12 riders, 11 minutes - 10 riders, 5 minutes – 8 riders and scratch – 5 riders.

Riders from Melbourne, Albury Wodonga CC, Lavington CC,Mt Buller Mansfield, Cobram were in the race (hope I haven’t missed any).

The race goes via Lurg, Greta, Glenrowan and on to the Wangaratta CC club rooms in Shanley St.

All groups stayed in their respective groups until the left turn from Greta to Glenrowan, although the gaps started to diminish.

At the right turn in Glenrowan into the old highway, limit riders were still 3 minutes ahead of the next group, who were only a bit over a minute ahead of the 16 min group. Scratch were 8 minutes from the lead at this stage and most riders in that group felt that they had, probably, too much work ahead of them, with such a short distance, about 15km to go.

Along Warby Rang Rd, with less than 5km to go the 16 minute and 22 minute groups got together and were fast closing on limit, who were engulfed along Shanley St making for a bunch sprint.

Ian Strang (Wang CC) prevailed over Ryan Allen (AWCC), Tomarsh Loki (Wang CC) Damian Christian (AWCC), Cullum Dwyer (AWCC) and Rob Greenaway (Mt Buller Mansfield CC).

Best over 55yo went Dave Wohlers.

Winning time was 1:46:37, 2nd & 3rd 1:40:37 and fastest time going to Matt Clark (Wang CC) 1:27:03,

Big mention to Maurs & Suellen for BBQ, ambience and refreshments for riders & spectators.

Below is a Strava segment I created for today's race. I cut a little off the start and finnish of the race, just to make sure the start was a little after the official start, so there wouldn't be any mistakes with others times and for the future in case we don't quite start in the exact same place. 

These Youtube videos are great.I know most cycling fans will have seen these backstage pass videos by now.But just in case I've added one from the Tour of California. Neil Stephens,sports directer for GreenEdge is such a character,I love his laid back style.  

This is one of Wangaratta Cycling Club's biggest races of the year.This will be my third year in a row entering the race.I think last year we had about 70 entries and the competition is very strong.So if you enjoy country racing get on board to help make this year's race the biggest so far.

As I was feeling a little second hand today I decided to trade in my bike for the camera.The weather was pretty cool with a stiff South Westerly wind making for tough racing conditions for the small field.Below are my favourite photos from today.

Every Wednesday there is a bunch ride to Beechworth from Wangaratta return.Leaving Espresso on Ovens at 7.30am.It's a great ride with a little of everything.Some easy riding on the flats,a 15km climb up the rail trail where you can go as hard or easy as you like.Coffee in Beechworth and a fast descent out of Beechworth before settling into an easy pace the rest of the way home,arriving back into Wang. a little after 11.30am.When riding in the group on the flat we rotate turns on the front every 5 mins.
Today was a little more special than usual where we helped Tomarsh Loki celebrate his birthday.His family drove up to meet us and presented Tomarsh with a rich chocolate cake which we helped devour.After singing happy birthday of course.

Yesterday morning as I was driving into Wangaratta the fog was thick enough to keep my speed to around 80kmh.Arriving at the Sale yards complex where the club rooms of the Wang Cycling Club are located it was pretty gloomy looking and cold.
As the trickle of competitors and volunteers arrived nobody was in a hurry to get their cycling kit on.The race was to start at 10 o'clock so we had around an hour.
Time to pay my entry,get my race number and have a look at the handicaps for the day. I was quite pleased with my handicap and had ridden with all the riders who would be in my group.Dr.Gav was in there as well as the ever young Laurie Lyster whom I spend lot's of my racing days with.Having a read through the start list I couldn't help but notice the calibre of the riders in the Scratch bunch.James Boal,Ashley Baines and Tully Lyster were local inclusions as well as some very strong visitors inclucing Drapac Professional Rhys Pollock who had recently won the Tour of Taiwan.

I was confident we had a decent chance to win the race as I knew all riders in my group would work well together which is the key to these handicap events.As luck would have it the fog was also pretty much gone by the time we started.We would have to ride well as those following would also be working well together and doing their best to catch us.

                                                                  The Official Race Report
We had 36 starters for the 2012 Graeme Dawes memorial Handicap.

Limit were off at 10.10 am, with gaps as per start list above.

By Boweya Rd, the 10.5min group had  made 30 sec on the 15min group, who were working a treat together.

Along the road to Thoona the limit group were already splintering and they looked like they had a tough 35km ahead.

In Thoona, the limit group had got together again but the 2nd limit were hot on their heals.  The 15 min group were still looking strong working together.  The gap to the next group had stretched out to 4 1/2 min (starting time) and this group looked to be swallowed up by the block and scratch group, who had formed one big group and were only 2 minutes behind.

At the foot of the Warby’s, some strong limit riders had driven ahead, but the rest had been swallowed by the 15 min group, who still looked strong.  Scratch had by now caught both groups ahead of them and only the strong would survive.

At the top of the climb to the Warbys 5 riders had broken clear of the stragglers, they were Laurie Lyster, Gifford Crosthwaite, Tony Reeckman, Adam Cartwright and Gavin Frawley, then followed some remnants of the front groups followed 3 minutes later by scratchies Rhys Pollock, Ash Baines, James Boal a short distance to Trent Stevenson, then Tully Lyster,  Heath Mullavey(block) and Tomarsh Loki(10.5min).  Shortly after Boal flatted and day was done.

Descending Ryans the front group of 5 were strong and looked threatening.  This group continued along Wangandary Road driving the front, with Pollock, Baines and Stevenson (who had bridged back on) in hot pursuit (to give you some idea of speed Tomarsh, who was well behind, was avging 45+kph in a group driven by Thrummy – so front group were even faster than that!!).

With 400 metres to go in a 68km race the scratch markers caught the front 5 and stole the chocolates from the hard workers, who filled the next 5 places with Dave Wohlers and Geoff Morley next, then a group of 3 and then another 3 (mostly scratch & block + John Myles & Tomarsh).
                                                                 My embellishment of the last kilometer 

Turning into Reith Road my bunch was 5 strong including Dr.Gav,Laurie,Gifford and Adam.We had been told scratch were coming hard and we had to ride at our limit if there was any chance of staying away.So head down and push hard working together with a little over a kilometer to ride, swallowed up by 3 scratch riders(Baines,Stevenson and Pollock) with around 500 metres to go I somehow managed to jump on the back along with Dr Gav and Adam.The group then seemed to bunch up a little and I noticed Ashley Baines drift to the back of the group,I was pretty comfortable if not a little amazed to be in with a pretty strong bunch of riders.When Ash jumped into the slipstream of a vehicle that was overtaking the bunch, I tried to go with him.He was too strong and I had waited just a second before responding to his attack.I did however find myself second on the road with about 350metres to go.All I could do was try and ride as hard as I could to the finnish but I could feel the effort taking it's toll.Caught again by the rest of the bunch with Ash Baines surging clear for the win.Trent Stevenson jumped for second followed by Rhys Pollock third.Dr Gav came through in 4th followed by myself then Adam Cartwright.  

Note added on 9-5-2012
I realise the above embellishment of the finnish created some controversy. I wanted to clarify that when I said "Ash jumped into the slipstream of a vehicle that was overtaking the bunch".What I believe happened was he jumped just as the vehicle passed us and may have got a small advantage momentarily but was not motorpacing behind the vehicle.The vehicle quickly accelerated away from us.  

Special thanks also to the ladies in the kitchen who prepared the after race refreshments.Everybody that I spoke to really enjoyed the event and in my opinion this was country racing at it's best.

I've also added the Strava file or my ride below.