Race report from Alex Gardner from the Tour of Bright.
Al Doing It Easy On Tawonga
Tour of Bright is all about the climbing right, well yes – but that doesn’t mean you can switch off and let a 20 man break go up the road half way through the first stage. It never normally happens that way at Bright but I only had myself to blame. With hindsight perhaps it worked out in my favour.
The ‘sensations’ as they say, were good as I climbed the 8k Towonga gap at the end of stage 1 – I could see others around me suffering and I knew I was climbing well – I rode the climb pretty hard but not max, half thinking I could minimise the gaps to the break, and half thinking about saving the legs for the next day. Mostly I was just pissed off I’d made such a daft error of judgement in not going with the break, however, comfortably leading the bunch over the climb gave me some confidence that my form was good. The less said about stage 1 the better.
Stage 2 is the notorious TT – nothing harder in cycling than backing up for a 16km rolling TT after a tough morning road race. Easy tapping the TT wasn’t really an option, so even though I was out of it on GC I gave it some stick and turned in a half decent time. Still didn’t move up on GC though and sat just outside the top 10 – however the time gaps had tightened.
The announcement on Sunday morning that the Hotham stage had been shortened was initially a big disappointment. I’d woken with fresh, loose legs and the feeling that I could make some inroads on GC, Hotham is the real test at Bright and I was right up for it. When I realised where the new finish was though (at the end of the false flats after 20km of climbing) I started to entertain the thought that perhaps I was chance for a stage podium, my main goal of the race. The flatter sprint would suit me if I could hang on with the climbers.
The stage started pretty fast and it seemed like we were on the gas all the way to the base of the climb, the 30km was over in a flash and it was game on. Allan Sieper, GC leader took the initiative and attacked at the base of the climb, I immediately followed him, turned to my left after the first hairpin and saw the race exploding, it was ON. Pretty quickly a select group of 15 or so formed at the front of the race. The pace was relentless, everyone know that with the shortened climb the climbers had to take advantage as soon as the road went up. I sat about 4th or 5th wheel and tried to monitor how the other guys were looking, Andy Naylor, 2nd on GC and ex pro, was in the box big time, breathing out of control, head slumping, hanging on by the skin of his teeth, others also seemed to be on the limit, I couldn’t believe I felt in control, heart rate high but comfortably pedalling – this was a new experience, climbing in a race, on a proper climb, with the front group and not hanging on, confidence went up a level.
I knew the Meg was coming and it would be decisive, it’s a steep pinch of a few hundred meters and anyone who’s suffering goes backwards rapidly here. We came round the corner and saw the KOM flag, Ciaran Jones punched forward out of the saddle to take the points, he looked sharp and strong. I stayed in the saddle and pedalled after him – a glance behind and the group was in bits, faces contorted, some riders doing the weave, I went over the KOM in 3rd without making a big effort to do so and then knew it was time to give it a shake. The climb continues at lesser gradient after the Meg, but anyone who had to dig deep really struggles at this point, I let the group reform and drifted down the left hand side to take stock of who was left and how they were looking.
Only about 7 or 8 still in it. As I got to the back of the group 2 went off the front. Michael Gallagher of Jayco, and Michael Tolhurst of Elders, both strong riders. I let them get 100 meters or so, stuck it in the big ring and surged across the gap, this was the first big effort I’d made and some days everything clicks and you feel unbeatable – this was one of those.
Quick breather on the back and straight through for a hard turn, that dropped Tolhurst and then there were two of us, there is only one thing to do in this situation and that’s ride, no tactics, no messing, full on hard riding. I looked at the Garmin and we had 10km left. We swapped hard turns for a few km but the group remained in sight behind us, I didn’t dare think we were the winning break yet. Once we hit the false flats we kept the speed right up and it was only then that the gap opened up, suddenly we were out of sight and my thoughts turned to the win. 3km to go, still swapping turns.
2km to go and as Robbie McEwen would say “the inner bastard” came out.
I Can't Do A Turn - Really!
Time to bluff, there was no way I was throwing away the chance to win this, Gallagher surged on the last steep bit and really put in an effort to drop me, I had to dig deep to hang on but there was no way I was coming through after that, he continued to ride, I told a little white lie and said I had nothing. 1km to go and I started looking for the finish banner, a few corners, I saw what looked like a finish area and just aimed for it, opened the sprint and won it by a few lengths. Sometimes the best wins are the least expected, it felt great.
Miha came in a soon after for an incredible first time ride at Bright. He had the nous and strength to get in the day one break, did a good TT on a road bike and hung on in a strong group on Hotham for a top 10 finish. Way better than I could manage first time at Bright and a stage or GC podium could well be on the cards for 2012.
A fantastic way to round out the year, and damn good crack with the KMD boys too.
