Silver Man

Words from a very proud Dad.

Dylan's race in the State Title's in the U/19 Mens Road Race; 7 laps of a 17km course to cover 119km.

Before the start Dylan said he was going to make the race hard for all. From 2km into the race Dylan Newberry, Fraser Coast Cycling Club, went off the front and gained 40 seconds. At the 3km mark Dylan jumped out of the bunch and sprinted to bridge the gap. With his heart rate hovering at 190bpm he bridged and after 1km settled in to work and put pressure on the chasers. And so the "two Dylan's" proceeded to ride hard. After Lap 1 the gap was 55second. Once we got over the shock of him being in the break from the go, we started get regular time gaps and at lap 2 they had lost time and were at 45 seconds. The chasing bunch of ten had started to chase but the presure on them was too much and the start of lap 3 saw the boys back on the pace and had lengthened the gap to 1min:20seconds, they had settled in to the task at hand. Meanwhile the chase bunch splintered and had only 6 left to chase.

By lap 4 they had stretched the gap to 2minutes and were riding as if it was a two man time trial. End of lap 4 the gap was 3 minutes. The chasers where fading and had dropped to three. At this stage the commissaire had pulled all but 6 riders out of the race as the pace had broken the race apart. So with two v's three chasers the two of them went further away adding time each lap and at the finish had put over 6 minutes onto the others. With 5km to go the race result was a race of two and Dylan Newberry, last years silver medallist and a year older, put in a surge and dropped Dylan, but he pushed on and finished about a minute down but 5 minutes up on third place.
A silver medal in his first ever U/19 race. A good end to his first season as a cyclist.

Well done to Catriona Newell on her great ride as well for silver.

Graeme

 

Vman Delivers

Well the juggernaut that is 'Vman' keeps building momentum with each race. Stepping up to B Grade again (there will be no more C Grade) this week for his first Crit and low and behold he pulls off a win! While some may still have a hard time accepting he can actually ride pretty quickly,  you just have to look at the weight he's shed and the amount of riding the man does. With the Club Champs not far away you would have to think he's a contender (he does!), so long as he can drag himself over the hill each lap and get over the disappointment of not being on the 7 news coverage of the crit ;)

Change is in the air....

Well I guess it had to happen eventually but we have changed brew shops....a shock I know but a change is as good as a holiday. Where have we moved to? Gillies cafe is the new weekend haunt where it just so happens they have Sexie Coffee, very tasty, so is the $1.60 a mug less!

Not big turnouts over the weekend but of special mention is Steve and Marty. Marty seems to have a big motor made very evident by the fact the chain never leaves the big ring, never! And a special mention for Steve because he has to ride with him :) Another one to watch is the ever improving Daryl, he just gets on with the job at hand with no fuss, and doesn't he make going up look easy!

6am starts for Saturdays ride won't be too far away now with the sun getting up that little bit earlier each day, stay tuned for the change date. To add to this M1 longer rides aren't far away either so we might run into them as well as an option for those that want to experience suffering on a whole new level :)

Brass Monkey Weather

It's funny how the cold weather knocks around the size of the group that turns up for weekend rides.  When looking at it the vast majority of our group are MAMIL's (middle aged men in Lycra) and with middle age comes great wisdom; generally enough to know that when it's bloody cold like this morning a sleep in is the smarter option. Seems some of us are slow learners because a few brave souls headed down Old Tannum road with the temperature reading just over 4 degrees for the Sunday loop. To say it was cold is an understatement. For me riding in that sort of cold is just plain miserable and if long enough painful (yes I know I'm soft).
Anyway to cut a short story shorter we only did half the ride before seeking shelter at the brew shop. Dylan felt the cold the most I think and made anyone looking at him even colder because he looked frozen.
Yesterdays ride was a much nicer ride with the temperature pretty warm (for winter) and the pace very firm with Michael needing to be back by 8:30. At the Dam Michael left us and Daryl, Graeme and I had a quick chat in the fog before heading back at a much nicer pace. The weather was all but perfect as the sun beamed down on us as we cruised along having a great old chat, the birds were chirping, the brooks were babbling, the angles were singing, it was perfect, then we spotted Marty and Steve.........As they caught up I couldn't help but notice they were sweating (why would you ride so hard as to sweat I don't know) and pretty much from that point on the Gentleman's pace we had been enjoying went out the window. The brew shop was a welcome site :)

Weekend Wrap

Well it would seem that the combination of cold weather and strong winds resulted in the option of staying in a warm comfy bed the preferred option of many this weekend, out here in any case. This mornings ride was on from the get go with Scotty his usual self setting a scorching pace. There was only Dylan, Scotty and myself to start with in the first group with Graeme and Schalk riding gentleman's pace. I was more than happy to hold wheels while those 2 set the pace I would like to point out :)
On the way back Scotty felt the pinch on Old Tannum Hill and dropped back a little, once he was back on off we went again. In the Ranch we picked up Marty. Dylan cracked the whip a bit harder through town only to drop the old fella again on the hills in Boyne. Once he was on again we headed up towards the Smelter up that horrible never ending grind; I'm sure you all know the one. Not sure where we lost Scotty as I was too scared to look as Dylan dragged Marty and I along at almost 40 up the hill. Once past the first roundabout he cranks it over 40 and keeps pushing. Past the next roundabout and he cranks it up another notch to over 50 then at the bottom of the decline he gets out of the saddle and goes for it. Well by then I had blood coming out of my eyes and ears but I still had a crack, it lasted about 5 seconds and they were starting to pull away so I sat up and watched Marty scramble to keep Dylan's wheel as they disappeared up the road. That was no mean feat Marty so I take my hat off to you. The ride ended at the brew shop for most with only a few doing some extra k's after a bit of a chat. If you want a good fast ride Sunday is the day for you, likewise there's always a group that rides gentleman's pace as well, it is after all Sunday morning.

RCC 2012 ITT CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS

Saturday saw the Rocky Club TT Championships held out at Alton Downs. The weather was kind with a swirling wind that seemed to move around during the race and a very warm temperature. Many of the fast men were away but Lew and Jay were still in A Grade to battle it out for the Club Champion. Jay rode very strongly and averaged just over 42khr for the distance, not bad considering there are 3 turnarounds. Lew was nowhere near his best and cruised to the line towards the end.Vaughn was put up to B grade and was secretly chuffed even though he denied it and he performed admirably to claim 2nd position in B Grade. The Vman has come a long way in so many ways over the last year, well done Vman, or should that be Dman???

Farewell Guy

Well just one week after we lost Michelle to the big smoke of Brisbane, Guy had his last ride with us on Thursday night. Guy improved a lot since his first few rides here in sunny Tannum and it was none more so evident then at Noosa this year where he did his first hundy; you couldn't stop him smiling. Guy is the sort of character that we will remember just like Earle Chin, another bloke that talked funny and also came from a place you can only ride outside for 5 months of the year. Thanks for the memories Guy and we look forward to seeing the new strip on top of some famous mountains in the not to distant future :)