ParkTrent rider Cyrus Monk recently won Gippsland Tour over the Queens Birthday long weekend.  At 17 years old, this was a fantastic achievement by Cyrus.

KCC asked Cyrus to write about his tour.  Here is what he had to say.

Stage 1: 6km individual TT at Heyfield.

A downwind time trial made for fast times and small time gaps. I came in in second place in a time of 7:15 at 51km/h, 10 seconds behind the leader James Henry.

Stage 2: 3 laps of a 26km flat road circuit with a 2km hill in the middle, Heyfield.

Had decide I was going to go for Kom competition so took Kom points first time up and soon after early break of 3 riders established. Break got out to 1.5 minutes by the bottom of the climb on the second lap. At this point I surged off the front of the bunch with fellow Warragul U19 Jayden Manintveld in tow. At the mid point of the climb I was still going as hard as I could to break the race up and Jayden had lost the wheel. Just cresting the climb race leader James Henry, Satalyst Giant rider Kane Walker, African Wildlife Safaris rider Jarryd Jones, and 15 year old leongatha national track sprint champion Tom Mcfarlane had made it across to me.

We worked together down the other side of the hill to catch the break but as soon as the catch occurred the pace went off and the bunch was allowed to get back on about 10km down the road. Approaching the base of the hill on the final lap a group of five riders were allowed to roll off the front and had approximately 30 seconds at the base of the climb. This time up I launched several attacks to try and break up the field but by this stage I didn’t have much left in the tank and no one else had any desire to keep the pace on so after catching the break the bunch stayed together with just a few riders dislodged. In the final sprint I positioned myself on Tom’s wheel knowing he would be one of the fastest but with around 300m to go James Henry road up next to me with the intention of boxing me in and stopping me from picking up any time bonuses, ultimately he succeeded and I was forced to dart up the inside only to find even less space and settle for fifth position and a bonus 2 seconds on GC with Jarryd winning the bunch kick over Kane and Tom. This put me 8 seconds behind James and 3 seconds behind Kane coming into the third stage.

Stage 3: 2 laps of a hilly 38km circuit at Leongatha.

This was without doubt the toughest stage of the tour so I knew if I was going to win the GC I’d have to win it today. The stage features a 6km, 4% hill in the middle known infamously as the Mardan climb. After testing my climbing legs they day before I was looking forward to this hill. Undulating journey out to the climb was filled with opportunistic attacks by a range of riders trying to give themselves a head start with a group of five including Jarryd Jones taking a 20 second lead around the corner signalling the start of the climb. I decided to test the legs of myself and other riders in the bunch by pushing the pace up the steeper early sections of the climb which resulted in the peloton quickly catching the break and me quickly losing motivation to do any further pace making.

Halfway up the climb on a flatter section two club members were allowed to roll off the front and had a 30 second lead at the Kom, I pushed the pace a little in the last kilometre of the hill just to have a look at the effect it had on the others as I drifted back through the peloton after taking the remaining Kom points, I noticed James was not looking as good as he was yesterday. The bunch rolled along for the next half lap to the start/finish with James and Jarryd doing most of the work on the front, the two man break had a 1.5 minute lead at the finish line, I was not worried as I knew the course was a tough one to stay away on. Shortly after hearing this gap Jarryd rolled back and ‘suggested’ (no quotes will be used) that Kane and myself, who had been sitting on the back the previous 10km, contribute to the pace making. I had no desire to catch the break so soon but thought it better to oblige than to make enemies in a race with no teams involved to start with.

After 5km of chasing from Kane, Jayden and myself the break came back into sight and it was apparent that one had ridden away from the other, I stopped working as I realised they were not going to stay away much longer. I positioned myself on the front during the decent before he climb to stay out of trouble and make sure no one rolled off the front. At the base of the climb there was one man (a reasonable climber) still up the road with a 30 second lead. At this stage I had decided I was giving it everything from the bottom and not looking back, which I did. I attacked at the base of the climb with James and Jarryd on my wheel. Initially they let me go which was the worse case scenario as I knew they would work together with the rest of the bunch later on to chase me down.

I continued to push the pace through the middle flat section and caught the rider who had now been riding solo on the front for 15km and made a point of the effect this had on his legs as I asked him to give me some help. Shortly after on the next rise in gradient I looked over my shoulder to see that he had lost contact but luckily the bunch was well out of sight, I carried a one minute lead through the Kom. From here on it was simple, one man against a bunch of fifteen, fortunately I had the head start. I new I would lose time on the long decent so made the effort to push up the few little bumps before the drop back down to Leongatha.

After this stage I didn’t look back until around three kilometres to go to see that I still had around a thirty second gap, however from here it was a tough uphill drag to the finish and I knew they would be going a lot quicker than I was. I managed to grovel over the final hill and came around the final corner to put out a pathetic sprint for the line in an uphill finish with nothing left in the tank. Shortly after crossing the line and falling in a heap on the side of the road I looked around to see a group of 3 including Kane a few seconds in front of the rest of the bunch crossing the line. In the end I one by 9 seconds after spending 25km off the front by myself. Due to the extra 10 second time bonus and my rivals failing to feature in the bunch sprint due to their efforts in chasing I now carried a 12 second lead over Kane and 13 seconds over James into the final stage.

Stage 4: 4 laps of a pan flat 20km circuit at Yinnar.

To win the GC from here all that was required was to finish in the bunch along with all my closest rivals given the time bonus for winning was 10 seconds, easier said than done. I came prepared to be chasing down attacks all day and my presumptions were not untrue. The race was very cruisy for the first half lap while people tried to get their legs working again after yesterday’s sufferfest.

At this stage I was leading the Kom competition and still wanted the prize money and glory of getting this in case my GC hopes fell through so I put in a surge to take the first Kom. Shortly after this, as I expected, Jarryd put in a series of attacks which I was forced to chase down given he was only 30 seconds behind me on GC. On the 4th attack I was starting to tire decided to let him stay out front for the while in the hope that he would do himself more harm than good. This plan was ruined when Jayden jumped across shorty after. The next two and a half laps consisted of me and two Latrobe Valley members keeping the break in contact while the rest of the bunch got an armchair ride in flat, windless conditions.

At one point after I’d put in a long turn on the only uphill section of the course and we’d got within 15 seconds one of the LCCC members, Danny Gafa, who I have raced with and been beaten by for many years (who also gives Brenton Jones a run for his money in a sprint) told me not to catch them this early or the others would attack me, this proved to be useful advice as we let the break back out to around a minute at the start of the third lap. By this stage I had burnt a lot of matches over the last three days of racing and it was lucky a few other club members helped a little with the chase, how ever the gap still remained. After the Kom on the third lap Gafa and I decided it was time to reel the break in and by the start of the last lap it was all back together.

Another break of non GC contenders rolled off the front on the last lap but this time Kane helped myself and Gafa keep it within striking distance. In the final run into the line I jumped on the wheel of a fellow club member who launched from 800m out just as we were catching the break. I went with this knowing that as long as there were no time gaps I would win the GC. Unfortunately he ran out of puff 300m from the line so I was sat on the front from a long way out and rolled by Tom who took out the win followed by James with me coming in third and taking out the GC.

Thanks to Bob and Helen for the Park Trent opportunity (and a special thanks to all our ParkTrent sponsors) which is helping my racing a lot even at the club level! Really pleased with how everything’s going and looking forward to maybe having a crack at racing against these guys mentioned in this report in the future.