2025 BDCC Merv Dean Memorial Senior Club 3 Day Tour - race report

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 break.  About 20km in there was an accident in B grade with 3 riders off their bikes being attended to. We were stopped for about 10min while the scene was cleared and help arrived. Officials noted the time gaps and the race resumed.

The intensity increased and the field thinned out as we lost 2 of the women. The Redesdale town sprint around the 35km mark was a trigger point for solo attacks with Dan Johnson going long. We eventually reeled him in, then ferg frog doing the same, dropping his trademark watt bomb, followed by a Hail Mary. That didn’t work either. Our bunch of 9 counted down the last 2km of the stage, jostling for position. Sebastian Freer from Bendigo crossing first and Dan Johnson second.

 Stage 2 55km featuring the climb up Mt Alexander and 3km of gravel

Stage Recap: let’s set the scene, 5 degrees, drizzle and a SW breeze to make it even cooler. Riders were rugged up to the max. I went for a merino base layer and polypropylene under the Skinsuit with leg warmers and overshoes. The plan was for double gloves, polypropylene under waterproof gloves. My first failure of the day was to leave one of my outer gloves in the car.

ferg frog , Matthew Jones, Andrew Gannon and Dan Johnson threw in a few early attacks but nothing stuck. Heading into the KOM Andrew Gannon pipped me for points on the line. Next up was the Harcourt town sprint, where I launched from 500m and was just beaten by u19/GC leader Sebastian Freer. He may be young, but he has plenty of racing smarts and potential. Things settled down for a while and then on the second climb of the day Dan Johnson lit things up with a massive attack, which created a break which left four of us chasing hard to catch on. Finally with some assistance from ferg frog we caught the leaders.

Matt and Dan pulled a few more punches, but no KO blows were landed. Heading into a twisting descent, Andrew Gannon warned about gravel on a hairpin bend. He and Matt lead the way, getting a gap and the rest followed at a distance. Dan was keen to be part of the action and managed to bridge across to the leaders. I tried and failed, then regrouped with Sebastian and lead female Sophie Edwards. We got over the 3km of gravel without a problem and possibly gained some on the leaders.

It was time for grovel and grind as we hit the climb up Mt Alexander. The lead bunch of three was breaking up. Sophie and Sebastian went ahead and I found my own rhythm and realised that I probably didn’t have enough gears (36/30) for this climb. Nevertheless I managed to pick up Andrew and Dan, to be third man across the line behind Sebastian and Matthew. Well done everyone, that was one tough stage.

Stage 3 a four lap Kermesse of 47km at Harcourt

With the best weather of the weekend, overcast 8 degrees and a SW breeze impacting the finish straight and road south to Harcourt. I went in with the intention of picking up some intermediate Sprint and KoM points on laps 2&3 and then the stage. The 62 second gap to 2nd was too big to bridge. Early on lap one FErgus Fitswater took a flyer and quickly established a decent break of 15 seconds on the field. It would be an awesome effort to win solo. Could he pull off the impossible?

The front third of the bunch worked hard to catch Ferg, while the rest hung on. With no significant climb or technical descent to get away on, the field stayed together. Halfway around we got a time call of 30 seconds. The one possible break was stymied by a red flag onto Harmony Way. Lucky for me!

With 3/4 of a lap to go and a time call of 20 seconds, a few of the women took matters into their own hands to chase Ferg down and made the catch with half a lap to go. Ferg caught his breath and fired off another salvo and then another. Meanwhile Dan Johnson sought to impose himself on the race, with his every move being marked by race leader Sebastian Freer.

Coming into the final km BDCC’s Belinda Bailey launched a blistering attack and managed to take out the stage for the women and Dan Johnson the first man over the line. Personally I was very happy to hold onto my third on GC.

Thanks to the Bendigo District Cycling Club and the team of volunteers who put on a quality event.