My ToB was from the middle of the pack, rather than as someone who was gunning for the top, so of course, I had to make sure I looked the part. The bike was polished, the light wheels were on, and the assos, capo and lazer apparel was donned with the appropriate ceremony. In all seriousness, though, this being my second time round, I realised from experience that getting organised and knowing what you wanted to do at various stages was important to having a satisfying time. At my last attempt 5 years ago, I managed to get dropped by the bunch prior to leaving Bright after getting caught behind a crash, and spent a lonely couple of hours soloing into a headwind and then grovelling up Tawonga. The then third stage up Buffalo had me dropping a chain on the short hill prior to the start of the main climb and again losing the main bunch. Not very satisfying. At all.
So this time round, it was about riding a good race in the bunch, not wasting too much energy and getting to the bottom of the climbs in reasonable shape so I can then be dropped (which was always going to happen- c’mon, many of my competitors were 15 years younger than me and weighed about as much as one of my legs). The pace was pretty furious heading to ovens, and I remember looking down and seeing 58km/hr on my speedo at one point. Being in the middle of 120 people made it feel pretty crazy at that point. there was some serious work being done at the front by some guys who were either working for others or were just stupid with energy to burn. There really was no reason to do any work on the front if you didn’t have a reason to, there were so many others doing it. One bloke went up the road a bit on Rosewhite, and the rest of the group tempo’d it with about 7-8 riders preventing any silly moves off the front (For which I was grateful). Then it was down the Kiewa valley towards Tawonga, which was much lumpier than I remembered, but we were working pretty hard at it. My goose was fairly cooked by the time I reached Tawonga with the group, and having grabbed a full bottle from the feed zone, I pushed up the hill at somewhat less than 100% so I wasn’t too stuffed for the TT. I ended up about 8 mins down on the fastest. The descent was great, but it isn’t hard to see why it claims so many when it is raced.
The TT was in the afternoon, and I retrieved my widely travelled TT helmet for a brief period to accompany me on what was an OK TT on a pretty hard course. Every time I got some rhythm, the next short hill hit and took out all my momentum. I haven’t done a TT for about 2 years, so the 27th I got was probably about fair enough. I just got pipped on the line by my 20 second man. I didn’t even know he was there!
The third stage up Mt Hotham loomed on Sunday morning, and it was with significantly less vim and vigour that I got out of bed and made my way to the line. I was a little later than I had planned, and whilst I heard whisperings, it wasn’t until we were at Harrietville after what was a fairly pleasant 25km of jostling within the group, that I knew for sure that we were finishing prior to the start of the final 10km of Hotham (the steep bit). I can’t say I was that disappointed, as it was not going to advantage me in anyway if we went the whole distance, but there was a certain feeling of something missing. Still, I am glad we didn’t have to contend with 80km/hr winds across those saddles at the top. On the climb proper, the guys who were going to win the stage faded into the distance pretty early in the piece, leaving a bunch of us who split, reformed, split and reformed a number of times, with a few dropping off the back, especially when the Meg hit. I was struggling a bit after this, but held on, and when we got to the false flat, it was rolling turns for a while until we lost interest and followed whoever was looking strongest at the time, trying to hide from the side/head wind. With a final oomph, we were upon the line, and it was all over. After standing about for a while, basking in the glory of making up the numbers, I was getting a bit cold, so I donned my jacket and headed on down the mountain- definitely a highlight of the day.
It was great to see Steve and Christine, JB (and his curly haired girls), Mick, and the Alpine local, JayWoo, and part-time local, Aaron. Thanks also to Lisa for continuing the TT helmet’s brush with glory. And finally, thanks to the rider in the BeCoz kit who gave me a push at a crucial moment to stop me from losing contact with our group.
