Kelly Cycle Coaching cyclist and Essendon SKODA team member, Liam White finished 2nd in the Phillip Island Grand Prix race yesterday.  This race forms part of the Victorian Road Series held throughout 2013.  The Essendon SKODA team also finished 2nd in the Team competition. Essendon SKODA riders included Camden Bush 20th, Liam White 2nd, Nick Bien, James Cummings and Alex Woff.  Ed Smith raced in the A Grade event as part of a Carnegie club outfit, and pleasantly surprised himself by finishing in the bunch kick.

Liam finishes 2nd

Adding to KCC’s success, David Randall picked up the prize for the fastest U23 Carnegie rider, even though he’s only U19.  A great effort by David, a member of the Park Trent cycling team.  The other Park Trent riders included Drew Morey, Pierce Connor, Sean McIver and Jayden Cooper.   The Park Trent team finished 9th overall out of 22 teams.  This is a great result, given the average age of these riders is 16.

Liz Hall had a great race in the Women’s A grade event, whilst a number of KCC riders also competed in the afternoon club racing, including Ben Andrews, Paddy Burt, Adam Paykel-Samuel and George Sarris.

Some great photos by Jim Morey.  All lead vehicles for the race were provided, courtesy of Essendon SKODA.  Our thanks to go them for their ongoing support of our Essendon SKODA team.

Here are a number of reports from various athletes:

Essendon SKODA Report: by Nick Bien

Phillip Island GP Teams Race

In stark contrast to the conditions faced in last year’s Phillip Island GP, the sun was out, the wind was minimal and legs were prepared for whatever havoc the competition could whip up. This year it came in the form of a crash marred first hour on the course, with much of the 100+ strong bunch coming down or being caught up. Fortunately, following plans to keep a tentative eye at the front of the bunch, none of the Skoda team (Liam, Alex, James and Cam) were involved.

Attacks were in ample supply as many riders tried to jump off the front of the group, but with its sheer size and the presence of many strong teams most moves were reeled in within a lap or two. A small group of 4 riders did manage to work an advantage and kept away long enough to take out most of the sprint and KOM points. Alex and Liam did strong work to keep this move within a close distance and with the realisation that the race would most likely come down to a bunch kick, the decision was made to focus on a lead out for our fast men, James and Liam.

In the closing two laps it seemed as though the nerves from earlier on in the race were back, riders were fighting for position and trying to form lead outs, taking risks and getting the adrenaline pumping. Over the KOM for the second last time and a Kosdown rider attacked. Seeing the opportunity from a slight lull in the field I kicked across the top of the climb to try get across to the lone leader’s wheel. Shortly after, the inevitable sound of 100 bikes flying down the home straight had the entire peloton back together. Slotting back in near the front, I could see the unmistakable calves of Whitey hovering near the pointy end of the race and made it my goal to get him in the best position possible. From the bottom of the uphill section for the final time, Liam and I managed to weave and muscle our way into reasonable position but the hard work was ahead. A Croyden Cycles train of 5 riders were lined out after the downhill corner on the inside line and it was from here that I put in 600m of effort to deliver Liam reasonably close to the finish. Although a fair bit short of a comfortable sprinting distance, Whitey managed to follow some early kicks for the line and pick up second to Shannon Johnson from Chartermason Drapac.

All in all the day was a great success for the team, with all riders showing selflessness in working for each other as well as improving ability to be competitive at this higher level of racing. Too cap things off we finished the day as the second best team, an indication of the boys hard work.

A Grade Women’s Report: by Liz Hall

After wiping out the second half of last year with various surgery and rehab episodes I’ve been working my way back to fitness in 2013.  Having fallen off the peloton in each of the last three Women’s A grade Victorian Road Series (VRS) races, I was hoping to be able to ride a smart race and finish in the bunch for a change.

The Phillip Island course is 4.5km hot mix motor racing circuit with a 300m 4.6% climb commencing at the half way mark (http://www.cyclingprofiles.com.au/HTM/CSV2011/CSV_PhillipIsland.htm).

In contrast to last year, this year’s race conditions were pleasant.  It was a relatively balmy 22 degrees out on course and whilst it was typically windy, we faced an unusual N/NW wind, making for a fast finishing straight.

The raced featured 3 QOMs, one every 4 laps with the first on lap 3, and similarly 3 sprint primes, starting on lap 4.  This guaranteed a race full of surging and attacks.

All the women (A and B grades) started together, 35 women in 10 teams.  The peloton was a little skittish for the first couple of laps before the first QOM when things started to settle down and the pace started to lift.

And lift it did as Pippa Savage (Total Rush) stomped over the first QOM ahead of Nicole Whitburn (LIV/Giant) and Penny Brown (Total Rush).  Pippa continued to dominate on the following two QOMs taking maximum points for the day.

Carly Williams (LIV/Giant) took out the first intermediate sprint by outsprinting breakaway companion Ruby Grieg-Hurtig (Composite E).  Both were then reabsorbed into the peloton.  The spoils of the following two intermediate sprints were shared by Nicole Whitburn (LIV/Giant) and Lauretta Hanson (Building Champion Squad), the in form sprinters of the day.  Nicole took the overall sprint points classification.

Whilst not personally contesting the QOMs or intermediate sprints, my strategy for these was to move up and stay vigilant, ready to jump on any momentum-induced attack.  I also worked to position myself well in the pack and conserve my energy to cover attacks as necessary, which I did a couple of times mid race.  Staying out of the crosswinds meant moving from one side of the peloton to the other, not always possible on the twisty part of the course.  However I felt I able to protect myself well for the longer straights.

I also wanted to ensure that if there was a split in the pack I was in the front half.  A split formed after my team launched a series of attacks with two laps to go.  I was positioning myself near the front in preparation for an attack of my own and this meant that I made the split in the front group with my teammate Penny.  Two of my teammates managed to bridge back to our group.  Unfortunately, with a lap and a half to go the commissaires neutralised our group to allow the men’s race to (slowly) overtake.  This meant that the chasing groups re-joined and we were ‘gruppo compatto’ for the bell lap.

The sprint finish was fast and furious assisted by the tail wind.  The bunch split by a few seconds on the descent and I was in the second group of 10, crossing the line 5 seconds behind the front group.

I was relieved to finish comfortably in the peloton.  In fact, upon reflection I probably had a few more matches I could have burnt during the course of the race.  Whilst that is a comforting feeling given my recent race experiences, it was also possibly an opportunity wasted.

Congratulations to Lauretta Hanson who outsprinted Nicole Whitburn for line honours. LIV/Giant won the team classification in a closely fought contest.

Looking forward to the next VRS race!

Liz Hall

11 May 2013

Park Trent Cycling Team Report

Q: David Randall:  What happened in the final lap and what result did you achieve for Park Trent?

In the final lap I moved through the pack trying to find gaps to move into the right spot for the sprint.  With 100 guys still left it was extremely tight and over the hill with 1.3km left I was near the front but, two corners later, I was pushed off the road and had to recover in the final kilometre to find my teammate Sean McIver’s wheel and have a go at a result.  I eventually finished 15^th with a late charge that would likely have put me into the top 10 had the finish been 50 metres down the road.  I was really happy with my own result and that of the team, with Park Trent Properties Cycling Team finishing 9^th out of the 22 teams on the day!

David waits for his award

Francis presents David with fastest U23 Carnegie rider

Q: Sean McIver:  There was a crash involving two of your team mates, Jayden and Pierce on lap two.  Where you also involved and if not, how do you avoid crashing?

When the crash happened all I saw was carnage as heaps of riders went down in front of me. I ended up having to ride over the carnage, I knew that if I didn’t react I would come off for sure so I decided a bunnyhop would be my best option. I jumped over the first rider and ran over a few bikes in the process but I eventually got through and chased back.

After the earlier crashes a lot of riders were very edgy during the last lap, as we entered the first corner everyone was on brakes and all over the shop, this didn’t change for the rest of the lap as I along with the Park Trent boys positioned ourselves as best we could to contend in a quick finish.

Q: Jayden Cooper: You ended up crashing on lap 2?  Can you tell us what happened and what you learnt from your race today?

Today I was involved in a crash!.  So what happened?  Well I think that a rider decided he was on a motorbike and went down the motorbike runoff, then he realized that he wasn’t and decided to jump back in, so he jump over the famous Philip island rumble strip and jumped into the way of the peletion and played dominos with me and many others in the group, resulting in many of us hitting the deck. There wasn’t much damage to me just cuts and bruises but my helmet split in two so I guess I must have hit hard.  But the thing that hurt the most was that I split my new carbon wheel into two. So what did I learn today……….. that the hardest thing about bike ridding is the bitumen.

Q: Drew Morey: What happened in your race today and how did the Park Trent riders help each other as a team?

In the race, I got caught behind several crashes, and had to use lots of energy to get back into the bunch. Once the race settled down, the team worked well together in pair moving up the bunch with each other. This made it much easier for us because we could help our team mate’s move up easily. The last lap of the race was very frantic, and holding position proved difficult. I tried to finish as high up as I could to help the team finish 9th. The race would have been much harder for all of us if we didn’t share the load of maintaining position and moving up when needed.