Dirty Warrny Recap by Oskar Moore

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 metres from the startline. I felt a calm excitement.







The race was fast from the start, but the epic distance did subdue some of the usual chaos that I've seen in recent races. We hit the first extended slopes around 40km into the race, and I skipped across to a group of 4 that was beginning to develop a small gap. We rolled smooth turns, and were soon joined by 5 or 6 of the big hitters, who'd blasted across the gap. Not long after the first feed zone at Dean's Marsh (65km), a few more joined us, so we hit the base of the KOM with around 20. Connor Sens immediately began driving the pace, and I felt good enough to follow. Once we crested the first step of the climb I was happy to see that there were only 5 in the front group.


Rolling along the top of the Otways we were joined by another 6 riders, with a massive gap to the next group behind them. From 110 to 140km we rolled along cohesively, before the attacks started rolling again. At 150km Scott Bowden made a move, and was quickly followed by Dylan Sunderland. There was a few seconds of hesitation as to who would be the third rider to follow, and that was all it took to never see those two again.


The final 100km of the race was a slow grind, dropping riders one-by-one until only 4 remained for the last 75km. We rolled without much urgency, into the last 10km, with the knowledge that the leader was over 5 minutes ahead. With 8km to go, on the first roller into Warrnambool, Connor Sens took a massive flyer, and as my hamstrings began cramping up (as they had been since Forrest) I knew we wouldn't get back to him.


The final few kilometres of the race featured a fun cyclocross-style section, which turned into a 3-up match sprint. I positioned myself in second wheel, laying off the rider in front a little, but unfortunately left my run a bit too late, so ended up second in that group, and fifth overall.

I'll be back!