Kelly Cycle Coaching and ParkTrent rider, Nick White competed in the Bendigo 3 day tour over the weekend, finishing 3rd in B grade.

Nick’s older brother Liam White, finished 6th in A grade whilst ParkTrent riders, Hamish Haynes was 15th in B grade and Eloise Vaughan finished midfield in C grade, against a strong group of men.

Nick White’s report from his race is below:

Stage 1 (101km):

This was the first and longest stage which was a flat race. There were heavy cross-winds and it was put in the gutter for most of the race. There were many breakaway attempts but none were successful as no one wanted to lose any time. About 10km to go there was one breakaway of two people get away which got caught about 3km from the finish. With 1.5km to go someone attacked of the front and I followed, I overtook him as he exploded a bit over 1km from the finish. A mate from Ballarat followed me and due to him being tired he told me if I take him to the finish he will not out sprint me, which is what happened and including the time gap for winning (10 seconds) i went into stage two with a 22 second lead.

Stage 2 (12km):

Stage two was the first stage of a two stage day and was a time trial. This was a lumpy time trial which had a tail wind going out and a block head wind on the way back. I ended up coming out of this stage 44 seconds down off the leader, 13 seconds of second place and 2 seconds of third.

Stage 3 (75km):

This was the second stage of the second day and was a road race which had about 12km of a cross winds all up. An early break away got up the road which I did not get in so was stuck to try and chase as someone in it was a threat to my GC position. In the first 6km cross wind section the field split up and there was a small group of us chasing, after about 5km after we turned out of it the rest of the group behind caught up to us as we caught the break away. When we hit the second 6km crosswind section, we split the group up again and it was just a group of 10-15 riders left, it came down to a sprint and I came in 4^th.

Stage 4 (52km):

This was the first stage of the last day and was reasonably flat, this stage was reasonably easy for most part of it as everyone was saving their legs for the final stage which was hilly. No a lot really happened and it came down to a sprint, I opened up the sprint 300m out (which was way too early) and died just before the line and came in 5^th.

Stage 5 (65km)

This was the final stage which included most of the bad climbs on the countries/metros course. I decided to attack up all the climbs but was unsuccessful In getting rid of the people placed in front ( I was still in 4^th place going into this stage). From an early solo break away Hamish was had 1.30 minutes going into the first climb (the turd burger) which is the steepest climb of the countries/metros course. Hamish stayed with the lead group which was a group of 8 and was riding extremely well considering the hilly terrain. This came down to a sprint out of a group of 8 of us and due to it being the same finish as the stage 4 sprint I learnt from my earlier mistake of going to early and left my sprint to a lot later and ended up getting the stage win and due to the time bonus this put me in 3^rd place overall.

I would like to also congratulate my team mate, Hamish for his efforts in helping me over the weekend as he rode very strong and came out with a good result.