Self Righteous Cyclist

Brunswick Cycling Club member Luke Markov has been consistently on the podium at the Auscycling Victorian Time Trial 2025 series..He has kindly penned his account of the Victorian Time Trial Championships held at Philip Island. After the 35 min+ wait in line for scrutineering, this leaves a stunning 15 mins for warm up. I hit the rollers and start loosening the legs. I wrap that, pop the last of the aero gear on and head to the starting gantry. It’s a 4.4km lap for 22km total with plenty of corners on the Phillip Island Grand Prix track. Funnily enough, despite the slightly annoying lead in - I feel tremendously relaxed. I have seen this course before (18 years ago!) behind the wheel and am confident in the space and lines. Before I know it, I’m up. Get the hold, double check I’m in a good gear, hit “start” on the computer 2s before release and then I’m off. I punch out hard to get up to speed as fast as possible and then settle into position. Running anti-clockwise we come into an exp...

Hands down the hardest road race I’ve ever done. The BCC club champs attracted riders from the youngsters, the up and comers, the newbies, defending title holder che d and the old’uns. Just think of a field of 27 riders between the ages of 9-69 and from A to E grade. Before the main event got underway the juniors raced a shorter 12km loop chaperoned by the main peloton and  few parents. In fairness to the older riders, they were given a choice of one or two laps of the Granite Rd course. My request for 4 laps was declined by Mr Pink and very welcomed in hindsight. Right from the start the posse of u19s like a herd of young bulls, were keen to assert their dominance over their older rivals, but we weren’t about to rollover and let them take an early break.  Stewart Hay, Phil Naidoo, Andrew Gannon and myself got into an early break and worked well together, until Stewart’s intensity shredded the attempt. I soon paid for it by falling out the back of the bunch scrambling to sta...

 Thanks to Tim Carroll for penning this story about his recent bike packing adventure with two mates. Tuillio, Rob and I just completed our first bikepacking adventure. We’d hoped to ride in autumn, but as always, work and life got in the way. Rather than postpone again until summer, we chose to head off in mid-winter—right after a week of heavy rain and freezing conditions. (We gave that zero thought.) It was now or never. Tim, Rob & Tuillio Day One We caught the train to Lilydale, followed the easy gravel route to Warburton, then road into The Reefton Pub for an early lunch around 11:30 AM—burgers and chips. We all said, “Don’t eat the chips, they’ll make the Reefton climb harder.” We ate the chips. We regretted the chips. At the top of the climb we spotted a dusting of snow, got excited, snapped a few photos, and continued on. We turned off onto Cambarville Road—a dirt track that leads to the back of Eildon, about 60 km long. The snow thickened quickly, covering the road...

The recent June long weekend here in Victoria saw the running of the Bendigo District Cycling Club's Merv Dean Memorial Senior Club 3 day tour.  Stages 1 & 2 departed from Sutton Grange and Stage 3 at neighbouring Harcourt. The event attracted about 90 riders from as far afield as Adelaide and Mt Gambier in South Australia.  Grassroots events like this are the lifeblood of our sport and give our young riders the opportunity to pit themselves against some of the best riders in the country. It might have been chilly but the competition was hot and the camerarderie between us was warm.   Stage 1 50km loop course of rolling hills, starting from Sutton Grange C grade was made up of 8 women (in their own grade) and 12 men. The race started with the KoM at 4.3km. Fergus Fitzwater and Andrew Gannon pushed hard, but Sophie Edwards pushed even harder and took top points.   A bunch of 11, including 5 women broke away at this point and worked hard to establish the ...

There's something about a handicap race which draws out the optimist in all of us.  Perhaps today will be our day, when the handicapper gets it right.  By that I mean, let's us in with a chance to win, perhaps even a place would be nice.  My confidence was high, with the 11min group of 10, the largest of the bunches, accounting for almost a quarter of the field of 45.  But first I would need to survive 75kms or three gruelling laps of Balliang's infamous Granite Road circuit. The day began with a carpool out to Balliang with fellow travellers Steve (Brunswick CC), who swapped his race number for a marshal's flag and Seb (Hawthorn CC), my 11min group accomplice.  If you haven't done a carpool to a race before, I thoroughly recommend it.  Between the banter, the tactics and the laughs, you won't be left alone with your own thoughts, stressing about the race. Meanwhile my Brunswick teammate and fellow 11min bunch member Che Dungey, left home a 5:45am and r...

 It’s a Steel! A small, but illustrious field gathered at the Brunswick Velodrome for Steel Bike day last Sunday 23 rd March. In true Brunswick style, there was no plan or schedule, just a desire to have a great time on two wheels.  Chief Commissaire Mr. Pink’s first decree of the day was to make himself redundant and hand over the reigns to the juniors of the club who were there to “watch dad go round” and cheer on the riders.  With microphone in one hand and notebook in another, our four tireless junior commissaires, Ralph, Indra, Jonathon and April, kept order, counted down laps, waved flags, added scores, interviewed riders and did party tricks. And there were some pretty slick looking bikes in action The event was held to raise funds for Tour de Cure.   Anna Nicolas, lost her partner and former member Peter “Trigger” Traeger.   Peter tragically, lost his battle with cancer in November 2022, just 11 days after his son’s first birthday.   Anna said "I...

2024 the year of not focusing on results.  Wait, didn't I nominate a bunch of time and result driven goals for 2024?  Yes I did, but I don't care about them anymore. Shortly after I broke my Kinglake PR in February, it got me thinking, when is enough, enough?  Why is it that once we reach a certain goal, we then hunger for more?  Who am I competing with here?  Yes it would be great to post a better time than my mates, but ultimately the only person I am competing against is myself.  During the year I listened to a TrainerRoad podcast on goal setting and the emphasis was on process goals, rather than outcome goals, which many of mine are.  I have always prided myself on being about the process, but there's no doubt that I have become caught up in the outcomes, because they are a tangible measure of personal success.   Listening to the Anecdotally Speaking podcast last year, they introduced a story about Joseph Heller (author of Catch 22) bei...