CCCC Les O’Mara Handicap

After having success at the last Modella handicap, I decided to give it another go. As always I wasn't highly confident as my legs were still store after ripping apart the Thursday night bunch ride in Sale. There was large numbers all round and my bunch off at 12min was exceptionally big. Conditions were great with no wind and for once it wasn't even that cold (Garmin showed 14degC). The group worked fairly well together given the size with large rest times between efforts which assisted recovery. It didn't take too long for us to catch the 16min group which had some strong riders including the infamous hard man Tommo from Warragul (Geoff Thomson) who won the Gippsland 3 Day Tour back in 1977. He was riding his stealth black Parlee which was easily one of the nicest bikes there. The now combined 12 & 16 min group continued on rolling consistent turns but it wasn't to the 2nd lap where we picked up the last remaining riders becoming the front of the race.

Entering the final 20km's we were told that there was only a 60sec gap on the bunch behind. A few k's down the road, the gap was down to 40secs and a majority of riders decided it was time to sit up and recover before being caught. Once caught, the large Lycra train of men (and one woman) steamed forward towards the finish line. With 5km's to go, the pace was high and the road was full riders making it hard to move towards the pointy end of the bunch. 1km to go, the pace had increased to near on 50km/h and was starting to turn into mayhem with a few riders slowing down mid bunch. I was too far back and content to roll though in the winning bunch. I had felt surprisingly strong and had made a big improvement over my race there previously. Overall the 12min bunch averaged just over 41km/h with Tommo taking out 2nd. Now time to focus on my recovery in preparation for another ITT tomorrow at Kew Boulevard.

CCCC Jack McGowan Handicap at Modella - 6th Overall

Today the weather was great with the sun making a rare appearance and temperature was up in the double digits. I was excited to be on the way to another race and finding my way to Modella Hall proved a challenged as I blindly followed the GPS. It took the Mazda 3 down a unsealed road which deteriorated the further we traveled, turning into a muddy 4wd track before finally disappearing into a swampy paddock. I decided to accept defeat turning back, choosing the safer but slightly more boring option. Overall it was probably lucky that we didn't get bogged which I put down to my driving abilities leaving the Mazda intact albeit being covered top to bottom in a thick layer of mud.

In total 100 riders made the drive to Modella. My bunch was the off at 16mins and was fairly large in size containing a couple of strong riders that I recognized from the Gippsland region. Straight from the get go it was on with a couple of the more experienced riders organizing the bunch from a collection of stray cats into a well oiled machine. Everyone was rolling turns and before we knew it we had caught the riders in the previous bunches. Overtime the bunch was slowly starting to whittle down but the pace was kept high and by the end of first lap, the existing 4min to the riders behind was unchanged and the bell spurred us on.

The legs were starting to feel tired and I could feel a number of cramps building but thankfully never eventuated. The group continued to work well together with everyone doing their bit to keep the dream alive. Throughout the lap, the time updates proved that the gap was slowly being whittled down but it was still possible. On the home stretch, only 10 riders remained and the closer the finish become the more disorganized the group became. Finally with the finish line in sight, a couple of the smarter riders sat back knowing the job had been completed and it was time to prepare for the final kick. I missed the initial jump but managed to pull a few places back coming 6th overall. Overall we had averaged 40km/h for the 96km and all riders looked glad to be of the bike and a number of us were already walking funny.