Northern CC Club Championship 2025 - Race Report

Glenaroua outside of Broadford, provided a tantalising course for the puncheurs and rolleurs of the Northern Cycling Club. Pure climbers and flat trackers, need not apply, but then again, with a decent handicap and some grit, anything is possible. On the drive out with Tommy "the oracle" McDonough, we review the field, the ones to watch. Tommy in his wisdom says that there will be a new name on the trophy by the end of the day. Could Tom know something that I don't? Let's wait and see.

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 Tim Anderson.

The conditions Strong northerly winds gusting 30-40km/h were tempered by the heavily wooded roadside. The overcast skies kept temperatures to a comfortable 18 degrees. There were a few potholes here and there, but marked well enough to be avoided.

The field. 28 starters, consisting of 2 women (Stephanie Young, defending champion and Bronwyn Morris) and 26 men. There was a fair spread of ages from mid 30s into the 70s, with all grades represented.

The course Two laps of 32.5km with approximately 400m of vertical gain per lap at an average of 1.2%, but that doesn't tell the true story. This course is a pure sprinters nightmare. The Sugar Loaf Creek climb averages 8.5% for 500m and the last 2km of the Broadford-Glenaroua Rd which averages 3.5%, are both critical segments of the course where the stronger riders will do their best to drop their opposition.

As sure as the sun came up this morning, Emilio Romano launched the first attack and the bunch was content to let him sit out there on his own for a while. Eventually the need to put some pace in the race took over and Emilio was reeled in. Meanwhile Avi Kassman took a drink and dropped his bottle. Fortunately he had two onboard. Onto the three rollers, the main bunch stayed together. Onto the sugar Loaf Creek Climb and the bunch was inseparable. Riders such as Craig Harvey, Mark Edele and Trevor Coulter tried their best to create some separation, never getting much for than 30-40 metres gap before being shutdown. Shortly after getting the Bell lap, Tim Anderson launched a scintillating attack, which put everyone into an urgent chase. Fortunately the attackers ran out of gas and those of us tailing off the back managed to rejoin the main group. Looking around the bunch, this wasn't just the usual suspects, Crit and TT specialist Luke Markof was still on the hunt and surely a good chance for handicap honours. meanwhile Avi Kassman has gone from one bottle to two thanks to Tom's generosity, which must have played a big part of keeping him in the race. For the remainder of the final lap, it was more of the same. Attacks from Tim Anderson, an occasional surge by Gary Clively, Emilio, Mark and myself, but everyone was marked so closely it was near impossible to make a significant break.

Meanwhile at the back of the bunch Tom McDonough had barely touched the wind all day and employed the wise strategy of only firing one well timed bullet with about 5km remaining. Could he pull off the unthinkable? The lack of a response swayed the odds in Tom's favour and it wasn't until Luke Poyser initiated a chase that the bunch woke up from being stunned by Tom's trademark late attack. Avi Kassman contributed and Tom was eventually reigned in with about a kilometre to go. The bunch powered on with a bunch sprint to the line, with the top 10 finishing within 2.5 seconds of each other. Luke Poyser, led home Mark Edele and Morgan Belbruno, to complete the podium.

In the women's category, Stephanie Young successfully defended her title.

And now to the handicap honours or podium of legends as I prefer to call it. Tom McDonough (centre) took the honours. From left Trevor Coulter, Walter Dapich, Tom, Luke Markof and Craig Harvey. Well done lads.

Let's hear from Luke Poyser, the 40 year old primary School teacher who has the honour of wearing the number 1 for the next year.  Luke got into riding back in 2010 after a knee reconstruction but had persistent back injuries and had to stop. He worked really hard to get his body right but kept tearing hamstrings playing cricket so got back into cycling in mid 2021 to try to get healthier and as an outlet but loved racing so was always planning to get back into it. 

Today’s race was quite tactical, quite a few guys really closely matched so every time 2 or 3 went off the front everyone jumped to close the gap. Kanizay, Anderson and Edele were very active through the race. The climbs were tough but nobody drove over the top of them which kept the group really tight. I thought myself and Luke Markof would be really threatening if we could get over the stepped climb on the second lap. From there it was just a case of holding on up the short but steep Sugarloaf climb. Tommy McDonough put in a well timed attack with 5-6km to go and the group looked at each other for a bit. I got a bit panicky as I’ve been done over by Tommy before and went to the front for a little bit and then Avi Kassman took over and gave me an incredible run into the finish. A couple went past us maybe 300m from the finish but I’d scouted the finished a few times and had a spot in mind to kick at. Pretty stoked to get a win like that!

What we did learn is that Tommy "the oracle" McDonough was right, there is a new name on the club champion trophy and the club has a worthy winner who will no doubt defend the number one across both disciplines of road and crit racing.

Results https://sporthive.com/sessions/11358464