Canberra Junior and Womens Tour

Road cycling & upcoming rides
bro
Posts: 60
Joined: 29 Oct 2012, 16:09

Postby bro » 10 May 2015, 17:50

6 DHBC juniors traveled to cold and windy Canberra on friday to race the annual Canberra  junior and Womens tour at mount stromlo. First day started in quite bearable conditions with the itt. Taku came in a reaspectable 37th, out of an incredible 59 riders, with myself  coming in 29 max santos finished a soild top 10 (updates to come later) with Rohan coming in not to far behind. Lawrence and Tess were both riding their first tours (i think?) and putting in solid efforts despite the steep  learning curve.

First road race was a tough one, but conditions  were still OK. Taku got dropped from our bunch after the first KOM climb, and i finished in the second bunch with an ok time, having split  at around 10 km left. Max finished again in top 10 out of 30 somthing riders, with Rohan again not too far behind. Not sure about Lawrence but i know tess headed home after the first day,  and managed to miss the terrible weather. That night me and taku took to the ice baths to try and fix our broken  legs. It was cold.

The second day was a wee bit ridiculous. The u17m road race saw a bunch moving at 20kmph in the 50kmph headwind can riders shedding fast. I ended up tantalizingly close to the bunch, but eventualy they got the better of us. The way back was heavenly, just flying up hills and across  the flat. That is untill  i had a mechanical. So me and taku were  eventually reunited to cruise home and finish  in a buch of about seven riders, all to exausted to bother sprinting for 35th.
Then finally the crit,  what we had all been waiting for. Then rain happened. Donna had taku sit out, and although only half the rider started 30 is still alot to put on a little crit curcuit. If you havent seen mt stromlo crit then ill tell you now-it is small
Only 1.8 k and reasonable skinny, it was a good thing the pace was solid. Just after the race started it really started to pour and i could only just make out the wheel infront of me. Pondering the chances of a crash as we rode i came very close to pulling out, but eventally testosterone overcame me and i decided to stay. After a series of solid attacks from the New Zealand  team we were finally reaching the pointy end of the race. With three riders of the front i followed a wheel to find myself in a prime position for the bunch sprint. Not being the best sprinter i lost a few places , but it seems i might have came in a solid 10th or therabouts.
Thougholy frozen and tired we headed for home.

Its worth metioning that not a single DHBC woman came to race, a bit dissapointing but hopefully it will be different next year.

The tour was a promising  indicator of good form for the rest of the season for me and taku and despite testing weather  was a lot of fun.

bro
Posts: 60
Joined: 29 Oct 2012, 16:09

Postby bro » 10 May 2015, 17:51

More results to come

Eleri
Posts: 1753
Joined: 31 Dec 2009, 08:43
Location: Erskineville

Postby Eleri » 10 May 2015, 23:00

Thanks for the report Bro! I'm disappointed you didn't sprint for 35th. I mean ... :-)

Day 2 sounds horrible. Thank goodness you both survived.

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JoTheBuilder
Posts: 1500
Joined: 19 Feb 2011, 15:32

Postby JoTheBuilder » 11 May 2015, 08:34

Great result Bro! I think you should all be proud of racing in such tough conditions.

I think you'll find that our most dominating female rider, Amy Vesty, was racing in Cootamundra. And beating some of the boys.

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Dougie
Posts: 755
Joined: 11 Jan 2008, 16:39
Location: Dulwich Hill

Postby Dougie » 11 May 2015, 13:50

Good on you Bro and the rest of the Juniors Team.

boltonfamily
Posts: 41
Joined: 04 Dec 2011, 14:46

Postby boltonfamily » 11 May 2015, 21:31

Great report Bro - and well done for making it to the end of a tough race. All good experience!
Yes, Amy was at Coota and very impressive - riding in the same group as Kimberley Wells, Australian Crit Champion ("and she's a doctor"... as the commentators like to remind us).

jcaley
Posts: 461
Joined: 25 Oct 2012, 07:14

Postby jcaley » 12 May 2015, 14:36

A few numbers to supplement Bro's race report
The program was 1. ITT 2. Road race 3. Longer road race 4. Crit
The New Zealand National Junior team were an amazing force and a few top Victorian and Queensland riders added some quality to the field and a brutal pace to the races.
JW15 Tess Wallace finished 16th and 12th and then headed home.

JM15 in a field of 30
Lawrence Santos 23, 22, 23, dns
Rohan Haydon Smith 18,16,14, dnf
Max Santos 8,10, 8, dnf

JM17 field of 60
Taku Rogers 37, 46, 35, dns
Bro Caley 29, 23, 32, 8

The road race on Sunday was brutal. 4 riders got dropped in the 3km neutral zone. The rest got 40-50 km/hr head and cross winds plus some rain.

The start of the JM17 crit was something to behold - 40 riders launching off together on a wet track. A pattern emerged as one or two kiwis would launch an attack while 2 or three of their team sat on the front until someone else rode around them to peg back the attack. Amazingly Lachlan Scott chased down the final attack to almost pip them on the line.


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