Pop Stewart and Alf Walker Handicaps - A day of true grit

After a near blanket finish at the Combine’s last handicap at Broadford for the Jack Wood Memorial it was time to get back to Balliang, the spiritual home of the Northern Combine.  54 riders from 16 clubs signed on for the 3 events, the Junior Handicap, the combined Alf Walker and the Pop Stewart Handicap, honouring a couple of Brunswick Cycling club legends. Significantly, Brunswick CC riders were best represented with 20 entrants. However, signing up and turning up and two different things and one look at the weather in Melbourne on Saturday morning suggested that it would probably be worse out at Balliang.  But there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to go and see for yourself, which 40 brave men, women and children did in a display of true grit and they were not disappointed.

18min bunch

Riders were greeted with wet roads and drizzle at the start.  If not for some dry wood, the open fire place in the hall, would have been the place to be, but fortunately for the riders and officials the weather improved markedly over the course of the race. 

Six groups headed out separated by 38 minutes, with the 22min and 30min groups having 9 riders each and Chopping Block with 8 riders.  My initial hope was that my 18min group would not get caught before the third time around on the gravel.  In a strange twist to the race, only the 22 and 30min groups caught anyone of note. 

Is it just me or is everyone getting faster? 

Comparing the data over the last 3 years at this race, the results say yes.  The median and average times were way down on previous years and so too was the fastest time on the day.

Year	Average Time	Median Time	Fastest Male	Riders
2022	2:19:04	2:20:35	1:57:37	22
2023	2:19:58	2:22:35	1:59:52	15
2024	2:05:39	2:04:11	1:53:53	35

 Whilst the pro-peloton is getting faster, so too are local club riders.  Why is that?

·         many more of us are wearing skinsuits, aero socks and aero helmets

·         riding more aero and lighter bikes

·         improving our positioning on the bike to be more aero

·         upgrading wheelsets is not the expense it used to be 

·         faster tyres and optimised tyre pressures 

·         using structured training plans and/or getting a coach

·         consuming 90-120grams of carbs per hour

·         listening to the same experts on the same podcasts and have access to the same information

Before we go to the winners, let’s have a look inside the 3rd scratch group of 6 off 18min.  The bunch ranging in age from 16 to over 60 was quickly whittled away to 5 after our junior Riley Boyd didn’t quite have enough gears to hold on in the opening 6km. The gravel section was an issue for the uninitiated, with Tim McGrath showing us how it’s done. In the meantime, Damian Vendy was dropped and then soloed back on to rejoin the group about 6km later.

Balliang Gravel

Heading into lap 3, we dropped Tim McGrath, who later said “he only had a good 50km in him”. So it was back to four, with a couple of female passengers from the groups in front. We got a time check of 4min at the top of the Granite Rd climb, but with just over 20min to go, we were no chance to catch the lead group. Nevertheless the now awesome foursome of Damian Vendy, Glenn Purcell, Samuel Bell and myself, powered on as we had done all race.

Rounding the final corner there was a loud bang, which happened to be my rear tube exploding. Fortunately, I kept the bike upright until I could dismount and walk/run to the finish line in CX style.

Kudos to my group for an awesome team effort. We certainly left it all out there on the road on Saturday and we didn’t make up a single second on the 22min group four minutes in front of us.  Yes, everyone is getting faster.

And finally, to the winners and it was a Brunswick trifecta with Che Dungey holding out Karla Bell (fastest woman) in a sprint finish and Craig Moore in 3^rd place.  Hawthorn riders, Anna Booth in 4th and Ross Allen back to back 5th place.  Lucas Moore, also from BCC had the fastest time on the day. 

Che from the 22min group was stoked to come away with the win and have his name on a trophy of club legends.  It was a tough day for Che initially after getting dropped on the first climb and scrambling to get back on.  Describing it as a day of true grit, he sucked wheels, gritted his teeth, ate some grit courtesy of the Balliang gravel and pulled through when he could, powered by 120g of sugar in each bottle. There might have been some grit there as well! Che paid tribute to his group who pulled together really well.  He was expecting it to come down to a sprint between himself and Craig Moore, but ultimately it was Karla Bell who challenged him to the line.

 

Karla also from the 22min group lead home a fast finishing Anna Booth by only a second.  Karla reported “we had a good group to start with, particularly on the climbs.  We caught the group in front on the second time around on the gravel which made it pretty interesting, but everyone got through”.

 

And in the Juniors Hcp, Elliot Birney took the honours.

Thanks as always to our officials, race organiser, marshals, photographers and volunteers, without you guys, we cannot race.