Self Righteous Cyclist

After months of early morning structured training, weekends with double hard days, bike prep, nutrition prep and targeted tapering, I was ready for my version of a grand final, the Tour of Bright.  The Tour of Bright is the biggest multi-stage bike race in Australia, with over 400 riders contesting, 10 categories, across three stages over two days.  Throw in the criterium on the night before and you have yourself an unofficial four stage event.  This is as big as it gets for club cyclists in Australia.   By 10:30am on Friday morning, the car was packed. My wife, Paula and I were ready to hit the road.  Across the road, we observe our neighbours, Michael and Jude rescuing ducklings from the storm water drain in front of their house.  We do the neighbourly thing and offer to help.  We corralled the rescued ducklings toward the mother duck and her brood of ducklings in the hope they can be reunited and make their way safely back to Merri Creek....

Part two of the Brunswick CC Dirty Warrny recap is by Anthony Somers, who is a veteran of a couple of Melbourne to Warrnambools in recent times, and knows what it takes to have a long day in the saddle.   Rolled up for my first attempt at the Dirty Warrny, a 251 km ride (but not a race, yeah right) from the edge of Geelong to the centre of Warrnambool. Over 200 kilometres of the course is on gravel and has well over 3,000 m of climbing, so I knew I was in for a long day. I was riding with longtime friend, Craig Fry, we met in 1988 as Monash first year students, he the worldly art student, me the immature engineer. Craig is a diesel, he can go all day. My characteristics are built on years of Northern Combine road racing and crits, so more used to surging, but not the distance. Preparation is everything. Luckily, Craig had insisted we ride the full course a month before and while I cursed him at the time, now had some confidence that I would be able to finish. The only concern was t...

Brunswick Cycling Club was well represented at this year's Dirty Warrny by riders in the elites and age groupers across the full 250km and 140km event. Tara Neyland was the first woman across the line in the 245km. Angus Moller, first in the 16-39 age group. Stewart Weir and Anthony Somers in the 50-59 men's category. Also a shout out to Evan Armstrong, Kenneth Attard, Leigh McCrabb, James Hunt, Trent Goatley and Sarah Gigante (2nd elite female) in the 140km. Oskar Moore in a well earned 5th place has been kind enough to write up a recap to give us an arm chair ride over the Otways and down to Warrnambool. Stay tuned for more DW recaps. This year's Dirty Warrny was a day I'd been looking forward to for a long time; a year in fact! Having rolled along - rather unfit - in 2023, in a time of 9 hours, I was keen to see what I could do after a year of consistent, hard training and racing. I drove down to the race start on the Friday night, and set up my tent a hundred me...

Angelo & Vince A field of 42 from 11 clubs and a good number of helpers turned out at the Glenaroua CFA Station for the Cup day running of Angelo's Race , otherwise known as the Angelo De Francesco Memorial Handicap, held in memory of one of the club's esteemed former members.  The De Francesco family was well represented on the day, with his daughter Sandra Prosenica riding off 30min, his grand daughter and great grandson in attendance.  Not to forget Angelo's influence goes as far as his grand daughter Daniella De Francesco currently riding in the women's pro peloton for Arkea - B&B Hotels.   2024 had an air of 2023 about it, with the same course and similar weather conditions.  26 of the 42 riders competed on the same course the previous year, with a core group of last year's scratch riders, including Jesse Cropley, who was the fastest rider in 2023.  Hopefully this information would help our beloved handicapper Bruce, but just like that warning ...

Tough courses bring out the hard and well trained men and women of the North.  It was unfortunate that there was a scheduling conflict with Gravelista at Seymour and that our Seymour-Broadford regulars weren't able to join us.  Also missing was Kathryn Kennedy, current women's champion, who is currently nursing an injury and wasn't able to contend the club champs.  We wish her a speedy recovery and hope to see her back racing soon. First of all, let's take a look at what this is all about, because there are three races within one event: The Secret Handicap, Age Group Championship and Club Championship for fastest man and woman. All riders start at the same time, without knowing what their handicap is, which is what makes this such an interesting ride. It's mano a mano.  The male Club Champion gets to wear the coveted number 1 for the next year, currently worn by Aaron Christiansen.   The conditions  Light NW winds, overcast skies and 17 degrees on...