Maccie Carter finished 3rd in the U19 road champs, at Bendigo last weekend. The race was extremely hot with temperatures hovering around 37C.  The course included the ascent of Mt Alexander as well as many of the surrounding hills of Bendigo.

KCC asked Maccie about his race and here is what he told us.

1                     When did the first attack occur?  Km mark?

As soon as we got out of neutral 2.5-3km mark

2                     Did this cause everyone to react or did they just roll away?

I got onto James Fouche’s (eventual winner) wheel and he got brought back and then James attacked again and everyone just looked at Robert Stannard (who came 2nd) to react but nothing happened

3                     Was the first attack successful or lots of attacks til the break formed?

The first attack was successful, with single riders bridging across.

4                     How much did you drink in the race?

I went through 9 bottles, it was HOT

5                     And what did you eat?

I went through 1 bar and 4 gels

6                     Approx how many riders hit Mt Alexander in the peloton? How did you feel at this point?

There would about 35 riders at the base of Mount Alexander, I felt great but I really didn’t know how the others felt with a steep climb looming

7                     Were there many attacks up this climb?  Did you have trouble responding?

When we turned left onto the main road it was high tempo and we had started to drop riders, when we turned right onto Joseph Young Dve, where the gradient was steeper the attacks started coming. The bunch broke up very quickly once the pressure went on, I didn’t have any trouble in staying with the leading chase group, it was an extremely hard and fast tempo and still very hot despite the rain.

8                     How many riders went over the top with you?

There were 6 of us that went over the top together.

9                     Who was in the final break when you went through the feedzone for the final time?

There were 8 riders, with 1 from the original break still up the road, included in our group was Alastair Christie-Johnston (who managed to get back on the descent), Harry Sweeny, Robert Stannard and myself, with 12 km to go, we dropped 4 of the 8 riders on a few steep kickers.

10                 What happened at the finish?

With about 3km to go, we turned right on to Story’s road. Robert was at the front with a bit of foxing going on, but we were still rolling turns. It wasn’t until we could see the finish, about 800m out that my teammate (Alastair) attacked and hit the front. I was in 3rd wheel, Harry came around me to get onto Robert’s wheel who chasing Alastair’s, with about 150m to go I thought “if you want to win the bunch kick you have to go now”, as soon as I said that to myself Robert had already kicked and claimed 2nd I managed to hang on and finish in front of Alastair and Harry claimed 3rd.