Tour Of Bright 2010 - Dec 4-5th

Road cycling & upcoming rides
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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 26 Oct 2010, 22:41

The Tour of Bright is one for the climbers (hopefully they can time trial a bit too). This year it's taking place on December 4th and 5th with entries closing November 25th, but with entries capped at 550 they'll probably close earlier.

The race consists of 3 stages. Stage 1 is a 100km road stage, which has been shortened this year due to too many crashes on the Tawonga Gap descent, so i'm expecting the finish to be at the top of Tawonga Gap. Stage 2 takes place in the afternoon with a short recovery after the mornings road stage, it is a 16km time trial on relatively flat terrain. Stage 3 is the big one, and although only 55km long, the last 30km are the ascent of Mount Hotham.

I'll be going down there again, and it will probably be the first year that i'll have some reasonable form. I believe Mark L will also be coming. If there's anyone else, please let me know.

MarkL
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Postby MarkL » 27 Oct 2010, 11:11

l've entered.

Thanks for the reminder James, l'd forgotten that they have a cap on entries.

wallman
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Location: Marrickville

Postby wallman » 27 Oct 2010, 11:30

I've only started riding this week (I barely grovelled back from Olympic Park this morning) but I'm mulling this over nonetheless, it's such an epic place to ride. I'm very sad to see the Tawonga descent go - I put 5 mins into the guy that led me over the top of that descent last year, and it's only 10 kms or so! I guess you still get to take it on to get home though, and then there's the trip back from Mt Hotham! I'm ignoring the climb up Hotham for the moment.

shrubb face
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Postby shrubb face » 27 Oct 2010, 11:49

I'd love to do Bright but i dont have the time or the money.

If you want to go for a light training ride sometime Mat let me know.

Richard
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Location: Ashfield

Postby Richard » 28 Oct 2010, 13:56

The climb up Mt Hotham is part of the Alpine 250km course. It's a great ride at a slow Audax pace but damn that would be a hard climb at race pace. The Meg section and CRB near the very top are nasty.

On the descent down Tawonga Gap to Bright a black snake crossed the road at the wrong time and I nearly hit the deck avoiding it.

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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 04 Dec 2010, 11:43

24th place for me, 4min behind. Got stuck at the back of 2 joined bunches at the bottom of tawonga, so missed the move.

Mark is in 45th place in masters 4/5, 9 min behind.

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 04 Dec 2010, 18:46

Great riding guys !!!!!!!!

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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 04 Dec 2010, 20:49

Stage 2. Timetrial.

I finished in 32nd, moving to 22nd overall.
Mark finished in 50th, dropping a place to 46th.

Full details are available at http://mobile.your-sports.com/details/i ... 57&lang=en

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Trouty
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Postby Trouty » 05 Dec 2010, 09:21

Stage 2. Timetrial.

I finished in 32nd, moving to 22nd overall.
Mark finished in 50th, dropping a place to 46th.

Full details are available at http://mobile.your-sports.com/details/i ... 57&lang=en
Awesome riding guys. I'm dreading mount Hotham at the Alpine Audax ride, and that won't even be race pace. I think I may need a tow up that hill.

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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 05 Dec 2010, 21:51

Back in Sydney, so no more trying to post things via my phone.

I ended in 20th overall, and Mark in 26th. I'll post a race report tomorrow.

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mcrkennedy
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Location: Balmain

Postby mcrkennedy » 09 Dec 2010, 11:05

Well done. It sounded hard from cycletips http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2010/12/ ... -and-gone/race report

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williamd
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Postby williamd » 09 Dec 2010, 16:23

Very good results guys.

Looks like Grafton to Inverell was a warm up ride.

Your getting better all the time.

MarkL
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Postby MarkL » 10 Dec 2010, 11:29

Saturday 6am.

The heavens opened up and we had some of the heaviest rain l can recall in recent times as we laid in bed contemplating what the roads would be like in a couple of hours. A short time later the rain had stopped, some blue sky appeared and the sun came out in force. By the time we got on our bikes the roads were dry and the weather was looking brilliant.

I raced in Masters 4/5

Stage 1 90k road race with 2 climbs, hilltop finish.

We rolled out at a fair pace with a little surging.The pace picked up as we approached the first sprint point at the 10k mark and then settled back down again. The bunch started to string out as we approached the first climb, Rosewhite Gap at the 50k mark. I held onto the bunch till the 1k to go mark where l was working hard and decided to drop off. Cresting the hill l could see the bunch but doubted that l could get back on solo. With 2 riders not far behind me, l sat up and jumped on their wheel as they rolled by. The 3 of us descended and started working together on the flat and then another rider caught us. The 4 of us worked well together and were gaining on the bunch and caught them in a few k’s. We thanked one another for getting back on and 1 rider said that he hadn’t been able to rejoin the bunch previously.

It was good to rest on the back of the bunch for a while. With 2 riders off the front, the bunch was happy to leave them out there. Then the pace picked up as we approached the second sprint and l hung on for a short time before deciding to save something for the last climb. I didn’t get back onto the bunch and teamed up with 3 other riders for the several k’s to the start of the Tawonga Gap climb. 2 guys dropped off and l rolled faster on a slight downhill before the climb, so l started the climb on my own.

With no wheel to follow, I found a rhythm and pushed along alternating between seated and standing positions for the 7.5k climb passing dropped riders, some from other grades. With 200m to go l dug deep and passed 2 more riders.

Stage 1 was done, thank goodness!! :D


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