Best birthday ever!

Last weekend I turned 41 on July 3rd, which coincided with the Jim Fawcett Memorial Handicap at Broadford, run over 3 laps of a testing 33km course. I'd done this course as a handicap before and knew it was one tough race.

I was starting in the 20 min group (eg- we were 20 mins ahead of the last starting group) and in my group was a training buddy Paul, as well as Lisa and many of the guys I raced against at the 3DT.

Looking at the start list before the race, I felt we had a pretty good chance of our group taking the win or at least finishing high up and I was really looking forward to it. Personally, I felt like I was gifted the start position and that I and a few others should have been in the 15 min group (to be fair), but that’s what the handicapper worked out and so be it.

We set off and almost straight away I was worried about our bunch. There was a few guys who looked way out of their league and their rolling turns was scrappy to say the least. One guy who couldn’t hold a wheel while rolling turns yet complained when someone would fill his gap, didn’t bother to call about a huge pot hole in the road, leaving Lisa (who was behind him) to hit it really hard, jarring her hand in the process and she was lucky not to go down! Also, the pace was a bit slow for my liking and I was itching to hit the first decent climb to drop the stragglers so we could pick up the pace.

As we hit the steep pitch climb for the first time the inevitable happened and we were down to a working group of 8 riders, dropping about 4 or 5. Unfortunately, one that was dropped was a mate Paul whose rear derailleur cable snapped at the base of the climb. Bugger! He would have made a strong addition to the group.

So on we rode, rolling nicely and setting a solid pace. As we approached the narrow bridge, we had to make a detour onto a side route that was gravel and pot hole filled (we had been pre warned about this with plenty of marshals warning us also). I lead the way through here at what I thought was a very comfortable pace and as I started the climb out the other side of the valley, I looked back to see a 100mt gap behind me. Hmm, note to self- this could be the place to attack on the last lap!

Not wanting to go it alone for 70+ km I sat up and we continued to roll turns, passing the finish line for our first lap with the DNF’d Paul telling us the group ahead (they started 6mins before us), were only 2mins ahead of us now. Now down to 7 riders, the pace kept picking up, bit by bit. Lisa was climbing the steeper climbs really strong and I had to tell her to take it easy as she would have dropped the bunch. I saw a few guys gasping and looking at her in amazement of her climbing so I commented to one that she was my pick on the final climbs to drop us all.

About at the half way point of the second lap we caught limit (the group 6mins ahead of us) and a few of then started working with us with the rest quickly left behind. Ben, a designer mate jumped in and rolled strongly with us, leaving me to think he was going to be a contender at the end, so smooth and easy did he look to be doing it. Meanwhile, my legs were cramping up a little even though I didn’t feel like I was pushed to my limit. I’d been thinking for a few weeks that my saddle was a touch too high but now mid race was not the time to adjust it! LOL

At one point, while rolling back in the slow lane, one of the guys moving up looked like he had run out of oomph to keep moving forward and a gap opened up in front of him. Not wanting to see the turns get delayed, I gave him a helping push to which I “think” he was grateful for. United we stand, divided we fall right? LOL

Through the gravel section the second time I called to Ben and Lisa to follow my line and speed through and this time I took it with a “little bit” more speed and once again, I opened up a gap in the process. OK- this “IS” the spot to attack on the last lap!

Final lap and we were zipping along at a great pace now. One of the follow cars came around us, stopping at a corner where he cheered us saying we had it in the bag! We all got excited at this thought but with about 20km to go, anything could happen.

Then, just as I was amusing myself with thoughts of “what funny salute could I do if I found myself crossing the line 1st?”, the call came from behind to “stay left” and a quick glance back saw a bunch of deep profile carbon rims coming around us- The A graders! Bugger!

Two of our group jumped onto the back of this group but I made a choice NOT to follow as I could see their pace would see me blowing up. The group ahead rode out of sight and I was starting to wonder about my tactics when we came upon one of the guys struggling along solo, blown up. Ok, still one more to catch I figured and down through the gravel detour I hit it pretty hard, creating a huge gap to the bunch behind me. Game on!

Exiting the gravel I had tons of momentum for the following climb and wouldn’t you know it- the second rider from our original group was right there, alone, half way up the hill ahead of me. BINGO!

Now- I had a plan worked out so time to see if it would work. I caught the rider ahead and went in front, with the other guy now sitting firmly on my wheel. I sat there pulling us along for a few mins till I waved him around on a flat section of road a little before the next climb. Then, just as we started the climb, I came around as if to pull a turn but instead of rolling over I just poured on the power just enough to create a gap and kept that same pace all the way up the climb (thanks to Deryck for this idea!), not looking back, eyes firmly on the road ahead hoping like hell I was “out suffering” the other guy! At the top I glanced back and I had done it! Now with 200+mts between us it was time to go into pure suffer mode to the finish line 3km away.

What a final 3km it was! My legs had been cramping up the last 25km and I could hardly stand up. As I approached the final corner 2km from the finish, a HUGE flock(?) of kangaroos were crossing from one paddock to another over the road ahead of me. I could see that I was going to arrive at the corner right in the middle of the roos and started to panic- “what do I do?” A car approached very slowly from the other direction, spooking the roos with several falling on the road and sliding along on their backs! It was chaos! Finally all the roos saw me and the car and turned back, leaving a gap in the madness for me to ride through. Whew!

The final hill before the finish line climb was pure agony! I couldn’t get out of the saddle and my legs were cramping up as it was even sitting down, so I just had to HTFU and ignore the pain. My mind even crossed to Matt Keenan’s blog about Jim Fawcett and I tried to draw strength from that! I knew the guy behind me would be doing everything to catch me so I just had to get over this last hill and I knew I would be safe. But shit, I wasn’t sure I “could” make it over, now limping along at 13kph!

Finally at the top and with the finish line in far sight I glanced back and I still had 200+ mts on the other guy. Down the valley and max power up to the finish line, crossing in 12th, 3mins down on the winning group and first in our start group!

I was rapt! I didn’t care that I didn’t finish top 10. I didn’t care that I missed out on prize money. I was thrilled to put into place a tactical plan in my head and then execute it to perfection. I was giddy with excitement once I stopped coughing and gasping! LOL

Lisa came in 14th, just 1:10 behind me and looking strong! As an added bonus, not only did the bunch starting behind us (the 15 min group) not catch us but we pulled AWAY from them. And this was a bunch with some solid C graders in it. That was very satisfying to know as it bodes well for an upgrade to C grade.

After the race Lisa was a bit annoyed. It turned out she was determined to beat me (yeah- on my birthday and all! LOL), but my tactic to fly through the gravel put a huge gap between us that she couldn’t close. I did have a quiet word to her during the race to tell her that I was going to do exactly that, but she didn’t feel comfortable in her skills to follow my speed through the dirt. As I said to her after- “time to do some MTBing perhaps?” I think seeing the time she lost in this one 50mts section, she “might” just relent and give it a go. I know she’s very negative about doing MTBing but I honestly think she would end up having a good time doing it.

Race stats-
33.1kph - Average speed
99km - Distance
1100mts - Climbing
Full results here.

A most awesome day indeed!

(Photo: Myself followed closely by Lisa at the end of our second lap. Photo by Thorle)

PS- I did some googling and a group of Kangaroos is called either a "Mob" or a "Troop". (not a flock! LOL).

Best birthday ever!