Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

Hi Everyone,

So who's heading down for the Tour of Canberra?

Details here: Tour of Canberra Not much to see on the website - only the dates and last year's results at this stage.

Edit: Entries now open! See website for details... http://canberratour.org.au/

Edit2: Maps:
Stage 2 (sat morning)
Stage 3 (sat arvo TT)
Stage 4 (sun morning 130km)
Stage 4 (sun morning 80km)

I had planned on doing this but we're going on holiday the following week and given what happened prior to our last trip I've just been informed that I won't be doing the Tour of Canberra this year.

Thats not good news at all Mat.

Ill certainly be doing Canberra this year. Ill see how my training goes leading up to the events, if its as good as i plan I may even have a crack at A grade ( just for fun).

I'll be there, most likely C grade for me.

I'll give it a go this year...not sure what grade though.

It's the same weekend as Dirt Works, John. Otherwise I would also be doing Canberra...

I'm in D2 hopefully

Yes Ill be going again this year, and Ill be entering Womens B.

Tempted

Wow, Easter has really stuffed up the calendar this year: Canberra, Mudgee and Dirt Works all on the same weekend.

l'm in.

lt was tough riding this in bandages last year, it was pure survival

Mark I'm interested in this one. Can you let me know if your going to do any long training rides before.
Thank in advance.

Hi Peter,

l haven't planned any long rides. l'm doing hill repeats mid-week and aiming for 80- 110k rides on the w/ends.

l'll PM you.

Entries now open. I have updated the original post with the details.

They have changed the format of the race quite significantly by the looks of it. Plus all new grading system as well.

No stromlo time trial this year unless you do a 16km warm up beforehand. Looks like the road course has changed too, but only guessing as the maps aren't up yet.

oh, and places are limited to 80 per grade.

Entered

Hmm, looks like the way it's done in Bright.

Do i go C grade as planned (when they also had D and E), or should i prepare for suffering with B grade??

Might wait to see the course route/profile before i enter, though i don't want to miss out..... just checked, and A is teams only, so that leaves B and C for the rest of the Elites, leaning towards C, so i don't have to race Alex.

Ok im entered in B grade.

Is there any info on start times and locations?

Starts should be all at Mt Stromlo (not sure about the TT).

I'm entered in C.

Maps are up:

Stage 2 (sat morning)
Stage 3 (sat arvo TT)
Stage 4 (sun morning 130km)
Stage 4 (sun morning 80km)

Thats interesting, no dam climb for b or a grade this year.

I preferred the uphill timetrial from last year.

Fine by me

I preferred the uphill timetrial from last year.

i'm with you on this one.

Entered.

Hmmm...shorter road races and an ITT that will make me wish that l had Joshua's legs

Entered.
!!!!

I've booked accommodation for Me, Alex, Mark, Amy. Not sure if anyone else needed accommodation booked for them. We're staying at Pavilion on Northbourne (good rate through wotif).

Hi James, is there room for one more?

I knew there must be someone i'd forgotten. There's only 2 beds in each room, so no spare room. I just checked and Peter O'Sullivan and Simon Berry have entered as well, so you could probably share with them if they haven't sorted out accommodation yet.

HERE is where we're staying.

Booked for Peter and I at the same hotel

i'm staying with the in-laws so my accommodation is sorted.

According to the start times The 4+ ITT starts 20 minutes before the WB ITT, however there are 55 riders. So does that mean they will start us 20 seconds apart?

Is there a wheel car?

Is there a wheel car?

Bump

There has been in previous years, so i'd assume yes, but since everything else has changed......

Mick will join us for Dinner

And Huw

Just picked up the rego pack and watched stage 1.

Yes feed station for 130km stage only in Sunday, spares vehicle is for all stages and all grades. If you don't have anything for the vehicle then spare tube (if applicable) and pump must be carried.

As for stage 1, genesys pocked up the prime and 1st and 3rd in the crit, with a rider from jayco I think taking out another genesys rider in the sprint. A few crashes in the last lap with one rider in a bad shape, but overall a good race to watch.

Drapac pulled all but one rider out due to flying to Europe.

Stage 1
I was just making sure I stayed in the bunch. First climb, a fair few got dropped. After the turn around on a descent 3 riders slid out in front of me, and some behind, I stayed safe and closed the gap to the front, no one else seemed to, so there were 13. At the finish I had the wrong wheel and finished 11th.

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Stage 1
I was just making sure I stayed in the bunch. First climb, a fair few got dropped. After the turn around on a descent 3 riders slid out in front of me, and some behind, I stayed safe and closed the gap to the front, no one else seemed to, so there were 13. At the finish I had the wrong wheel and finished 11th.

Sent from my Ideos using Tapatalk

Was it raining hard up there like it has been down here? Not a bad finish Tbone, you have to be happy with that?...one off top 10.

A few drops in the morning, but fine and sunny since then.

Stage 2
Still waiting for results, but here's some data... time ~31.20, average HR 201bpm.

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Amy doing well, in 3rd position

Tour of Canberra Day 1 - M4+ category 55 entrants
55k road race
Held on for grim life on the hills and ended up in the front group of say 30 riders that become 15 riders by the end. One rider went off the front and the rest finished in a bunch. I got no time bonus's and ended up 57 seconds behind the winner, though I was on same time or +2 seconds on the rest. I'm pretty pleased with my hill climbing, so much better than last year.

20k Individual Time Trail
The profile shows that it was flat....NOT. 17th, time was 32.12, something like 2.20 behind the winner. The winner of the 55k was 2nd.

Results haven't been posted, but it seems that I'm 3min + time bonus's behind the leader. No way I'm going to podium but I'm way happy with that.

Day 1 results are up. Positions including time bonus's

Woman B
3 Vesty +1.54
Amy has 16 seconds over 4th place, so will have to be mindful of time bonus's to protect her placing.

Men B
56 Cubb +44.09
Not a good day for Alex, rode 80k virtually solo in the road race. AND he missed the start for the TT, costing something like an additional 12 minutes.

Men C
6 Fowler +2.55
All James needs is a breakaway today, a podium is possible

Master 1-3
24 Berry +12.30
Simon has got to be happy with that

Master 4+
13 Clement +4.10
27 Lacey +10.21
35 Weller +15.59
41 O'Sullivan +22.51
Mark has a lot of riders on similar times around him.
Craig isn't racing today. He thought the 55k race as 40k and lost focus when he found out it was further, but rode really well in the TT.
Peter had a minor mechanical in the TT that cost him about a minute and some focus.
I've go a lot of riders on similar times 7th thru to 16th

Stage 3
My legs weren't feeling ad good today, but I dug deep and hung on until Mt McDonald where 8 riders got away chasing down a solo breakaway. Over the climb I got into a group of 4 and we worked hard to almost catch the others before the descent to the final climb, but it wasn't to be and by the finish we were 4min30sec behind.
In the end I finished in 10th overall, around 7min30sec behind.

Sent from my Ideos using Tapatalk

Stage 3
Even more hilly than yesterday, I knew my legs were going to be tested to their limits and I pushed those limits up every hill. On the way out, I was safe, but the way back was where the challenge was. At the turnaround my speedo said 42.2k, so I was able to use that figure to know exactly were the finish was. But I was dropped on the third sister, only 12k from the finish. On the next hill I rode my way back on. How ironic, dropped on a hill and then I use a hill to get back on. With 2k to go, I moved up to the front and as we entered the crit circuit entry road, I got second wheel behind the winner. Half way thru the crit circuit, I jumped and got 30mtrs on the bunch and held it right to the final straight were I got swamped.

End result was ST as the winner, so I only lost the time bonus, putting me at 4min40sec behind, moving up 2 places to 11th.

My first tour, I'm wrapped in that result.

Final classification

Please congratulate Amy on her podium placing

Men's B
47 155 CHUBB, alex (MB) +1:35:15
Alex has gone to find a hole to hide in as just about everything you can think of went wrong this weekend.

Woman's B
3 392 VESTY, Amy (WB) +2:04
Fantastic Riding Amy

Men's C
10 233 FOWLER, James (MC) +7:34
James slipped 4 places on today's stage, as a breakaway was successful

Master 1-3
21 258 BERRY, Simon (M123) +31:46
Great riding Simon, that's a tough grade, you done well mate

Master 4+
11 291 CLEMENT, Michael (M456) +4:40
21 318 LACEY, Mark (M456) +13:58
39 321 O'SULLIVAN, Peter (M456) +43:15
Mark and I both moved up 2 places each on the last day, Peter experienced his first taste of this type of racing

Sounds like a lot of torture to me, but AWESOME racing guys and gals!! It was great getting all the daily updates!

Stage 1 : Woke up with a cold so i hoped i would just finish. at the 2nd climb (at about the turn around point) the strong riders broke away. I was on the wrong wheel so I tried bridging the gap on the climb and ended up dragging another 5 riders with me for a good minute before dropping them. I ended up catching up with the last dropped rider at the turn around point and we decided to chase them down on the decent, we got within 30m but they were just too quick so we sat up and waited for the chasers about 200m behind to form a bunch. We pace lined pretty much the whole way back and ended up losing only 4 or so minutes to the lead rider. Was very happy with this result!

Stage 2: My first ever time trial! Without having one piece of equipment or technique looking vaguely like i was riding a time trial i was out to make sure i finished in a reasonable time. Within a minute of starting the rider behind me (+20sec) had whizzed passed me! The riders kept passing me as the stage went on and i hung in there to limit the damage to about 4mins on the group i had finished with in stage 1, about 8mins on the eventual winner (the guy who flew past me after 1 min). Pretty happy again with this result.

Stage 3: Woke up and could hardly breathe. I was also very dehydrated so i carried a hydration pack with me. The pace was on from the start and the the tour leader had already punctured and regathered before the 1st climb. After the first climb the leaders of the tour smashed up the pack. One guy from Turramurra turned and said we can either try to chase them on the next climb or sit back and have our own race. There was about 110kms to go and most people decided to work together and get home in a reasonable time. At the half way point a marshal said we were only 2mins down so we put the hammer down to try and close the gap. A few peeled off as the pace was tough especially on the climbs. At the feed station we were still only a few mins down. We kept pushing. There were some tired legs in the pack. We managed to pick up Alex as we went. At the 2nd last significant climb my legs gave way. Alex provided me with some words of encouragement and got me up the mountain as best he could. Just on the summit i got back on the tail but as the bunch descended my race was all but over as i didn't have the strength to keep up. Alex dropped off the bunch too and we rode the final 20kms at a gentle pace to the circuit. We put in a bit of a sprint finish, Alex beat me by a good 20m! i gave away about 20mins to the leaders, lost about 10mins in the final 20kms.

Very happy with the result, i basically entered to finish the race. I exceeded all expectations not only finishing, i didn't get last either! Thanks must go to Alex for helping me in that last 20kms. It was the worst pain i have felt for some time and he really did get me through it. Looking back i really enjoyed the racing even though it was probably a bit too hard for me. Can't wait for next year!

Amy on the Podium

Ow!, those stillettoes.....

is that girl in the stilettos a rider or a podium girl ??

Haha woah. What Stuart said!

Podium Girl.

Shame on all of you for not noticing Amy's new shoes

Shame on all of you for not noticing Amy's new shoes

Ahhh Mike, I think you might be having a lend of us there ...

I mean look at it - the way those shoes are sitting on the ground, they don't have road cleats on their sole. The only plausible explanation is that they are fitted with the recessed type mountain bike type cleats. And obviously Amy wouldn't be using mountain bike gear in a road race ... Come on, do you think we came down with the last shower?