Welcome to the 4th Mt Buffalo Challenge.Matt Clark has won the Men's Competition 3 years in a row and will be hard to dislodge from the top spot again this year.On the Women's side of the competition we've had a different winner each year. Verita Stewart is the current Queen of the Mountain and will be looking to go faster again this year.
But it's also a Challenge to ride your own best time or race your friends.It's great to see riders of all abilities submitting a time.  

                                                                           Details of the Competition.
The Mt Buffalo Challenge is a competition to ride up the main Mt Buffalo climb as quickly as possible.There are 2 perpetual trophies offered for the fastest time for both men and women.
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 (this has a digital screen on it now) The Eurobin Creek Picnic area sign is on the RHS.Just start your time when you pass between the digital screen and the Eurobin Creek Picnic area sign. 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 18km, Average Gradient 5.4%, Elevation Gain 1004 metres. 

                                               PLEASE READ THIS PART IN RELATION TO STRAVA. 

I have recently, Feb 2015, created a Strava segment that will the the one we use now for timing when it's done through Strava.
It's called Mt Buffalo Challenge Official and I've added it to the page below.
You should 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.
It's been decided to NOT make this a Strava only competition as many people want to join in who don't use Strava.
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 2013 results sheet can be seen below the current 2014 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. 

                                                                             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,or taking a photo of your bike computer, displaying the recorded time.Or have somebody else that witnessed the ride be able to confirm the time. 

Every Wednesday a group rides from Wangaratta to Beechworth and back.It's been quite a while since I've joined in so today it was time to incorporate the Beechy ride and add a little extra.

It's about 35 km into Wangaratta and I made the Bunch start time of 7.30 am quite easily.All my overhead photos of the bunch riding were blurry so the next decent pic is the coffee stop in Beechworth. 

I'd done 80 km by our stop in Beechworth and from here I would part company with the group as they headed back to Wangaratta.The plan for me was to head home via Rutherglen.

Heading into Rutherglen I was ready for lunch.Parkers Pies had wonderful pies so it seemed only reasonable to indulge in two.No 1 a Tiger Prawn in  Thai curry sauce and the second one a Bobbie Burns which is beef in a lovely rich sauce made with Campbell's Bobbie Burns Shiraz. 

The last 15 km home went pretty quickly with a nice tailwind which was a nice change.All my rides lately seem to have had their share of strong head winds.

It's time to wake up those climbing legs and start the Mt Buffalo Challenge for it's 3rd year.Each year the number of people entering is slowly increasing which is fantastic.With the "Tour of Bright" entries currently being taken, it seems fitting to launch this year's competition.Matt Clark has owned the Men's Trophy for the last 2 years and will start the favourite once again.The Women's event gets more interesting each year, with Clare Dallat the current keeper of the Perpetual Trophy.Rumour has it there will be times under the hour from the Ladies this year.

                                                                  Details of the Competition.
The Mt Buffalo Challenge is a competition to time your ride up the main Mt Buffalo climb.There are 2 perpetual trophies offered for the fastest time for both men and women.
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 (I think this has a digital screen on it now) 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 2013 results sheet can be seen below the current 2014 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 your time in the comments section at the bottom too. 

                                                                    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. 



                                                         2014 COMPETITION CLOSES WITH A BANG 
Many thanks for everyone who has been involved in The Mt Buffalo Challenge over the last three years.I enjoy running it and hope it keeps growing in the future.Making the trophies was great fun and I know the quality of them is appreciated by the winners.
  
With a week left to run in this year's competition,Verita Stewart completed the winning ride on the Women's side of the ledger.
Verita is improving all the time and has made huge gains in the last year,can't wait to see if she will be the first Female to go under 1 hour next year.

Not to be outdone,like the last minute bid on an Ebay item, Matt Clark once again proved he's the man to beat.Matt completed his ride on the second last day of the competition after Stephen Lane had been in the lead for most of the year.

I'm trying to work out how to get more competitors involved in future years.This year has been the lowest in the event's short 3 year history.I'm thinking about running a handicap event along side the current scratch race.Hopefully that would create more interest for those of us not gifted enough to get the fastest time.Just have to work out a handicap system!!

When the organizers tweeted there would be a reconnaissance ride of the course on Saturday it seemed like a nice idea to tag along.A few text messages later and it sounded like a good group would be taking part.I've put my hand up to photograph the road race so would use the recon. to check out possible vantage points.For those needing a refresher on the Sam Miranda weekend of racing and the Gran Fondo I've written a blog about here .
 A group of 12 gathered at Sam Miranda's cellar door,not for partaking in the produce unfortunately,but to ride the 100km course.It was nice to see Glynn Matthey who had made the trip up from Melbourne to ride the course with us. 

I'd ridden about half of the course before,albeit some of it in the opposite direction that the race would go,so was looking forward to the expedition.The first few kilometers are along the Snow Road, before turning left into Kilfeera Road,which is a nice undulating quiet country road.The pace was pretty steady with 5 minute rotating turns on a magnificent winters afternoon with a slight head wind all the way until the Myrrhee (Benalla - Whitfield Rd) turn off.

After turning toward Myrrhee on the Benalla Whitfield Rd you could feel a slight uphill gradient,a false flat,some may call it.Also the wind seemed to be coming right into our faces.There are some good undulations along here and the first KOM point just before Mhyree,although not that long will be tough enough to create some gaps in the field.Not long after the Myrrhee KOM it's time to turn right onto the Benalla Whitfield Rd for the infamous "Strade Nero" which is the dirt road climb included in the road race.Any advantage gained on the previous KOM could be added to here and this climb is long and hard enough to split things up even more.I've previously blogged about the Strade Nero here so wont go into detail about it again.Everybody on the ride was impressed by the dirt road and was looking forward to racing over it when the time comes.
After the climb,descending down into Whitfield is spectacular,forget the brakes,don't need them here.

I would like to be able to report about all the things I saw on the run from Whitfield to the race finnish, back at Sam Miranda's Winery.But in reality, I pretty much had to concentrate on the back wheel of Tully Lyster's bike as he averaged 43.5kmh for the slightly downhill run down the King Valley.We had been following the scooter briefly but just when I asked about the little roller on the rear guard of the scooter it fell off onto the road.As Glenn pulled over to repair it we just powered on.It was a little under an hour of pretty hard riding and come race day should be a very fast pace.Below is the Strava segment thats been created that includes the whole circuit.It was a nice ride with a great bunch of people who all enjoyed the day.The only incident worth reporting is race directer, Marty Tobin, who had organized the ride had 2 flat tyres before we even got to Myrrhee and had to be rescued by friends.

It seems most people I talk to,myself included, are interested in the condition of the "Strade Nero"(the dirt road climb) that will be used in the upcoming Sam Miranda Road Race.I wrote a blog about the race last week and decided that today I would go and investigate this infamous piece of road for myself.
After watching my recording of Stage 6 of the Tour de France the frost had started to melt, although I couldn't get any water out of the taps in my house due to the pipes being frozen,I headed off on my journey.The plan was,drive to Mohyu, jump on the bike and ride up Boggy Creek Road,which the Sam Miranda Handicap Race would come down the day after the road race.
That meant I could kill two birds with the one stone as I'm keen to race the handicap on the Sunday myself and this way I could see a section of the course I didn't know.It was a gentle uphill gradient most of the way to Myrrhee so coming back down will be pretty quick in a bunch.Nice quiet country road,I think I saw 2 vehicles in around 16km,perfect. 

I would then be able to turn into the Benalla-Whitfield Road at Myrrhee.Within approximately 1km I would be on the dirt section.The gradient at the beginning of the climb is very gentle (big ring country) with the steepest gradients being in the middle of the climb(between 5-10% on my Garmin) and then levelling off a little for the last km or so. The following photographs are taken in series moving up the climb from the beginning to where the dirt finishes at the Junction of the Mansfield-Whitfield Road.I've endeavoured to photograph the road surface in a few locations and in various conditions.I will say there was no trouble riding hard up the climb and most of the time you could choose a fairly smooth path amongst the few potholes and stones.There were some corrugations and rougher sections but it's mostly a hard packed pretty good surface.The conditions were sunny and the road surface dry,I imagine it could get slippery if it happens to rain.The reward after the climb is a fantastic flowing descent down into Whitflied on an excellent road.
And,yes,there is even a Strava segment for the "Dirt Berg" which I've included at the bottom of the post.

Don't forget you can keep up to date with the latest news about the race from the official Sam Miranda Road Race Blog

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. 

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.