Coonabarabran To Gunnedah Sundowner Weekend

[lindsay]

While the excitment builds for the 2007 Tour de France we have our own races to get stuck into. It's time to get your entries in for the Gunnedah Sundowner Weekend.

Saturday 30 June. Keegan Downes Memorial Sundowner Coonabarabran To Gunnedah 111km Handicap

Sunday July 1st. Gunnedah To Tamworth 108km Road Open (Scratch Races)

These are both great races and a regular for our road calandar. The Sundowner on Saturday is a handicap race so everyone gets a chance of winning the big money. It's a bit hilly for the start then at about the 80km point the race drops onto the Liverpool Plains, if your bunch is still in front the scratchies will never catch you and the podium awaits.

Sunday's race is one of the sweetest road races of the year. It's a graded scratch race so attack on the hills and make them suffer. In 2005 our rider Matt "the tyfoon" McGoon won F grade.

It is the 40th anniversary of the Sundowner so a ticket to the gala dinner is included in the entry fee.

Al Sumner is offering a seat his van for anybody who wants to go with him. He leaves on Friday at lunch time. We have a booking at a pub in Mullalley (close to Coonabarabran) on Friday night & a motel in Gunnedah for Saturday night. You'll get back on Sunday eneving at about 7pm.

If you can't get the day off work on Friday you can always do the Sunday race & get a life back to Sydney with Al.

Entries close this Sunday.

http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/

[Grant Bond]

Im all signed up!!! Lets hope the handicapping gods are kind.

[T-Bone]

Kieran and Grant,

Just in case i can't contact you later, the plan for tomorrow is to leave Alans house at 12pm. I'll try and give you a call after my exams to make sure you know.

[T-Bone]

Well, the grading is out for Sundays race.

Eugen will be in Div3. Me and Kieran are in Div5. And Grant is in Div6.

Hopefully we can pull off a result of some sort somewhere, though this lack of riding due to the rain and exams (for me) probably hasn't helped too much.

[mikesbytes]

Good luck on the weekend.

Grading looks interesting. I wouldn't of thought that Eugen would of been 2 divisions above you and Kieran. And there is only one division down to Grant.

So where would they have put the C graders such as me? Div5 or Div6

[weiyun]

Good luck guys! Should be a nice weekend coming up as far as weather for riding goes.

[T-Bone]

Well, heffron park C graders would be in div5 or div6. Not sure what my current open grading is, think i was E grade last time i saw. As for Eugen, he's a strong rider, you don't ride around australia if you're not strong, well not in 56days at least.

[T-Bone]

Well, here's the race report.

Saturday - Coonabarabran to Gunnedah, 110km Handicap.

The weather as usual at this race wasn't looking good at the start, but cleared up as the race progressed. Ron and Alan started on Limit at 40min, Grant at 32min, Me and kieran at 24min, and Eugen at 13min.

Ron suffered a puncture fairly early, and after some more riding decided to take the jump in the nice warm van. Alan as always showed his willpower and finished the whole distance, even with the riding he's missed out on lately (somehow i missed seeing him as we passed, must have been distracted...). Grant put in a good solid ride like Alan, completing the full distance, though he mentioned not being used to the big gears and gear choice (a symptom of excessive fixie use). Me and Kieran were riding well, though our bunch defintely wasn't working the best, we consitently took turns helping to keep the speed high. I later felt a bit sick in the stomach and my legs were getting tired (lack of riding), so i dropped off the bunch after 80km, and was quickly passed by the chasing bunches who were closing in on their prey. Eugen stuck with his bunch, riding strongly as always, and finished in the main bunch along with Kieran. There was an incident coming to the finish with a Police car a few kms from the finish, though i don't know the full story, but it resulted in lots of complaints, and lots of fines for crossing the double lines(including Kieran). All in all a good race, though seemed to be spoilt by the incident near the end. The scratchies were there at the end to claim some of the places with an average speed of about 47.5km/h, always a fast race.

[T-Bone]

Sunday - Gunnedah to Tamworth - 110km Graded Scratch race

Today the good weather was out, though there was still a chill in the air and a bit of wind. Eugen raced in Div3, Me and Kieran in Div5, and Grant in Div6. Eugen once again rode strongly to finish in the bunch. Grant had a tough ride with some knee pain, and took a trip in the sag wagon before getting out to ride again when it got too crowded, I don't think any of us realised this until he told us, but well done anyway. Me and Kieran, went with the best tactics we could. After 5km i found myself off the front by accident when surging to cover a gap and not being bothered to use the brakes, so i tapped out an easy rythm before heading back to the bunch after 7km off the front. From this point we made sure not to waste our energy doing work, as it wasn't in our interests to run out of energy, especially not in a long open flat stretch of road with a strong crosswind. After 70km the race livened up a bit more, on a long uphill drag 2 riders made the jump to get away and started to get a reasonable gap. As another rider took off to bridge i went too, and soon Kieran followed, though the majority of the bunch did too, and with a bit of work the break was reeled in. Following this the pace was kept high as me and Kieran along with some other riders tried to get that elusive gap. Eventually Kieran got a small gap with another rider at about 20-25km to go, so i took up the role of blocking for him, along with some riders from the other guys club. 2 more got away to join them which i believed they would need, and then the gap began to grow. There was another group of 4 that broke off the front, though they were reeled in before the finish. With 15km to go, my legs had had enough, so off the back i went to cruise along to the finish. Kieran's break held the bunch off with his tired legs finding enough to take 3rd. So, overall, a good result, and a perfect day for riding.

Hopefully some of the others will fill in any gaps.

And don't forget to think about joining us for the next open. The ones coming up are Muswellbrook(Long race), Tamworth Tour(reccomended), then Cootamundra. I'll let you know more soon.

[mikesbytes]

Congratulations guys, great racing.

[weiyun]

Nice ride. One day I'll join you guys. Just have to find one that's noob friendly.

[T-Bone]

Just about every race is noob friendly. It took me a lot of racing before i finished in the lead bunch in a handicap. I'll try and think of a good race for you, the best one coming up is probably Tamworth Tour, or Cootamundra, or you could do one of the criteriums coming later in the year.

[mikesbytes]

Weiyun, based on your weekend performance, I'd say that you would probably be quicker than most of club D and would easily run in the club C pack.

[weiyun]

Don't know about that. I'll have to wait until my next Heffron race (?summer time) to see if I've made any improvements. Getting that last bit out for the sprint seemed still to be my weakness. Short duration intervals required I suspect.

As for road races, I look forward to your suggestions. But unfortunately I won't be able to travel far and overnight trips would be next to impossible. It's getting rather restrictive isn't it?

[mikesbytes]

Ride for life

[weiyun]

Ride for life

I have thought about that. But that's really just a criterium with 10 hills thrown in isn't it? Are you going to enter this year? If the scheduling works, I think I may give it a go.

http://www.rideforlife.org.au/

Ouch, it's another Sat race. No grading either... I'd be toast after the first lap.

[mikesbytes]

10 hills thrown in isn't it?

12 hills (12 laps)

[mikesbytes]

Seems Keiran had no choice but to cop the fine;

At the end of the race, the main bunch caught the last group on the road with
about 3km to go. You have one bunch doing about 30km/h and one doing 40+km/h.
It was on a little tiny access road with zero traffic on it. The fast bunch
had the option of sitting behind the slow bunch (yeah right), or going around
on the wrong side of the road. There were by that time about 50 people in the
main bunch and every single one of them got a $50 fine for crossing onto the
wrong side of the road.

Weyium, what about doing a Vet race on a Sunday morning?

[weiyun]

Weyium, what about doing a Vet race on a Sunday morning?

What about our Waterfall ride?

Seriously though, I wouldn't mind trying them out. Just not this coming Sun though. Will be on another activity that kill legs.

[T-Bone]

Kurrajong is an option, though you have to be able to get up the first hill. It can be tough depending on the bunch speed, and comes only 2km after the start, plus it's 2 laps. If you can't get up the hill with the bunch it's a bit of a waste though.

[mikesbytes]

What about our Waterfall ride?

Seriously though, I wouldn't mind trying them out. Just not this coming Sun though. Will be on another activity that kill legs.

If your keen, you could ride Waterfall afterwards

They only do the Tennis centre every so often