Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail Tour

A few weeks ago I repaired my touring bike, the Surly Long Haul Trucker (which I call Florey), which is the bike I rode 9000 km around Europe for 3.5 months a few years ago. I replaced her brake pads and gave her a general tune up and having done this, I was keen to head out on some more bike tours since I haven't done any for a while.

I seem to be lacking in friends who are willing to come along on bike tours with me, but a mate Shane was up for it. I figured the Queens Birthday long weekend would be ideal for heading out on a tour, and I was thinking of doing something like catching the train out to Wangaratta then riding back via the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail to Myrtleford, turning off to Lake Buffalo, then across and down through Alexandra, Buxton Marysville and back to Melbourne. However, it would have been about 350 km, which is a fairly large distance to cover over three days.

Shane had to be back in the lab on Monday (the Queens Birthday) to run some more experiments, so we decided we'd just do a little two-day tour, and thought the Lilydale-Warburton trail would be a good one to check out since it was close to Melbourne and fairly flat/easy.

So I woke up early on Saturday morning (8:30 am), threw some gear into the panniers, and Shane rode over to meet me.

About to embark on our two day rail-trail tour: me with my top half looking like a road/racing cyclist, and bottom half looking like a tourer/soldier; Shane dressed in normal clothes, because that's all you need for touring!

We then headed off at about 10:30 am to the Northcote Plaza for food supplies for the weekend. Ah, it was good to be touring again! 

We were only 500 metres down the road from home, just turning into the plaza car-park, when Shane's tyre suddenly exploded! After the initial shock of the loud bang, I had to laugh. Lesson 1: always carry a spare tube (Shane had one, but I didn't) and fit your touring bike with quality tyres (I had Schwalbe Marathons on but Shane just had the stock tyres; his good tyres were on his other touring bike).

The puncture in Shane's tyre; it appeared that the tyre had somehow slipped off the rim.

Shane replacing his tube at All Nations Park, Northcote.

I left Shane to fix it while I ducked back home to get my toothbrush which I realised I'd forgotten, then we reconvened at the Coles. We just needed to buy for dinner (a packet of pasta and a jar of sauce) and breakfast (oats), and some tuna tempters (I had the rest of lunch covered with some tomatoes, home-grown lettuce and dumpstered bread and cake already packed).

We decided it would be prudent to just ride to Richmond Station and catch the train out to Lilydale rather than fighting the city traffic for a couple of hours to get there. We got to the station 4 minutes before the train left - perfect timing!

The touring bikes on the train to Lilydale.

I hadn't been on the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail before but I figured it'd be easy to find and follow. I also had the MotionX-GPS App with some pre-downloaded map tiles on my phone, as well as the dynohub, cache battery and E-Werk set-up for charging my iPhone as I was riding, which I'd used throughout my Europe tour.

It was a beautiful day for a cruisy tour, the sun was shining and there was no wind, although it was a little cold. The cool temperature wasn't an issue because once you start riding, you quickly warm up, and need to start stripping off layers of clothing. And that provided another lesson for Shane who will be embarking on an ~18 month tour riding from Melbourne to London later this year. Lesson 2: wear layers of clothing such that they are easy to take off and put back on, in order to easily regulate your body temperature.

The trail itself is 40 kilometres with a well-maintained fine gravel surface. The scenery was pleasant and as one would expect, being a rail-trail, the gradients were gentle. I was also quite surprised by how well-used the trail was, with plenty of other touring cyclists, recreational cyclists, joggers and walkers. I was thinking how great it was that the locals had this asset there to use.

Lunch: tuna, tomato and lettuce sourdough sandwiches, half way along the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail.

Enjoying lunch in the sunshine, we watched other trail-users pass by. There was a group of oldies passing on their lightly-laden touring bikes, and seeing my bike loaded with four panniers and a tent, sleeping bag and self-inflating mat on top of the rear rack, one of them called out "where's the kitchen sink?!" Good one, mate. I chuckled but couldn't think of a come-back before he was out of earshot. 

Just as we were about to head off, another bloke rolled in on a peculiar looking bike - and I say rolled, because he wasn't pedaling! The peculiar bike also came with a peculiar bloke; he pulled up beside us, beer can in hand, and started chatting, asking us where we were headed. He suggested a place which he knew about where we could camp, near a skate-park but before a pub - if we went past the pub then we'd gone too far! And he reckoned the pub put on a good meal too, so we could eat dinner there. 

We asked him about his unusual bike and he proceeded to inform us it was an electric assisted/powered bicycle, and that one battery could carry him about 40 km, and at speeds of up to 60 km/h on the flats. He explained he was at his turn-around point, so that he could get back home before the battery went flat, so that he didn't have to pedal, because he reckoned he never used the peddles, and had no desire to! He told us a few stories about how he would ride it to the pub and take his charger to charge the battery up while he enjoyed a meal and a few beers. He was a friendly bloke, but odd. We bode him farewell and continued on our merry way.

Me on the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail near Woori Yallock.

View from the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail near Woori Yallock.

Shane on the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail near Woori Yallock.

Since we hadn't left Melbourne until late morning, it was nearing dusk by the time we reached Warburton. We stopped in at the IGA for some milk for breakfast, and discussed what our next move would be. I hadn't planned where we would ride from Warburton; we could head in any direction we pleased, we just needed to find somewhere to camp, which I didn't expect to be difficult. We consulted the map on the iPhone and decided to take another bike trail marked on the map which could be accessed from the Donna Buang Road or Yuonga Road. 

A screen-shot of the MotionX-GPS Maps, a very nifty app because the map tiles can be pre-downloaded and the maps show terrain and bike trails. The Lilydale-Warburton Trail is in light blue and the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail is in dark blue.

I've climbed Donna Buang several times on a racing bike, but not on a touring bike. You really notice any sort of gradient when you're loaded up, and it was good little climb up to the trail, which upon reaching, we discovered was called the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail.

Getting onto the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail from Yuonga Road.

The view looking south towards Warburton from the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail.

I didn't previously realise there was an O'Shannassy Aqueduct, even though I work for Melbourne Water. I figured it would be a good opportunity to learn a bit about the history of the company I work for. I later discovered that the aqueduct had been decommissioned in 1997, and I'm guessing the trail wouldn't have been open to the public if the aqueduct was still in use. The trail was in quite good condition, the scenery was splendid with ferns and towering eucalyptus trees, and the gradients were even gentler than the rail trail (which you would expect being an aqueduct trail), except for a few short sections where the trail was quite steep where they needed a siphon to cross a deep/difficult gully.

The O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail just after crossing the Donna Buang Road.

A view from the O'Shannessy Aqueduct Trail.

Since it was getting dark, we were keeping an eye out for an ideal spot to pitch the tent. We found the perfect spot with just enough daylight left to unpack, set up the tent and gather some firewood. However, everything was quite damp and I anticipated that it would be difficult to light. The fire wasn't necessary for cooking the pasta since I had the Trangia with me, but it would be nice for some warmth, and what is camping if you don't have a camp fire?
I was pretty sure the matches were inside the Trangia. My sister Rosanna had borrowed it a few weeks previous for a hike in Wilson's Promontory, so I hoped they were still there. It turned out they were, and I took them out to see if the we could ignite the tinder; I struck the match and the head crumbled; there wasn't even a spark! I tried another couple and the same thing happened each time. It appeared the matches were wet, Rosie must have packed the Trangia away without drying it :( Lesson 3: ensure you have a source of ignition for lighting a fire, such as dry matches, water-proof matches, a butane lighter, a flint and steel, etc. I took a mental note to pack a lighter inside the Trangia before the next trip.

Presently though, it had gotten dark, we were getting cold and we were quite hungry, and without fire we would have neither warmth nor dinner! We had the bright idea of pocking a few matches each to see if our body heat could dry them out. I tried again a few minutes later, but the same thing happened. I waited another five minutes and eureka! I successfully lit a match. I'm not sure I'd ever been so happy to have lit a match! We had the metho in the Trangia ready to go so that it was easy to ignite. We decided to cook dinner first and work on getting the fire going later.

We cooked up and ate the simple dish of pasta and sauce with no further issues. Then we used the burner in the Trangia to assist with lighting the fire. Even with the metho burning under the pile of leaves/twigs we'd set up, it took some effort to get it started, and we couldn't have done it without that burner. Ah, Trangia's are great! So versatile.

Our little campfire, with the Trangia pots drying around it.

The good thing about camping is that it's easy to get to bed early (something I generally struggle with). Unfortunately though my old synthetic-filled Roman sleeping bag wasn't up to the challenge of the cold night, and I couldn't sleep properly so I was very tired when we got up at about 9 am.

The campsite

The campsite.

O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail: where we'd come from

O'Shannassy Trail: where we were headed.

Breakfast by the campfire.

Breakfast by the campfire.

After breakfast we packed up and departed.

Riding the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail

The O'Shannassy Aqueduct, decommissioned in 1997. It was an impressive  engineering feat, a couple of metres deep and running for some 80 km from the O'Shannassy River to Surrey Hills Reservoir (although the trail only runs for 30 km).

O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail: where we'd come from, and in the distance a group of hikers.

O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail near the O'Shannassy River.

We reached the end of the trail at the O'Shannassy Weir and had a look around before heading down the road to the Warburton-Woods Point Road.

O'Shannassy Weir

Reflection off the water at O'Shannassy Weir (you can see the weir on the right hand side of the photo).

A tall tree fern at O'Shannassy Weir.

Lesson 4: regularly check to make sure all your nuts and bolts are tight, and carry cable ties and a range of tools. On this occasion, a shifter or spanner was required, which we didn't have, so we later found a piece of whipper-snipper cord and used it to tie the rack to the frame.

Shane's rack came loose (the seat-stay fasteners) and the whole rack rotated backwards while descending a bumpy section of road. This cracked me up!

We got back to Warburton and wanted to get back onto the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail to follow it west and then join back up with the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail. We checked out the map and found the most direct route was up Martyr Road and then the Donna Buang walking track which intersects the aqueduct trail. This turned out to fraught with difficulty though. First we faced a surprise 27 % gradient which got me quite excited. Thanks to the low range gears of the Surly's, we were able to ride up spinning away in first gear at about 4 km/h, which significantly raised the heart rate.

Shane posing for a photo before we rode up the little hill.

Looking back down the hill from the top; golf course on the right (I didn't know there was a golf course in Warburton).

Just over the top of the hill was the start of the Mt Donna Buang walking track, and for us a "short-cut" to the O'Shannassy Aquaduct Trail.

As with most short-cuts, it turned out to be much longer than the standard route, as we discovered the track was a really muddy, steep, over-grown and poorly maintained excuse for a track! It took us fifteen minutes to travel 150 metres before we consulted the map again to reconsider our route.

Shane contemplating the walking track.

We calculated we still had almost 500 metres to reach the aqueduct, and with the aqueduct at about 300 m elevation, we would have to climb 80 metres in that distance, according to the contours, so at an average gradient of one in six, or ~16%! We decided to turn around and cut our losses.

Our little unsuccessful "short-cut" up Martyr Road and the section shown in blue is the Donna Buang walking track.

Back-tracking on the Donna Buang walking track to Martyr Rd

Back-tracking on the Donna Buang walking track to Martyr Rd

Back-tracking on the Donna Buang walking track to Martyr Rd - Shane struggling with haul his bike up on the slippery slope.

So we rode back down to the Yarra River via Wellington Road instead of Martyr Road. I think if I'd tried riding down that 27% grade I would have hurtled straight through the T-intersection at the bottom and into the river. The brakes on the Long Haul Truckers aren't their strong points.

After that brief detour, we followed Surrey Rd a little further on to ride up to the aqueduct trail.

Lunch-stop in the Dee Road picnic area on the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail.

A typical section of the O'Shannassy Aqueduct Trail, heading back towards Woori Yallock.

The rest of the trail was flat except for two steep sections where the aqueduct utilised siphons. We were warned about the steep sections on the trail maps but they were easily rideable, aside from some annoying steps and narrow gateways designed to keep out trail-bike riders (and cars).
We eventually got back onto the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail and cruised back towards Lilydale. As we passed the previous days' lunch-stop, I noticed a beer can sitting on the table, presumably left by the peculiar electric bicyclist.
We arrived in Lilydale just as dusk was settling in.

Back in Lilydale as the sun was setting - good timing!

So that was the end of our little tour; we hopped on the train back to Richmond, then rode back to Northcote. A weekend well spent!

Day 1 Route: 50.1 km

Day 2 Route: 74.2 km

2013 Road Season Part 2

I haven't been cycling much over the past week other than the commute to work and back, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect and re-live the road races I've done over the last few months since the Warburton Road Race at the end of March.

Baw Baw Classic
April 7, 2013
Held in the same area of Victoria as the Warburton Road race, this was definitely a race suited to the hill-climbers. The race started in Warragul and followed some hilly and scenic roads through Neerim, Noojee, Vespers Hill, Icy Creek, Tanjil Bren and finishing with the 6 km climb to the top of Mt Baw Baw after around 100 km or racing.

Terrain map and profile of the 2013 Baw Baw Classic.

Clive and I were representing the team, with support from John Prince who drove us up and back (thanks John!)

I had raced the Baw Baw Classic in B grade in 2012 and won by eight minutes, so I was definitely racing A grade this time around. The Baw Baw Classic is one of my favourite races, despite how difficult and tough the climb is. With this in mind, I decided it would be prudent to sit in the bunch and try to conserve as much energy as possible until the climb. Clive, on the other hand, was determined to get into the break, and he successfully achieved this, getting into a break with another half a dozen guys. However the group caught him before Neerim South as the size of the break dwindled.
The descent out of Neerim South is beauty, and being a confident descender I led the peloton down it. According to my Garmin, I reached a speed of 105 km/h, which is the fastest I can remember going on a bicycle.

Vespers Hill was the first real test, and the peloton hit it hard, as expected. Half way up I found myself riding at about my limit, and then gradually slipping places, until I was at the back of the group, and then a small gap as a few of us dropped off the back as we neared the apex. I wasn't too worried because I expected to be able to get back on over the other side, which is what happened as myself and a Budget Forklifts rider bridged back across.
Riding through the areas of Icy Creek and Tanjil Bren before the base of Baw Baw was my favourite part of the climb. I worked my way up to the front of the peloton again, and said g'day to Matt Clark who was my pick for the race, after his impressive performance at the Mt Buller Road Race.
While being conscious of expending energy needlessly, I also like to take descents at my own speed so I took the lead here again and found I was easily able to gap all the riders behind me, seemingly without even trying. This gave me (satisfaction) and a head-start on the next ascent to Tanjil Bren. I rode off  the front again down the next descent too, and built up a sizable gap before ascending again. I knew I'd be caught before Baw Baw so I took it easy until another group caught up to me, but nobody wanted to work to maintain that little break, and we were soon caught by the peloton. It was a surprisingly large group by the base of the climb, I'd guess around thirty riders.
As always, the climb was a killer, particularly painful. There's not much you can do but ride at your own pace, according to the amount of strength and energy you have left. I figured I was in about 20th place at the start of the climb, and was able to gradually overtake a handful of riders throughout the climb. I started cramping a few kilometres before the finish and was completely exhausted and was so glad when I crossed the line!

Near the top of Mt Baw Baw, about to overtake this Budget Forklifts rider.

At the top of the climb just before the finish-line.

I was quite happy with my performance, finishing 12th over-all, six and a half minutes down on Matt Clark who won by almost a minute!
A description of the Baw Baw climb can be found on the Cycle Atlas - it's an impressive little website and well worth a look.
Check out my Strava file here, and my stats below:

	AVG	MAX
Temperature	19°C	--
Speed	30.1km/h	104.7km/h
Cadence	87	--
Heartrate	166bpm	193bpm
Power	265W	988W
Elapsed Time	03:28:09

Tour of the South West
April 27-28, 2013
The next race on the calendar was the Tour of the South West down in Warrnambool. I'd also raced it in 2012 in its first year, and there were over 400 entries across all grades this year, due to a successful inaugural event and strong promotion.
Five riders from Melbourne Unibicycles were competing, with support again from John Prince (thanks John!) and Hamish Middleton, and we'd booked a few cabins in the caravan park to stay during the weekend.

The Big4 Caravan Park in Warrnambool.

The first stage was the road race in Wangoom, six laps of a 17 km course, 102 km in total.
The weather was sunny and reasonably warm, but it was so windy, blowing a gale!

John Prince and Calum Middleton under the Melbourne Uni marquee for the road race.

A few of the bikes resting up before the road race.

Calum Middleton and Tom Christie before the start of the road race.

2013 Tour of the South West Stage 1 - road race course.

The A grade race had 109 entries, and the start was quite a shambles. We were all lined in on the driveway of the Wangoom Recreation Reserve, and after the gun went, riders were scrambling to get out of the driveway and onto the road. I heard one guy got a puncture in the gravel right there. I was stuck towards the back so by the time I got onto the road, the front riders were a few hundred metres up the road - there was no control vehicle like there should have been! It took a lot of energy just to catch up to the peloton, and since I was sitting on the back, I missed the break which inevitably formed in the cross-winds. I was in the second group with a bunch of other strong riders, rolling turns, and after about four laps, we were only about a minute down on the lead group. Unfortunately for me, just coming into the fifth lap, I found myself in the gutter without protection from the wind, a small gap formed, and despite my efforts to close it, it kept growing, and that was it. I was dropped with another rider on my wheel, Dan Nelson from the African Wildlife Safaris team.
Dan and I continued on and picked up another rider from Search2Retain (Angus Tobin), and the three of us rode the final two laps on our own, managing to hold off the third chasing bunch by a minute and a half, but losing eight minutes on the second group we'd been dropped from. I finished in 36th place, over 11 minutes down on the winner, Eric Sheppard, a fellow Melbourne Uni alumni and an excellent cyclist. I was quite disappointed about being dropped so early in the race and being beaten by riders I can normally keep up with/beat.
You can see my Strava file here and clearly see the point about two hours in where my power drops.

	AVG	MAX
Temperature	27°C	--
Speed	36.6km/h	58.7km/h
Cadence	97	--
Heartrate	174bpm	193bpm
Power	262W	1,179W
Elapsed Time	02:47:35

The same afternoon on the Saturday was stage 2, a 12.7 km individual time-trial also around Wangoom.

2013 Tour of the South West Stage 2 - individual time trial course.

I was impressed by how many flashy time-trial bikes there were around - obviously plenty of guys with a lot of cash to splash! I also had my own time-trial bike to race on (but not a very flashy one). I consider myself a reasonably good time-trialist, regularly heading out to Kew Boulevard on my TT bike and, most importantly, holding some of the KOM's on Strava.
I finished 25th in the time-trial, a minute and twenty seconds down on the winner, which was an improvement on my result from stage 1 so I was reasonably happy with the result. You can see the Strava file here and my race stats below:

Time	00:17:10
Elapsed Time	00:17:10
Avg Temp	26°C
Max Speed	69.5km/h
Avg Speed	43.5km/h
Average Heart Rate	182 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate	188 bpm

Chris Zucchet crashing haphazardly in the bed after an exhausting day of racing.

Stage 3 was held on Sunday and was a one-hour criterium around the Warrnambool Cemetery. 

2013 Tour of the South West Stage 3 - criterium course.

Before we raced, however, we had to wait for all of the other grades to race, so we had the whole morning to kill. We cruised around and ate lunch with a beautiful view of the coast. I'd like to give a special mention here to Chris Zucchet who provided lunch for us at his own cost. He's widely known to be fairly tight with money and generally frugal. If I can relate an anecdote here, I heard from another friend, Dan, that Chris allegedly accidentally left his wallet behind in Tom's glove-box that weekend, and it wasn't until six days later that he actually realised he was wallet-less...which goes to shoe he doesn't take his wallet out too often!

Chris Zucchet and Tom Christie relaxing on the coast near Warrnambool

Chris Zucchet and Tom Christie eating lunch on the Warrnambool coastline.

A view of the coast.

A view of the beach.

Tom and I went for a half hour warm-up and got back to the start of the race with about 5 minutes to spare. My legs were fairly tired from the previous day of racing, and I wasn't able to make much of an impression on the race. I was on the front for about half a lap, long enough for the commentator to call out my name and team at least. I crossed the line mid-field. 

You can find my Strava file here and some stats below.

	AVG	MAX
Temperature	19°C	--
Speed	42.3km/h	65.9km/h
Cadence	95	--
Heartrate	169bpm	185bpm
Power	298W	1,127W
Elapsed Time	01:02:56

2013 Tour of the South West A grade criterium

A little team photo after the criterium: Chris Zucchet, Clive Silcock, Ned Powell and Tom Christie.

Chris Zucchet looking cool before the criterium.

Sarah Mortley, another Melbourne Uni Cycling Club member, relaxing after racing earlier in the morning.

It was a long weekend and the team achieved only lackluster results. I was the top finisher for the team in 34th place, 12:10 down on the winner, Eric Sheppard. 

Following (and during) the tour, there was a fair amount of criticism directed at the organisers after the issues at the start of the road race, with the delayed release of results, with inaccurate results (it appeared their timing system wasn't working), and with the criterium program meaning that we couldn't leave Warrnambool to drive back to Melbourne until about 4 pm. It appeared the race was a victim of it's own success, with the 400 odd racers. I rather enjoyed the weekend despite my poor results, but I'm guessing there won't be as many people back again for the race next year.

Phillip Island Gran Prix
May 11, 2013

The Phillip Island Gran Prix was a rather more successful outing for me and the team, which consisted of me, Daniel Braunsteins, Clive Silcock, Chris Zucchet and Calum Middleton, with John Prince, Rod Warnecke, Michael Krybolder and Thomas Madden coming along to support the team (thanks guys!). The race was held on the smooth-as-butter Gran Prix circuit, 25 laps of the 4.44 km course, totaling 110 km.

2013 Phillip Island Gran Prix course.

There were around 90 riders on the A grade start-list, but we were also racing with the other grades so the peloton was Tour de France sized, but with much less collective skill. This became evident when there was a large pile-up in only the second lap. Word on the street is that an African Wildlife Safaris rider was caught out on the rumble strip around the bend at the bottom of the straight (where we were doing around 60 km/h), he realised the rumble strip was terminating and veered back into the bunch, but no-one had made space for him, so a few of the riders were knocked down and they collected a bunch of guys behind them. I was about 10 metres behind when the crash occurred, and it was one of those moments where you know you're going to crash but you can't do anything about it. Time went into slow motion, I hit the anchors and tried to swerve around the pile of bikes and cyclists, but to no avail - I collided with the jumble in front of me and flew over the handlebars, landing on the road ahead. The bloke behind me tumbled down onto my bike. 

A graph of my speed surrounding the crash in the second lap - a sudden drop from 60 km/h to 0 km/h!

I wasted no time pulling my bike back out and hopped straight back on in pursuit of the peloton, but they were a fair way ahead already, and I was expending plenty of energy in the wind. I then realised that my brake pads were maligned and rubbing on my front wheel, making matters worse obviously. Then I discovered both of my bottles had escaped their cages.

As we continued to chase, a commissaire on a motorbike rode up beside us and allowed us a lap out, which I was quite grateful for! This meant we could just cruise around to the pit lane and wait for the peloton to come around again. I took the opportunity to seek some more bidons. Rod only had a couple of screw-capped standard bottled water, which was of course better than no water, but just a little difficult to unscrew while racing.

It was as though everyone had forgotten how to ride a bike, because there was another crash in the third lap, as well as some other sketchy moments.

Back in the bunch, and later in the race, Chris and Dan set me up for one of the KOM's (see the photo below). They led me up to the top of the climb and I was about to sprint to finish it off but left is slightly too late as I got boxed in by another couple of riders coming past on either side. It was a well-executed set-up so I was disappointed not to have finished it off. Especially since Chris crashed out later on in the race, knocked himself out and was rushed to the Dandenong Hospital.

2013 Phillip Island Grand Prix: Chris Zucchet, Daniel Braunsteins and Ned Powell on the front of the peloton. 

Over-all the race was quite easy, and the lack of wind and large field meant it was fast and fairly easy to sit in and save energy. I was still feeling quite good at the end, managed to position myself up towards the front before the sprint. It was a messy sprint though, with many riders contesting, and I got cut off and had to stop pedaling, but still finished in 7th place which I was quite happy with. .

2013 Phillip Island Gran Prix sprint finish.

You can see me in this video taken from Shannon Johnson's bike, who was the race favourite and winner. Melbourne Unibicycles finished fifth in the teams category, and my 7th place was the first top-ten placing in a Victorian Road Series event for the team.
Strava file can be found here, and some race stats below.

	AVG	MAX
Temperature	24°C	--
Speed	42.7km/h	69.8km/h
Cadence	94	--
Heartrate	161bpm	197bpm
Power	288W	1,244W
Elapsed Time	02:32:30

We stopped in at San Remo after the race and Rod Warnecke (manager of Melbourne University Sport) kindly sponsored lunch for us.

The support crew: Michael Krybolder, Thomas Madden, Rod Warnecke and John Prince.

We also stopped in at the Dandenong Hospital to check in on Chris. He was in the emergency ward with a cut above his eye and grazes on his body and leg. He was suspected of having a broken collarbone, but luckily this turned out to be a false assessment after the X-ray.

We also spoke to a woman out the front who told us her son was also in the hospital after crashing in the race, and remarked there were several others cyclist from the race in there too. Quite unfortunate, but that's bike racing I guess.

Metro Championships
May 18, 2013
A week later was the Metro Championships. The timing of the event wasn't great for me because I had an Australian Water Association dinner the night before, with food and drinks provided. Wanting to make the most of the dinner, I'd consumed a number of beverages and cycled home from St Kilda to Northcote at about 1 am. I got about four hours sleep before getting up to meet Clive and drive out to Harcourt for the race.
The race consisted of two laps of a 56 km circuit, totaling 112 km and finishing in Harcourt. I wasn't feeling the best, and at times it was a struggle not to fall asleep as I was riding, and to remain focussed, lest I cause an accident! I remained in the bunch throughout the race. Clive helped me out, taking me up towards the front before the last major climb. The peloton split over the top of this climb, and then regrouped during the descent. With 15 km to go, there were a lot of riders attempting to ride off the front, but every move was getting chased down. I just kept following wheels trying to avoid doing any work in the wind.
The approach to the finish-line was a long descent; I chose a few good wheels to follow (Joel Strachan from Target-Trek and an African Wildlife Safaris rider, who inadvertently took me up towards the front before I'd seen any wind. I then sprinted around him but the finish-line came up all too quickly and I crossed it in 4th place. I may have been on the podium if I'd gone a little earlier, but considering I don't consider myself a sprinter, I was quite happy with the result.

2013 Metro Championships sprint finish.

You can see my Strava file here and some stats below:

	AVG	MAX
Temperature	12°C	--
Speed	40.3km/h	74.2km/h
Cadence	93	--
Heartrate	151bpm	192bpm
Power	250W	1,222W
Elapsed Time	02:44:28

Fred Icke Handicap
The Fred Icke Handicap was held in Creswick, 30 km from where I grew up so I felt like I had a home-ground advantage. I missed the race last year because I missed the entry deadline.
As the name of the race suggests, riders are allocated into groups of equal capability, with the group of slowest riders leaving first and the fastest riders setting off last. In this case, the first group started 36 minutes before the final (scratch) group.
Melbourne Unibicycles was represented by Oli le Grice riding from the 20 minute mark, and Clive Silcock and myself riding from second scratch (the three minute mark).
Like the Metro Championships, I didn't have the ideal preparation the previous night. This time I was at my sister Rachel's housewarming, which I wasn't going to stay long at, but as usual, time had gotten away from me and I didn't get home until 3 am.
Also the weather was miserable, it had rained all night in Melbourne, with about 50 mm overnight, and there was some flooding around the place.

The swollen Merri Creek (from St Georges Rd bridge) on the way to meet Clive to drive to Creswick.

The weather during the race was also wet and cold, but thankfully not too windy. My group was caught by scratch half-way through the first lap, and the size of the group subsequently grew as we gradually collected more groups up the road.
With about 10 km to go, the leaders riding from the 36 minute group were still 4 minutes up the road, and it was going to be close! The peloton kept chasing but in the end they just managed to stay ahead of the main bunch, with the two blokes crossing the line less than 20 seconds ahead.
I caught a bit too much wind approaching the finish trying to maintain a position near the front, and crossed the line in 10th place, although I was later bumped up to 9th place after Liam White was disqualified for making an illegal wheel-change.
I had initially assumed I wasn't in the top ten so I left straight after the race and rode home to Mt Franklin for the night and was delighted to later find I had in fact finished in the top ten. The race paid down to tenth place, so Cycling Victoria kindly sent me a cheque in the mail.

2013 Fred Icke Handicap: riding up the hill out of Creswick on the Midland Highway.

2013 Fred Icke Handicap: riding up the hill out of Creswick on the Midland Highway.

2013 Fred Icke Handicap: sprint finish.

2013 Fred Icke Handicap: sprint finish, and me with a face of desperation, exertion and pain.

Here is my Strava file and below are some race stats:

	AVG	MAX
Temperature	13°C	--
Speed	43.9km/h	69.8km/h
Cadence	97	--
Heartrate	157bpm	189bpm
Power	275W	1,258W
Elapsed Time	02:59:54

So that wraps up the racing I've done to date. I've been taking a bit of a break from training without any races coming up to train for. I'll miss the Preston Mountain Classic because I'm off for a little holiday in New Zealand for a week with my sisters. I think the next race for me will be the Dirty Deeds Round 1 Cyclo-cross race in Brunswick, can't wait!