Blayney to Bathurst 2007

Met dank aan Anna Murray voor het onderstaande verslag.

Saturday
Well what can I say. For once I saw racing from the other side of the camera (so to speak) and I think supporting two days of racing is infinitely harder than actually participating.

Firstly congratulations are in order for our 2 medal winners in Saturday’s NSW State Hillclimb ITT. Jenny McKenna (in her first ever cycling event) took out 2nd and a silver in the Womens 1-3 Masters category. She was pipped to gold by 8 seconds only and the Australian National Champion from Bathurst – so not too shabby. And 3rd place was nearly a minute after 1st and 2nd.

And while hanging around to see what his time was, Gary Leahey was astonished to be called up to the podium and handed a bronze medal for 3rd in MMAS6. As a consequence noone was there with the camera to capture his podium finish as he just wandered back to the support car with a medal round his neck !!! Daniele was pipped to 3rd for the second year running and finished 4th in MMAS3. Well done to everyone who took part – Atagun Bensan and Allan Marks did a creditable time too.

From there it was a rush to get organised for dinner and to feed the hungry hordes …. Thanks to everyone who gave me assistance as I hobbled up and down the stairs with lasagnes/apple pies and God knows what else. Luckily Muir supervised the Directeur Sportif on the BBQ so steaks, gluten free sausages and chicken kebabs were all nicely done and didn’t last long. After everyone was nicely carbo loaded with protein extras (apparently ice cream is carbs now), Daniele gave the race briefing and everyone retired to ponder their big day out tomorrow.

Sunday
The day dawned bright and cool (only 11) and nothing like as bad as the 3 degree start we all suffered from last year. Breakfast was on from 6:30am then the vans and cars were loaded and we were off. Blayney hadn’t changed much from last year and its only claim to fame seems to be the race start for the B2B. I pinned numbers on everyone, gave them a Megaburn bar (courtesy of Pino who is the Sydney supplier for Megaburn so make sure you go and see him) and waved them off. Our job was just beginning. The van resplendent with Steam Racing stickers stayed at the front with our front runners and Muir, Gina and Andrew loitered around the back of the field. Jared lasted 9km with the A grade bunch who went out even faster than last year if possible and Jenny sensibly tucked herself in the B grade bunch where she got a good tow for at least 80kms of the race. The rest of the Steamers formed their own little bunch and did their own thing. Pino and Allan were in a group of two and Keith (due to an unfortunate puncture which meant that my front wheel got another outing along the B2B course) was left on his own. Dave and Ann Clarence rode with Pike for most of the way with the 3 of them having a very nice time out there.

We saw quite a bit of action in the middle of the race where Jared’s group of 4 worked hard to stay away from the B grade bunch and eventually became 9 but the force of the peloton thundered behind them and eventually (like all good breakaways) they were swallowed up with nothing to show for all those hard kms out on their own.

By this time, we were due to be at the top of the dirt hill to perform drinks and puncture duties which we did for a lot of people including Bathurst cycling club members, Randwick Botany members and lots of other non club riders who were suffering in the heat from lack of water and the dusty conditions. I spent an hour and a half at the top of Rockley Mount with my thumb on one of those 10L water containers (supplied by Cycling NSW) giving water to all and sundry and guarding the Steam V drinks with my life. I have thumb RSI from it (another reason to race next year….) and lost count of all the riders who had been out of water for the last 30kms and who couldn’t get off their bikes. I could have sold those V drinks and Gatorade for $50 apiece !!!

Jenny was first up the hill and 6th woman outright followed by Jared who looked a little tired from all his earlier exertions. Then came Atagun who had started with the B bunch to help Jenny out and then decided she looked perfectly capable and maybe he might take it a bit easier. The Steam bunch came up with some others they had picked up along the way and waited for Koen to recover his composure after having done most of the previous 70km on the front. I juiced them up with V drinks and lots of ice cold water and after about 5 mins sent them on their way. Next up was Allan and Pino who looked way too happy to be doing the same race as everyone else, followed by Keith (still on my front wheel) and then Dave, Ann and Pike. Only 16kms to go from there but with the nastiest last one kilometre you can imagine – up Conrod Straight and straight up the mountain. From doing it several times in the Xtrail with Gina the day below, we decided it was about 20% at its worst.

So unfortunately I missed nearly everyone’s finish as we were the last up there but I understand that commendations should go to Jenny for getting up there with a 23 only on the back and finishing 1st Masters Woman and 6th Woman outright, Allan Marks who got back on after cramping so badly he coudldn’t walk, Bruce who went down the hill (yes after he had finished …..!!!) to help Allan up to the finish (that must go down as heroic) and poor Keith who punctured again with 3 km to go and the only wheel we had for him was Daniele’s Carbone Cosmic. As Daniele said “The good news is it’s carbon and light and the bad news is it only has a 23 on the back …” However, Keith made it up to the finish with only a minimal amount of walking. Congratulations go to everyone who finished a really really tough day. Now we have to go out and train to do it all again next year ……

Thanks to Gina, Muir, Nick and Andrew for all the help and support they gave over the 2 days and of course to Daniele, Directeur Sportif, who masterminded the whole thing, tirelessly changed punctures, loaded and unloaded bikes and generally gave good race advice out of the window of the van (like “Jared get off the front”)……

Another great weekend and looking forward to next year.

Final results can be found here : http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/ by going into Calendars, 2007 Summer and right at the bottom of the table (as B2B was the last event for the summer) you can find all the results.