Darnum, a small town just out of Warragul was hosting this years Victorian Masters Championships.  The weather was magnificent about 21 deg and a light breeze blowing at 11.00am when 19 riders rolled out of the Darnum Community Hall.  We were required to complete 5 laps of a 21km rolling circuit with a 1.5km 5% climb each lap being the toughest part of the course.

At 6km into the race I attacked from 3^rd wheel and quickly opened a 200m lead on the peleton.  They didn’t seem to be chasing so I continued to push hard over the first lap up the climb.  Over the top of the climb a pesky magpie decided to chase and swoop me for the next kilometre or so and the thought of having to contend with this every lap was a little disconcerting.  Oh well, I guess it would just make me ride a bit harder.  Nearing the end of the first 21km loop, I looked back to see 3 riders bridging the gap to me.  They consisted of Peter Dennis (Hawthorn), Chris Eichler and Paul Nolte (both Hamilton).  Dennis and Eichler came 1^st and 2^nd in the ITT the previous day so I figured there was a fair bit of fire power there.  Now there was 4 of us working together and this resulted in a considerable increase in pace.  Now we had approximately 20 sec lead.

 The 2^nd time up the climb, Nolte was struggling off the back as a result of Eichler’s strong tempo and at the top we decided that we would wait for Nolte as we still had the best part of 75km remaining and he would be very handy on the flatter parts of the course.  As we crossed the finish line for the 2^nd time, Nolte now had to let us go and retreated back into the peleton and eventually had to retire.  The three of us continued to push the pace and into the 3^rd lap our lead had stretched to 75sec.  To their credit Dennis and Eichler were doing very strong turns at the front with myself contributing as much as possible but missing a few turns here and there.

 Coming into the final lap, the legs were starting to cramp all over and the continuing average of close to 40 km/h over a rolling parcours was really starting to take its toll.  The gap back to the chasers now consisting of only 4 was down to 30 sec and they had us in sight.  With about 15km remaining the 3 of us sat up realising our day was done.

 We hit the final climb now with 7 of us vying for the top 3 positions at a very sedate pace with everyone looking at each other.  Half way up the climb Eichler attacked gaining 50 – 100m, I knew he was going to go and as I tried to chase both quads started to cramp, never the less I tried to bridge closing the gap considerably but also bringing the other 5.  Within a couple of kilometres, Eichler had been caught.  The last few kilometres were uneventful with few attacks and it looked to be coming down to the final sprint into a light headwind.  Eichler was again the strongest crossing the line a deserved victor with Christensen and Ianna making up the minor places.  In the final run to the line my legs just didn’t have the power to respond and I ended up 5^th.  A little disappointing being out in front for nearly 100km but again that is bike racing I guess.

 Results

1.  Chris Eichler (Hamilton)                     2:45.18

2.  Aaron Christensen (Hawthorn)            s.t.

3.  Darren Ianna (St Kilda)                       s.t.

4.  Matt Colston (St Kilda)                      s.t.

5.  Paul Logan (Coburg)                          s.t.

6.  Peter Dennis (Hawthorn)                    s.t.

7.  John Cipriano (Caulfied-Carnegie)        s.t.

8.  Darren Cathie (Caulfield-Carnegie)       @4.27

9.  Andrew Wilmott (Brunswick)              s.t.

10. Mal Sawford (Caulfield-Carnegie)        s.t.

11. Stewart Denmead (Hawthorn)            s.t.

12. David Lucid (Footscray)                     @4.43

13. Stuart Payne (St Kilda)                     @23.14