We woke up to some silly polyphonic alarm on Tom McDonough's Mobile phone.  Time is 7am.  Get up, get dressed, pack the bags in the car and prepare brekky for the drive to the ‘Mount’. It is 7:30am (Vic time) and we are off.

 The weather is grey and sad looking.  As we cross the Victorian/South Australian border it starts to drizzle with rain.  I’m not a religious person but I start praying for it to stop, I prefer to race in the dry.  The drizzle has stopped by the time we get to the ‘Mount’. Yeah!

 We get into the ‘Mount’ around 9am (Vic time) and I have 1hour and 38minutes to start time.  We go to registration and pick up our numbers and information, then head across the road to ‘Maccas’ for Tom and Luke to get some Brekky. 

 The Coburg riders times are:

Wayne Gebert – 43mins

Luke and Tom Mc Donough – 25mins

Adrian Hanson – 9mins

Steve Pilson – Scratch

 I head back to the car to start getting my feed and gear ready.  Once Luke and Tom have eaten we head over to the Hotel where Pilson and Hanson are staying and finish preparations.  I head off for a warm up and pick up Pilson and Hanson’s numbers as they are starting from scratch and 9min respectively.

 It is 9:50am (SA time).  I ride around for a bit longer and then head to the start, which is at the car park exit of ‘Maccas’.  I watch limit go off at 51mins.

 We get the countdown and we’re off.  There are about 14 of us in the bunch.  It takes a few too many k’s for the group to start working together but it does happen.  We are heading up the highway to Millicent averaging around 38kph.  At the Tantanoola turnoff we get a time gap call of 1min 30sec to limit.  Sounds a bit too close after only about 10k’s of racing so I ignore it.  The group is swapping turns pretty well with the odd rider going a bit to hard on the front and leaving gaps.  They get some polite advice and things seem to calm down a bit.  Coming up to the Kimberly-Clarke Mill and we get a time check of about 3min 30, that sounds more reasonable.  We get to Millicent in just over an hour.

 We are now on our way back to the ‘Mount’ with 11 riders.  We catch the limit group just before the turn-off to Range Hill.  A couple of k’s up the road we turn-off and start the climb to the Range Hill Sprint. Limit took the first 6 sprint primes.  I am feeling pretty comfortable and strong so I attack the group.  I get a good gap of up to 75odd metres.  It is about 2.5k’s to the top.  I try and maintain a gap and momentum.  I reach the top and claim the prime with about a 5-10m gap to second.  On the way down the other side I take a nature break whilst rolling and the others grab their feed bags and load up.  We  are now a group of seven.  For some reason on of the guys rides up the road!  Why I don’t know.  It would have been better for the seven of us to stay together. We miss the next prime as it was one of the “surprise” primes and everyone in the group was a bit confused about what was going on. We work together until the ‘Mount’ and then start looking for the 100k sprint prime.  This time I get 2^nd to the 100k point.  Starting to feel a bit tired from the climb and sprint. 

 The bunch then turns into the strong southerly wind which greets us for the stretch down to Port MacDonnell.  The group settles down into an easy tempo, probably too easy.  The next sprint at the Bellum Hotel comes up and I attack the group from the back of the group.  An easy prime to get in the end as no-one went with me.

 With about 40k’s to go the scratch bunch, what was left of it, and a few riders from other groups caught us.  For me that signalled the end of the race and the next 40 odd k’s were a training session.  Once we turned around at Port MacDonnell we had a strong tailwind.  The rest of the way to the ‘Mount’ was a fast ride averaging about 40-45kph.

I finished the 100miles in a time of about 4hours and 20mins, give or take a couple of minutes, and gave a big salute to the crowd for coming to the finish.

 Stephen Cunningham and his Savings and Loans team got the first and fastest in a record time.  See http://www.mtgambiercycling.com/ for details.

 Coburg rider results:

Adrian Hanson – 6^th

Luke McDonough - ?

Wayne Gebert - ?

Tom McDonough - ?

Steve Pilson - DNF

 What a race!  See you there next year! 

Sunday 22 April, 2007, Mt Gambier
by Wayne Gebert

Sunday after the 100mile race sees the running of the Criteriums.  The course this year was a 2km hotdog course in a U shape located near the Velodrome.

 As with last year the morning brought rain and a wet course.  Fortunately for the D grade field the rain stopped.  The race was a 30min sprint.  There were 3 intermediate sprints about 2 laps apart.  The D grade start/finish line was at the bottom of a short decline just after the last corner. 

The corners were pretty tight and I lost ground at each one.  My only saving grace was that I was able to make up the 5m gap fairly quickly without much effort.  Coming up to the sprints I came from behind and powered past the group to edge to the front at the top of the small climb before the corner.  On the corner I slowed all down and powered off, trying to stifle any sprinters behind me.  As there was a downhill sprint to the finish I generally had the field covered.  Using this tactic I was able to win all three intermediate sprints.

Leading up to the last lap I was put on the front by the bunch as they had learnt my tactic.  I tried to lead from the front but after leading for almost 1.5k and going hard at the intermediate sprints I was not able to finish it off.  I ended up fifth on the line.

 Tom and Luke raced C grade.  Luke went with the eventual winner from the start in a break and they held a good 100-150m gap for most of the race.  Luke won one of the intermediate sprints and came second on the line.  For the C, B and A grade races the line was moved to the bottom of the small incline before the corner.  This ensured a fairer and safer sprint finish.

 Thanks to the Mt Gambier Cycling Club for two great events.  I hope to be back next year for another go.  Thanks to Tom’s friend for putting us up for the night on the Friday.  And, thanks to Tom and Luke for taking me to Mount Gambier again.

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