If your looking for something to do on a Monday evening, Alpine Cycling Club  may have your answer. Starting a couple of weeks ago and running through until the Tour of Bright in the first week of December.They're running a TT using the exact same course that is used for the Time Trial in Stage 2 of the Tour of Bright.The first rider starts at 6pm so get there in plenty of time to warm up and let them work out the starting order.

A few of us went up from the Wangaratta Cycling Club on Monday for a hit out and I must admit I'd forgotten how tough the course is.The first hill after about 1.5 km is just long enough to really hurt as your already going close to maximum pace.I'd forgotten my cycling glasses and kept getting little insects in my eyes which wasn't ideal but a good lesson learnt.The results each week are posted on Alpine's Website here

Of course for those into Strava there is a segment for the Bright TT course, which is pretty close to the actual Race Day course.I've included the Strava Segment below.To get on the first page you have to be pretty quick,I'm currently in 42nd place from 183 riders.

Matt Clark has once again taken out this years Mt Buffalo Challenge in a record time of 48 mins 4 secs.He has had a wonderful year claiming some very big races and we're all watching Matt's Cycling Career with interest. I think the only way anyone else has a chance to win will be if Matt gets a Pro contract and doesn't have time to get near Mt Buffalo.

On the women's side of the leader board we have a new winner in Clare Dallat. Clare's time of 1 min 10 seconds is the fastest yet by any female in the competition.I'm also reliably informed that in another attempt, she would have gone under the hour mark, but had to get off her bike and walk around a fallen tree over the road.

I'm also excited to announce there is a Perpetual Trophy for the Women being constructed at the moment and I'll be able to present it to Clare soon.


We will start the 2014 edition of the competition after winter.Thanks to everyone who participated.Scroll down to see the winner's times and the full leader board. 

                                                                   Details of the Competition.
The starting point is at the bottom of the mountain near where the little office/gatehouse used to be. See the stone wall on the LHS for another landmark with the Eurobin Creek Picnic area sign on the RHS.Just start your time when your passing through  this point and you'll be close enough. It will be based on the time it takes to ride from the starting point (see pic below) to the top of the main climb finishing at The Gap.(finish timing your ride when adjacent to "The Gap" sign), see image below.   

Important Statistics. Distance 18.5km, Average Gradient 5.4%, Elevation Gain 1004 metres. 

                                              PLEASE READ THIS PART IN RELATION TO STRAVA. 

It's probably better to be stopped or rolling very slowly at the start so as not to get an unfair advantage by hitting the start line at 40 kmh.The Mt Buffalo segment on Strava is around 10 seconds shorter than the manual timed segment I've created for this competition, so you can use Strava to get your time.I will then add 10 seconds to all Strava times.It's been decided to not make this a Strava only competition as many people want to join in who don't use it.It's pretty easy to time it manually on most bike computers or an iPhone.

There are many ways to submit a time for the competition and one way is to contact me via email. I'm also on Twitter so feel free to tweet a time in too.The 2012 results sheet can be seen below the current 2013 results for comparison.I will also need the date the ride was completed,your name and racing category or age so that information can be added too. 
Feel free to leave some comments below too spice up the competition. 

                                                                   IMPORTANT NOTE.
I also think it's fair to the leaders of the competition, that anybody submitting a winning time be able to verify their time either on strava,taking a photo of your bike computer displaying the recorded time or have somebody else that witnessed the ride. 

I've been tinkering with the idea of watermarking the images I put on the web from now on.I've had a few suggestions with many different ideas.Some say keep it discreet whilst others want more boldness to make it harder for the watermark to be removed.I personally like the more discreet option and if people are that keen they want to get rid of the watermark,good luck to them.Below are 3 options I've tried to date,I'm not a fan of the large watermark on the bottom image.Placement of the smaller one seems to be more important so it's visible without ruining the image. 

Apologies for my lack of blog entries of late but for some reason,there has been other things taking precedence. It's interesting writing a blog and sometimes getting stressed because you've not been posting anything, then wondering does anybody really care anyway?

I could probably write a novel on the last few weeks,but I will spare you from that, which included a trip to the Goulburn area to compete in the Australian Masters Time Trial Championships.Whilst reasonably pleased with my ride from a personal point of view there is plenty of work to be done if I'm going to be competitive at the pointy end of that competition. I placed 15th from the 23 riders who started in my category, Masters 4. Special thanks to Tully Lyster who was my travel companion and competed strongly to finish 6th in Masters 2.We also were given help and support by Shane Miller ,who blitzed Masters 1 and also claimed fastest time of the day,his Fiance Von Micich who finished 3rd in WMasters 1 and Stephen Lane ,2nd in Masters 1.

Returning from the Masters the dust had hardly settled and it was time to line up for the Keith Esson Memorial Road Race.This race is run by Shepparton Cycling Club is 147km long, starting and finishing in Dookie.Riding well in the C Grade bunch I was involved in a crash on the second major climb and came down heavily on my LHS.I was pretty gutted afterwards and without the help of Laurie Lyster, who towed me most of the way back to Dookie I would probably have abandoned the race.

So last week I couldn't get interested in riding and decided, with the advice of others, to have a few days off the bike.
Coming into the weekend I could feel the urge to jump back into it and with the Tour of Bright on the horizon,I didn't want to miss a weekends racing. On Saturday. the Wangaratta Cycling Club's Spring series continued and was a great hit out with 2 climbs over Taminick Gap.I was unable to sprint past Dr. Gav on the line and had to be content with second place in B Grade.


   

This race was held over a course I'd never ridden and was basically 1 lap of a 44km circuit and then 1 lap of a 22 km circuit.Pretty much flat as a tack with the only incline the freeway overpass.Not my preferred terrain but you have to work with what your given.My bunch contained 3 other riders I'd ridden with before in handicaps and I knew we would have a good group.My group,Block,were given 5 minutes start on a well credentialled four man scratch group with 15 minutes to the middle markers and the two out marker groups, 20 and 27 minutes.
Before the completion of the large loop scratch has lost Grealy due to a mechanical which reduced their fire power but the group had reduced the 5 minutes deficit to just over 2.
My Block group managed to catch the 15 min group just nearing the end of the first lap, which increased our strength, but were still 8 minutes behind the leaders with just 22 kms to go.
Next to be caught, the 20 minutes group as they turned into Emu Bridge road, but scratch were making no impression on us now, with our reinforced strong, 11 man/woman bunch.
Turning back onto Kilfeera Road with 8 kms to the finish we were still 4 minutes down from the limit group and the race was really on, trying to hold scratch at bay and also catching the limit pair who were travelling strongly.
I put my head down and pulled some really solid turns along Kilfeera Road nearly popping  myself in the process.I knew the pace had to be lifted if there was any chance of catching limit.We could see them in the distance but were starting to run out of road.
The freeway overpass is about 600 metres from the finish and it was just after this when limit succumbed and had to watch the race lead get snatched from them.I'd found myself on the front with around 300 metres left in the race with no other choice than to lead out the sprint.At around 150m to go I hit out for the line with every ounce of energy that was left in my body, expecting to be swamped on the line by the following riders.It seemed to take an eternity to ride that last 50 metres and Dr Gav came through right on the line.Neither of us could be sure of the verdict, with the line judges initially giving Dr Gav the victory.However the camera revealed that it was 15 cms that separated us and getting the judges verdict was me with Morley a bike length back for 3rd in one the most trilling sprint finishes the Club has seen for a while. Strang sprinted in well for 4th just ahead of Davison with limit man Lea home in 6th place and the other limit rider Cathie held on for 8th spot.

Scratch, who’s firepower was reduced still did exceptionally well but didn’t make any more ground on the eventual winning group in the last 12 kms finishing just on 2 minutes down with visiting Northern Vets rider Simon Welsh (Team Kosdown) taking out the Fastest Time honours at an average speed just under 40kph.

Last week I attended the Masters Championships Time Trial near Goulburn NSW. Before and after my own ride I managed to fire off a few photos of other competitors.There is a small gallery here.