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Darwin Cycling Club The Savings & Loans Credit Union Top End Tour Saturday 10 June to Monday 12 June 2006
by Luke McDonough & Paul Logan Paul Logan (A grade) and Luke McDonough (B grade) escaped the winter weather and contested the Top End Tour over the Queens birthday weekend. Paul finished 19th in A grade and Luke 10th in B grade.
Stage 1 Saturday, 10 June 2006 Adelaide River to Adelaide River Road Race A grade 120km, B grade 90km An out and back circuit starting at 7.30am. Luke stayed with the bunch for most of the race getting off loaded with 3km to go over the final KOM, loosing about 30 seconds on the stage. An A grade field of 30 started the tour which was the best field the tour has had in its 28 year history. The attacks started from the beginning with the 2 big teams Savings & Loans and the Queensland team Seqtour06 trying to gain the ascendancy early in the tour. Eventually a small group got away after a series of attacks. Luckily Paul managed to answer all the attacks and near the turnaround had settled into the bunch. Once at the turnaround Savings & Loans assembled at the front in the strong crosswinds which shelled about 7 riders including myself. Straight away we started rolling really well not letting the pace slacken and after about 15km of hard riding managed to bridge back to the convoy and therefore back to the peleton. At about 20km left to race the attacks started once again with Brett Aitken (Savings & Loans) and David Betts (Seqtour06) the most aggressive. I was now feeling great and managed to jump across to a couple of attacks however none of these were successful, eventually Betts (Seqtour06), Hannam and Laidler (Savings & Loans) got the gap in the final 10km and finished with a small gap on the rest of the remaining peleton. Paul finished in the bunch happy to last all the attacks. Stage 2 Saturday, 10 June 2006 Adelaide River to Adelaide River Time Trial 20km all grades Luke rolled the time trial in about 36 minutes, after having a swim in croc infested waters between the stages. The temperature was in the low thirties and the course was the first 10km of the morning stage before turning around and returning (over the same KOM). Paul, despite having loose time trial bars was happy with a time of 32.20min over a windy and undulating course putting him in 20th for the stage out of 30 riders. Betts won A grade in a time of 28.11min to get his 2nd stage in a row and opened up a handy lead on GC. Stage 3 Sunday, 11 June 2006 Batchelor – Lichfield – Batchelor Road Race A grade 130km, B grade 102km Another 7.30am departure. David “Trotty” Trott despite not finishing the first stage was allowed to continue in the Tour and attacked B grade from the gun taking two riders with him. The small remnants of the bunch did not immediately begin working turns and the trio established a 3 minute gap. Luke was dropped up the 10% climb 45 km into the race and had to finish the stage on his own. The yellow jersey’s(Chris Stack – Adelaide) bunch eventually caught the break away trio. One of the riders was so knackered from the break away he pulled out of the Tour. Chris Stack remained in yellow. In A Grade, again the pace and the attacks started right from the beginning, and at 130km with strong south easterly winds blowing I was wishing that this wasn’t happening. I managed to get into the first break of the day, thinking what the heck, however the pace was a little too hot for me and I dropped back to the peleton after about 5km and very soon it was back again. Not long after a break did end up going and no one was too keen to chase for the meantime. However, at about 40km into the stage more attacks started coming and eventually the peleton split into 2 large groups with the yellow jersey in the chasing bunch. They had about 500m at one stage and it looked like the jersey could be in jeopardy so he used all his time trial strength together with 2 of his Seqtour06 teammates to try and haul it back together again. Unfortunately Savings & Loans had different ideas and continued to drive the front bunch relentlessly. This went on for at least 40km in strong winds and I hung on like grim death in the hope they would eventually cross. I would have helped out myself in the chase if I could have!!! Unfortunately for me the 2 bunches came together at the very bottom of a very steep climb and without getting a chance for my heart rate to come down at all, I was in trouble from the beginning. Chris George (Savings & Loans), as well as 4 others including myself got dropped here however with the top fast approaching we hauled ourselves back to the small convoy following. Unfortunately, Chris Glasby (WA), Andrew Swatton and Ewin Williams all had been dropped earlier in the crosswinds and the chase and were never seen again!! At the top of the climb Ben Pochee (UK), Jeremy Betts (Seqtour06) and Steve Cunningham (S&L) managed to get away and with 40km to go had a 6 min lead. Savings & Loans weren’t comfortable with this gap and decided that they had to pull it back. We all sat on and let them do the work at the front and the gap closed to 1 min at the finish. With the exception of a few attacks in the closing 5km, the peleton all rolled in together. Stage 4 Sunday, 11 June 2006 Batchelor criterium A grade 40 minutes + 2 laps, B grade 30 minutes + 2 laps Here is a lesson, make sure you are at the start line for the race briefing. After losing close to half an hour in the morning stage Luke made sure he got in a good warm up prior to the afternoon crit. Half way through it he attacked solo and established a slender lead for the next 15 minutes. Upon hearing the whistle he sat up upon crossing the line next lap round only to receive the bell and get caught half a lap to go. Paul finished with the bunch in A grade with Brett Aitken (S&L) taking out the stage in a 3 man break with two Queensland riders. Stage 5 Monday, 12 June 2006 Batchelor – Palmerston road race A grade 130km, B grade 90km Geed on by Luke’s attack in the crit, and now used to the 7.30am start time Ed Knowles (Sutherland CC - NSW and Luke’s room mate) attacked at the start of the final stage. Ed road solo for 70km with the yellow jersey forced to do most of the chasing. Third on GC, Kim Ford from Perth road across the gap to Ed (who at one stage had a 3 minute lead). Ed found the going tough and was caught by the peleton with 10km to go. Ford powered on solo and won the Tour. Luke was fifth in the stage. With another 130km stage ahead of A Grade and GC wrapped up, the peleton was content to roll along for the first 50km. Once we started heading east and with a strong south-easterly blowing the entire peleton decided it was wise to start rolling through handicap style. This lifted the pace to 45-50km/h and then once turning onto the Stuart Highway (Main Adelaide-Darwin highway) this is where the pace stayed for the remained of the day. With 20km to go the yellow started attacking again, obviously feeling great and wanting another stage win. S&L however, were not ready to let him go, however with 8km remaining he went again taking Daniel Johnston (NT) with him. The two of them built a lead that was never caught. In an uphill finish Gary Mueller (Brunswick) took 3rd with Paul getting his best result of the Tour with 13th. Full results available at http://www.topendtour.com.au/2006_results.htm
Stage 6 Monday, 12 June 2006 The Tour was officially over but an afternoon criterium was held in the centre of Darwin. Paul sat out the A grade crit. Luke faced 30 minutes of racing and got caught behind a crash and had to chase. Ed (“Jacky Durand”) Knowles again spent most of the crit off the front only to be caught on the last lap. A great week end of racing in Darwin was had. The temperature ranged from 17 to 35 depending on the time of the day. Morning stages started at 7.30am with afternoon at about 4pm. The roads were mainly flat with a few climbs thrown in. Paul, Luke, Brooke (who did not race) and Ed hired a four wheel drive and explored the Kakadu National Park for a few days before returning to Melbourne’s lovely weather. The Top End Tour will be held again in May 2007.
Luke & Paul relaxing in Kakadu after a tough Tour
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Copyright 2005 Coburg Cycling Club. All Rights Reserved |
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