Amys Gran Fondo

Road cycling & upcoming rides
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Trouty
Posts: 1214
Joined: 09 May 2007, 13:23

Postby Trouty » 16 Sep 2012, 10:17

Technology has really come a long way. With mark hales, Michele Pezzutti, Eleri Morgan, Adam and Stuart all riding the Melbourne Gran Fondo today....I Managed to find a way not to be left out. I've been tracking them all on the Subaru tracker iPad app. Hales seems to be leading with stuart only a minute behind. I guess it doesn't exclude the stopping, but they all seem to be within half or a minute behind each other. Go stuey go!

Next leg the 9.2km kom, looks like the girls have forged ahead by just a little and are chasing Hales by about 3 minutes, Stu and Adam not too far behind. After that leg, there's the final 61km to go. Blocked off roads, it would be awesome to be riding that today.

The girls rocked. Eleri got 14th in her age category, michelle got 35th. Obviously there are a lot more males in their categories, but they all finished in respectable places overall, just either side of 2000, with over 4000 riders. Now I wish I was there, I guess it was a gorgeous day. I will let the guys tell the story. The Baum obviously worked for Eleri.
Last edited by Trouty on 16 Sep 2012, 16:00, edited 1 time in total.

christian
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Joined: 30 Oct 2007, 19:21
Location: Earlwood

Postby christian » 16 Sep 2012, 15:48

Do I need to say "Not a race".

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Trouty
Posts: 1214
Joined: 09 May 2007, 13:23

Postby Trouty » 16 Sep 2012, 16:02

Do I need to say "Not a race".
No I know it's not.....but it's fun being able to track them all the way from here.

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Stuart
Posts: 2568
Joined: 11 Mar 2008, 10:43
Location: Dulwich Hill

Postby Stuart » 16 Sep 2012, 17:04

A fantastic day out, the rain stayed away but it was pretty cold at times. It's true it's not a race but people still race. Winners in each age category get $500.

Michele was DHBC QOM with 40min and Mark was KOM with 39min. Eleri at 41min with Adam & Stuart both on 45min. We all hit the bottom of the climb at about 1h 10ish.

Total time (including stops - although Eleri didn't stop at all) was:

Adam: 4:47; Mark 4:28; Stuart 4.32; Eleri 4:15; Michele 4:30

A great day out, lovely part of the world and we're already planning for next year. Just don't rent a house so up the bloody hill behind Lorne as the [edit] 14%+ climbs back to house are a killer :-)

Eleri
Posts: 1753
Joined: 31 Dec 2009, 08:43
Location: Erskineville

Postby Eleri » 16 Sep 2012, 21:05

I had a really good ride and fortunately it didn't rain. It was my first real outing on my new bike that had been delivered to me the afternoon before! But a great opportunity to test it and myself. What's that thing they say about don't try anything new on race day? (ignoring Christian - I treated it as a race).

We hung round at the beginning, all a bit nervous. Stuart took his bike down for an emergency tune-up at the free mechanics who got his gears back in tune in next to no time! Nothing like just-in-time. Meanwhile, Michele claims to have told me where the meeting place post-ride was to be (at the house we are staying in). Apparently I said "Yes", but clearly I was distracted or nervous or just plain rude and failed to actually hear the decision. I'd also failed to study the course and didn't realise it didn't finish in Lorne - rather ending up the top of a hill about 11 kms out of Lorne. Probably should have listened better at the pre-race briefing but I think I accidentally fell asleep after a late night a RAW and a very early start. Great race preparation!

We all started off together, resplendent in our DHBC kit. After about 5kms I thought I had better check on where Adam was so dropped back to see he was OK. Rode with him for a while, sat behind him for a while. Apparently gave too many helpful riding tips and he "suggested" I would be better off riding off ahead and he would be OK. So I took him at his word.

The turnoff to Skene's Mountain came soon and then it was uphill. Lots of people stopped at the bottom to do ... I don't know what. Then it was about 12km up hill with some quite steep bits. The new Baum doesn't have compacts and I found myself in the lowest gear before we even started climbing. When a chap said to his mate "some people are going to be walking up here soon" I got a bit worried. But it wasn't too bad and somewhere near the top I passed Stuart and met a woman from SUVelo that I had raced against a few weeks ago. Actually, just after the most glamorous red devil exhorting us to ride up the hill. She was wearing very high red heels!

Didn't stop at the top, enjoyed the descent and was really impressed with the Baum's handling - so smooth and stable. Very happy at this stage! On and off I found bunches to sit on the back of through the rolling hills and then the flats. There was a fair bit of climbing really, up and down.

About 20km from the end I came alongside a young chap on a Baum and could see a bunch up ahead. I invited him to work together and we'd jump on the back of that bunch. He was cooked though, but worked for Darren Baum and had seen my new bike. I hope he was OK with being passed by someone old enough to be his mum! Got onto the bunch and had a good ride for about 10 kms or something before we hit a hill and it all fell apart.

I'd finished all my drink by about 10km from the end but because I didn't realise it ended at the top of a hill, I kept getting puzzled by why we were still going up and not down. :-) Crossed the line still going strong and then ... beautiful descent into Lorne. Pressure off and able to try out the bike a bit.

Turned out everyone else went home and I ended up in Lorne which was totally crowded. But I found Adam and then we headed up the terribly steep hill. I think I'll put compacts on for the ACE - or I'll never get up WTF hill!

Turns out I came in the top 25% of my age group and have qualified for the UCI World Cycling Tour. Have no idea what that means.

All in all, pretty happy with the ride overall and with a bit better preparation next year, I reckon I can do a fair bit better.

We all enjoyed the scenery and the atmosphere and the ability to ride on closed roads. The organisers, the Amy Gillett Foundation did a fantastic job with this ride. Worth putting on your calendar for next year.

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Stuart
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Joined: 11 Mar 2008, 10:43
Location: Dulwich Hill

Postby Stuart » 17 Sep 2012, 18:58

Here's some photo's - all of them by epsom rd studios https://secure.epsomrdstudios.com.au/

Start line - we didn't cross the start till 18 mins after the first 'fast' wave of riders
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Jamison River Great Ocean Rd
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As usual, Mark's drafting Stuart :wink:
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After working out which lever changed the gears, Michele got going :roll:
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Adam powering
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Eleri, playing the conservative start .. later to be fastest DHBCer (and the only one who doesn't need to stop over 120k's :shock:)
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Trouty
Posts: 1214
Joined: 09 May 2007, 13:23

Postby Trouty » 17 Sep 2012, 20:03

.......Michele, didn't I ever teach you to stay off the front?

michele
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Joined: 20 Feb 2009, 19:28

Postby michele » 18 Sep 2012, 21:45

I am a slow learner and seemingly do the things the hard way :?

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Stuart
Posts: 2568
Joined: 11 Mar 2008, 10:43
Location: Dulwich Hill

Postby Stuart » 19 Oct 2012, 11:24

here's a nice video taken from one of the motorcycle marshall's bikes. Shows the whole course in fast forward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ziIrhKxWTk


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