Road Cycling 2:23:00 [3] 87.0 km (1:39 / km)
Morning. Willow Grove.
LCCC Club Road Championships
again at Willow Grove, the A grade champs was over 3 laps of 29km course what we did at Tour de River. I was pretty worried about such a long race, and was always expecting the possibility of being dropped on an early lap and wanting to pull out. The course is pretty undulating, with the first half having more downhill, and 2nd half climbing back to Willow Grove.
There were the usual numerous breakaway attempts but nothing of note until halfway round the 2nd lap. I got caught out after a turn at the front (though at a slow speed), when 4 of the best guys got away, leaving 6 or 7 to chase. We worked pretty hard for half a lap and were bloody close to catching up at the 3rd Latrobe River crossing but just didn't make it before one of the bigger climbs. One old guy who is bloody good in the hills made the jump across but no one else could. When we regrouped we kept working, sometimes organised, but disorganised when everyone was too tired. Be got the occasional glimps of the leading group every now and then to keep motivation up. With about 5km the pace up the front started to slow and we finally had a chance but I still didn't expect to catch up. But with a couple of mammoth turns from Big Mick we were suddenly back, with about 1km to go. I was totally blown by now and didn't see much point in slowing down and prolonging the pain so made an attack straight away. I had a little gap but was always going to get caught. Was passed by everyone as the sprint started and rolled over the line satisfied to make the full distance.