The first weekend in December saw the Tour of Bright conducted for another year, and for yet another year it was a classic event which only reinforced the standing that this race has among the Australian racing community. Great roads and terrain, fantastic organisation and an amazing back drop of Alpine scenery make for a rewarding trip away regardless of the grade being raced or the results at the wrap up of the weekend.
Velo Canberra had a tall order for the weekend after successfully placing 1st and 3rd in last years race and also collecting 1st in the Sprint Classification and 2nd in the KOM classification (Masters 1,2,3) it was going to be a tough effort to repeat those results against what is always a high quality field. This year also saw the team split across two categories with half of the team riding in A grade and the other half in Masters 1,2,3.
Stage 1
Stage one consists of a little under 100km of relatively flat roads punctuated by a 3km climb around the half way mark and finished off with a tough 6km climb up Tawonga gap at the finish of the stage. The team started the stage strongly with Felix collecting maximum points at the first sprint. Everyone remained well placed by the mid way point with Trev in the break away and Allan, Mick and Felix safely in the main field. Unfortunately at around the 65km point, last years winner Allan punctured and with no neutral spares was effectively out of the running for the stage and the General Classification. In the final climb up Tawonga Mick demonstrated his great form and placed 3rd on the stage taking time on some of the strongest competitors in the event, Trevor also finished the stage strongly in 8th place.
Mick Powering to 3rd Place on Tawonga Pass
Stage 2
Stage 2 is a 15km undulating time trial starting from and returning to the Alpine Cycling Club rooms on the outskirts of Bright. With the mornings ride already in the legs this is always a tough stage in which time gaps between riders can be critical to the overall race results. Allan was keen to make up for the mornings misfortune and put in a hard effort to finish the stage in 2nd place, 30 seconds behind the winner and new race leader Shane Miller. Mick was able to back up from the mornings ride to place 7th on the stage with Trev in 8th. Overall this put Mick just over a minute outside of the race lead going into the final stage.
Ben put in solid rides all weekend to finish in the top half of the A grade field
Stage 3
Stage 3 is a short but very difficult stage which covers only 56km but climbs some 1800m, starting in Bright and finishing at the top of Mt Hotham. With the race lead within grasp it was decided to try and make the race hard and put the leading contenders under some pressure to defend their lead. To this end Allan attacked early and was able to form a group of seven riders along the undulating roads towards the base of the climb proper. By the bottom of Mt Hotham this group had a lead of some 5 minutes over the chasing bunch. Towards the later stages of the climb Allan was able to dispose of his break away companions and Solo to the stage win by almost 2 minutes. Back in the main field Mick was working hard to unhitch GC leader Miller but was unable to gain the advantage he needed eventually finishing in 4th place overall.
Allan Soloing to the win on Mt Hotham
In the A grade race the boys performed very well with Steve, Ben, Andrew and Shaun all finishing within the top half of the field against some very classy contenders.
Full event results can be found here: http://my3.raceresult.com/details/index.php?eventid=13607&lang=en