Carley McKay, Sean McIver and Andrew Gent all participated in the 3 day Northern Combine tour over the Queens birthday long weekend.

Sean McIver won 3 stages as did Andrew Gent, whilst Carley won all 4 stages in the B grade women’s event.

Here are some interesting race reports from Carley and Andrew, explaining how their respective tours were won.

Northern Combine 3 day Tour Race Report – by Carley McKay

Having transferred to cycling at the start of the year, Helen and Bob have been working closely with me to develop my skills, fitness and tactical knowledge.  The 3 day tour provided a great opportunity to put what I have learnt into practice.  It was a very encouraging result to achieve four stage victories and take home the leaders jersey.  Below is a review of each stage.

Stage 1 was a 2 lap, 60 km road race leaving from Lancefield.  The women’s B grade was a relatively decent sized field of 24 riders.  As it was rather windy, it was important to be assertive of positioning within the bunch.  After conserving energy throughout the race, I felt fresh coming into the final climb and was able to get into a small break away of five riders.  Having practiced lots of sprints with Helen and Bob, I used these skills to secure the victory.

Stage 2 was a 6 km time trial.  The slightly downhill gradient and the strong tail wind set the scene for some fast times across all grades.  Coming from a rowing background, the distance was ideally suited to me as the time taken to complete the 6 km road time trial is very similar to the time taken to complete standard distance 2km rowing race.  I posted a time of just under 8 minutes which was the fastest time for the B grade women.

Stage 3 was a 71 km undulating out and back course leaving from Kyneton.  As I had a time margin from the previous two stages, I was in a position where I could sit within the bunch and allow others to work at the front.  I was involved in a few small breaks, but they were all eventually pulled back in by the main group.  Coming into the finish line there was 11 riders in the bunch sprint.  Despite not being in the best position, I was able to make my way to the front and sprint to win the stage.  It was great to hear Helen and Bob on the finish line.

Stage 4 was a 3 lap, 60 km road race.  The riders all seemed content to roll turns and keep the group together for the majority of the race.  On the final climb, three of us broke away.  I on sat the other riders’ wheels until stepping out just before the finish line to take the win.

I would like to thank Helen and Bob for the huge amount of time and energy that they have put into coaching me.  I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with such an experienced duo. Their organisation and enthusiasm has created the ideal environment for me to develop as a cyclist.  They have fostered my love of cycling and I am excited about what the future holds.

Also, congratulations to Andrew Gent on claiming the Men’s D grade GC.

Northern Combine 3 day Tour – by Andrew Gent

Stage 1 – Saturday midday
Stage 1 consisted of 2 x 30 km loops around Lancefield.  In the early kilometres, the pace was pretty leisurely at best, with most people quite happy to chat and just watch everyone else.  With a field of only 25 and no real ‘teams’, most guys were reluctant to push the pace.  The slow pace was also dictated to us by the commissaries car that was being driven by a volunteer and at times travelling at about 30 kph – with the rules not allowing us to pass it, we were stuck!!  The only time the pace really hotted up was when we got close to the KOM.  A few of the boys started getting excited and so I thought I might as well have a dip, pulling third on the KOM on the first lap. We caught up to the car and waved it on but to no avail.  The pace settled and soon after, the driver of the commissaries car changed and we were more into race mode.  Again nearing the KOM things hotted up and this time I took second.  It was about 5 clicks downhill to the finish and the boys from Brunswick started a train to lead out one of their guys.  With narrow roads not leaving much room for going wide, I managed to get around late and take second place on the stage.

Stage 2 – Sunday morning
A cool morning greeted us in Kyneton.  Once we worked out where registration and the start was (that was after the organisers had worked it out) we were off on a 6km ITT.  The course was pretty much a straight road, with a very slight downhill.  We were aided by a tail/cross wind so times were quick and I managed to avg approx 47.5kph and win the TT by 1.4 sec.  The ride itself felt strange –  I have never done a 6km TT before and the difficulty I found was getting warmed up enough before the race and maintaining it.  With the temp in the local area hovering around 5 degrees it wasn’t easy.  During the ride, no sooner had I got my breathing under control and felt comfortable then the finish line was in sight.  The ride was long enough to hurt and make me want to vomit.

Stage 3 – Sunday afternoon
After a couple of hours rest we were back on the bikes for a 71km out and back loop from Kyneton.  The ride was fairly undulating with the KOM coming after approx 20km.   It was a 6.5% gradient for 1.1km and I managed to take the points here quite easily.  Nothing was that clearly marked so being attentive was paramount as was doing as much research before the stages to ensure I had the correct information.  The pace was fairly cruisey and I was watching the boys from Brunswick as they held the leaders jersey.  It was on the last hill (5.7% for 1km) that I decided to turn the screws a little and only one other guy came with me.  The legs were feeling relatively good after this morning’s TT.  We had a gap of about 80m over a group of 12 riders by the top of the climb.  After a quick discussion we decided to wait for them and use them to battle into the last 12km which was all headwind.  As soon as the group caught us I noticed that the leader wasn’t with them so quickly went about organising everyone to roll turns and build a time gap.  There were a few guys hanging on the back not doing much and the concern was that they would roll me in the sprint at the end.  It was pretty clear that most guys were hurting toward the finish line so when the pace increased it created a few gaps and I was able to outsprint a group of 6 for the win.

Stage 4 – Monday
As we didn’t know the results of the TT until this morning, all riders were unsure of the GC.  After signing in for today’s stage I was told that I had taken over the lead by 27 seconds.  This was a good feeling but also changed my tactics somewhat.  I had thought during the previous night, of all the different scenarios that could occur so this was something I had planned for.  Although, you can do as much planning as you want and you never really know what the race will throw at you.  From the start, one of the Brunswick boys was down the road on an attack  – who was this guy??  He wasn’t on my hit list of nearest contenders but in the same instance, I couldn’t let him get a few minutes lead as he could have taken over the lead.  I tried to play it pretty cool and just let him go and eventually without too much hassle, he came back to the group.  There was another semi-attack with 3 guys up the road but with them lingering about 100m ahead I wasn’t too concerned.  It wasn’t until the second lap when a St Kilda rider belted down the road that I really had to do some work.  I let the gap grow until about 500or 600 metres until I felt I had to get on the front and do some work as the rest of the guys all seemed to be happy to sit around and watch me.  The commentary from some of the peleton backed this up and it gave me a feeling of being extremely vulnerable.  I didn’t want to chase every attack down today as I would be knackered but I also couldn’t let someone get minutes up the road.  I did a few calculations in my head (again, researching the course the night before helped a huge amount) knowing the climbs and their gradients along with my strengths I was happy to let this St Kilda guy stay out the front and fry until about 8km from the finish.  After doing most of the work to pull this guy back, it was surprising that there was no counter attack and so we went to the bottom of the last climb as a group.  I felt that I had been climbing well so went on the offensive and put some hurt into the other boys.  I got KOM points and went over the top with one other.  It was 2.5km downhill to the finish and we were joined by 3 others.  It was a fast finish and I was fast running out of gears but managed to time things perfectly and take the win on the last stage.

Overall it was a pretty successful weekend.  I took the overall win by 50 sec with 3 stage wins, as well as getting 2nd in the KOM.

I felt strong during the whole Tour, and I can definitely say that some recent training on uphill sprints and 2min uphill efforts have helped me significantly.  While I was only racing D grade in this Tour, it has given me a good insight tactically of how to race a Tour and while I can see the benefit of increasing my fitness, I can also see how important it is to have a strong team around you when you are on the road to chase down breaks and control the pace.