Headed up to Lake Eildon for the Damian McDonald Road Race with the Blackburn Cycling Club, which also doubled up as the Blackburn Road Championships. It was a glorious day and the quiet roads made for some safe and fast racing!
Was put in the D Grade/Junior U17 bunch but I was technically only racing against other D Grader's There were only about 8 other D Grader's that I had to worry about (15 U17's.)
First 26km was pretty flat and although I told myself to sit in until we hit the main climb, adrenaline got the better of me and I did try to go with a couple of moves. Made the other D Grader riders in the bunch chase which was good.
We hit the climb and a couple of U17's went off the front. I followed and another D Grader went. About half-way in, I could see that there was only 1 other D Grader left, with maybe 4-5 U17's in our group. We were going hard up the hill, I was putting out good power for ~10-15 mins. As soon as I saw as the last rider dropped, I moved onto the front, drove it for the remaining 2-3km to the top. I knew I needed a decent gap and a group to latch onto as I was by far the lightest rider and was no chance of soloing 40km to the finish. At the top of the hill, there was an U17 maybe 500m ahead, and me driving a group of 3 other U17s with all other D Grade riders behind us.
As soon as we got to the top, the other 3 U17's came around me and they descended the mountain like mad men. I know I'm not the best descender (triathlete), but jeez these guys were flying around the hair-pin bends.
Luckily for me, one of the U17 riders didn't quite make it to the front and so he waited for me to work together at the end of the 15km descent. We swapped turns and picked up a couple of dropped riders from earlier bunches. We rolled turns for the last 15km and I was starting to hurt. Just kept looking back to make sure none of the other D Grader's were catching up and doing my best to stay with the group. Lasted 12km before I blew up and rode the last 3 km by myself, anxiously looking over my shoulder.
Rode to the finish line and got the win! The end result was a 3-minute gap to the next 3 D Grade riders who battled it out in the sprint.
Very well organised by the Blackburn Cycling Club & a big thanks to all the sponsors who made it such an enjoyable day for the riders.
Will definitely be back for next year's edition!
