Kelly Cycle Coaching asked Paddy Burt and Mark Kelly to report on the U19 mens State road race.

Paddy attacked on lap 1 and spent nearly 80km off the front in a solo break.  He was caught part way through the 3rd of 4 laps.
For a great selection of photos taken by Jim Morey, please click here:

Here is what Paddy had to say to our questions about the race:

Paddy Burt spent 80km off the front in a solo break

What was the Park Trent race plan?

The plan was pretty much to attack it hard from the start and try to get off the front so we didn’t have to work in the bunch and just to keep doing that one after the other.

What happened at the start?  Did Liam attack first?

A few guys had a dig at the start but nothing really became of anything then Liam attacked about 1.5 km into the race and got a small gap but Oscar Stevenson tried to jump away and go after him so we chased him down.  Once we got back onto his wheel he had caught Liam.

Then you attacked?  Did you get away first time?

When Liam came back it was just before the left hander off Shanley st so I waited till we got through the corner and attacked and got a gap fairly quickly.

What did you think about during your 2 laps plus away?  Did you feel terrible?  Hurting?  Did you eat and drink?  If so what?

At first I was just worried about getting a gap then I was thinking about trying to push that out. I was just trying to focus on keeping my rhythm and not going to hard especially up the hill. Having never ridden the course before I wasn’t to sure about how hard the hill was going to be especially the first time over. When I first attacked I didn’t feel to great but by the time I got around to the bottom of the hill the first time around I was feeling pretty good but the second time up I was hurting pretty bad. I ate a 2 or 3 muesli bars and a gel or two and I drank almost a full bottle of water while I was away.

Could you stay in the bunch at all when you got caught or were your legs cooked?

I got caught just before the first hill that shows up on the profile on the third lap and dropped straight away but the pace eased off coming down the other side of that and I was able to get back on. Then I tried to stay with the group for as long as possible but I got dropped at the bottom of the hill and then I just rolled around for the final lap.

Cresting the climb during the road race

Mark Kelly finishes 3rd in the road race

And here is Mark Kelly’s Report:

Who was chasing Paddy when he was away solo?

Well for starters know one was really chasing Paddy because Coops and Dave were just sitting on the front rolling along which was perfect because it allowed Paddy (the breakaway machine) to get a big gap and get out of sight. Once we got to the climb though the pace was heated up by a couple of riders which pretty much halved Paddy’s lead. The same thing happened on the next lap which got Paddy back within sight and the machine who was unfortunately running out of the go gas was caught within the next 10 km.

Was it fairly easy on your legs for the 3 laps he was away?  Did anyone try and bridge to Paddy?

Yes it was very easy thanks to Paddy, it allowed us to just sit on the main bunch and save our legs for later in the race. Dave and Gus tried with individual attacks to cross to Paddy just as he was getting caught but the were both shut down pretty quickly.

How did the final select group get away?

On the last time up the climb, there was a couple of attacks from the Kosdown riders which saw gaps open up and then by the top of the climb there was only four riders left in the front bunch.

What happened coming into the finish?

Well one of the 4 riders dropped his chain which left only 3 riders, 2 Kosdown and myself. I then decided to “have a crack” and work with the other two riders because I thought I could nearly beat both of them in a sprint (a rookie mistake). I then put to much effort in because I didn’t want the rider who dropped his chain to get back on because I knew he had a faster sprint than me.

As a result I was unable to go with the Kosdown riders when they started doing 1-2 attacks. I then could only manage 3rd as I couldn’t quite bridge across the gap that was opened up by the other riders attacks.