Monday, April 16, 2012

D-grade Domination - Gene Mills - Pastoria

Words by Mills...

Once again my race started in a shambles of "What did Mills forget this time?"

Not being keen enough to have a 5 o'clock wake up the morning of the race, i partook in some of the now famous Duggan family hospitality, jumping on the train out to Sunbury and getting  chauffeured over to the farm the night before the race, where i was able enjoy the most pleasant sleep i've had in a long time. There's just something about getting away from the city and the beautiful country air of Riddells Creek.

Being too daft to actually check the weather, I thought i would just pack for all eventualities. Winter, autumn and summer kit, all got thrown in the bag with some food and a book for the trip. "Thought" being the key word in that last sentence...

So its the morning of the race. The legs feel good, and I'm well rested. I've been sticking to my training program (well most of the time) and i'm even feeling a little bit confident.

That last part changed pretty quick. "Sh!t". Where are my bib knicks?

I've got the full length winter kit, but i just found out it's going to be 27 today! Everything else is here; Arm warmers, nope to hot for them; rain jacket, no to hot for that; knee warmers and over shoes, wont be needing these today; but no bloody bib knicks... I threw on my brand new full winter knicks. Wind, rain, hail these things could handle it, but that was not what i wanted right now...

Duggan keeps reassuring me "Mate you'll be fine, it will probably be cold over there anyway. There's always a chill in the air over that way". Well really we couldn't of had better weather for the first race of the season, and I was gutted...

A short drive over to Kyneton in the team bus, Hogan arrives, we sign up and my legs are already boiling. I've not even hopped on the bike yet. After a little bit of confusion and a lot of riding back and forth between the start location and the Saleyards, we hit the start line and there's nothing to do now but ride,

A grade take off and you can hear the chatter through the rest of the grades about how long it will be before GreenEDGE's (and Brunswick's) Mitch Docker will turn up the heat in the bunch. B roll out not to long after. Duggan and Hogan are off next along with the rest of C grade, officially starting their winter road season.

D grade roll out, and same as below with C grade, it was hardly walking pace till the first set of rollers. No one wanted to be responsible for turning up the pace to early, but ever so slowly around the first half of the track the pace picked up. One rider went off the front and just sat 100m or so out there for a bit, but no one was ever worried, or maybe they just didn't show it by chasing.

The first pass of Bald Hill picked the pace up a bit and brought the grade together. Rolling down towards the finish for the first time, I felt as if the race had truly started now. I tried to keep up in the front half of the bunch at all times but didn't push it to much and tried not to do to much work. Not shirking though, I pulled my turns with the rest of the crew up the front. It was a good sized field for D and there was a big mix of ability in there, so I was always trying to keep an eye out for wheels I knew, or people who looked smooth on the bike. You know - when I wasn't to busy complaining about how hot my freaking legs were.

The second time around the marshaled corner and the pace picked up again, but the group wasn't willing to let any one go off the front so there was a quite a bit of surging as people would take there attacks and the rest of the bunch would chase as one to shut it down. By this point I was sitting up the front with about 10 or so other's know that this is where i wanted to be for the rest of the race, just cover attacks and being ready in case a break did go.

The first big hit out was up the short sharp climb before Bald Hill on the on the second lap, and from then on it was the same small bunch of riders who would stretch out the bunch whenever they saw a good opportunity to go. But the bunch held strong, and the race didn't separate, but there was definitely some movement in the pack as people came up to the front to try and make their final lap moves. Meanwhile, all I could think about was unzipping the ankle cuffs on these knicks and letting some air in!

Nice skinny jeans!

















Coming in to the marshalled corner before Bald Hill for the last time, I started working my way up into the front six wheels or so, ending up on the front after the first small climb till half way up the hill. No one wanted to pass, but the three of us on the front didn't feel much like spending ourselves, so it slowed a bit on the flats and you could feel people getting nervous. I hit Bald Hill with a nice easy tempo not wanting to attack from the front and waiting for it to come from behind me. It did and i went with it,

Still on the front...
Near the front...
1 or 2 back at most...

I could feel my legs giving up, "keep going, so close, so close" i kept telling myself...

60m from the crest and i was done, the group past me. But there was only 6 of them.

I looked back to see the bunch had split. Everyone else was well behind me, out of the saddle again chasing down those 6 that had gone.

I caught one of them. Ok, keep going, only 5 more to catch...

Over the hill *click click* 53/12 Lets go, push, chase chase chase. 40m from the line the 5 in front crossed the finish in their sprint. I was in no mans land with a bit of time to finish and the bunch chasing down the hill in smaller groups, so I did what any D grader in no mans land would do when finishing with his highest placing in a road race yet. I made sure my jersey was nice and straight. zipped all the way up, sat up nice and tall and smiled for the camera as i rolled over the line, 6th...

I'm not gonna lie... I was pretty stoked...

Ed: We were later informed that Mills was very nearly fined by the commissaires. Not for taking his hand off the bars, but for celebration of 5th loser (Dave Morgan, pers comms, 2012)

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