Canberra Tour 2005

RBCC had a very broad representation at this major open event this year. In the A Grade division were Josh Marden and Nathan Page, both Elite riders and Under 23’s Shaun Higgerson of MG XPower Bigpond Team along with Chris Jenkins and Nathan Rollason making up part of the 104 starters in A grade.

In the B Grade Mens event the Club was represented by Dave Whyman who has joined RBCC this year.

In the D Grade Mens we were represented by Todd Spokes who is a new to RBCC Under 23 rider and also James Dalton.

The ladies were represented by Lisa Norden, (the Swedish triathlete who has been training in Sydney) in the Womens A Grade and Laura Bortolozzi. Lisa is also an Under 23 rider. The Womens A grade is part of the National Points series of races. Tanya Newton competed in the Womens B grade event.

A support team of Richard and Maria Jenkins, Kristen Norden (Lisa’s support crew and mother) and Tom Skulander and Janelle Lindsay who assisted with tactical advice and coaching rounded out the entourage. Tom even did a bit of leg massage on the boys during the break between races on the Saturday.

The racing started on Friday with a Prologue Time Trial of 7.1 kms for the A Grade Men and 17.7 km’s for the A grade Women.

On Saturday there were two 75 km stages for the Mens A and B grades around a fairly hilly course. Women’s A Grade did one 88 km race.

The Mens D Grade did a 50km race then a 75 km race in the afternoon, whilst the Womens B did two 38km races.

On Sunday came the big ones, with Mens A doing an extended 148 km race. Originally the race was going to be around 130 km’s. Apparently someone reckoned it wasn’t enough to have to climb the infamous Fitz’s Hill from both sides and extended the turning point further out into the next valley. Mens B covered 130 km’s including Fitz’s Hill. Mens D grade travelled 72 km’s. Womens A grade covered 88 kms and Womens B grade covered 54 kms.

One of the most pleasing aspects of the Tour was that all of the RBCC riders completed all their stages but there was even more good news in terms of results.

In the Mens A, Shaun, having worked well with his team (MG XPower Bigpond) achieved a well earned 4^th behind his team mate, the overall winner, Rob McLachlan. Josh came home in 8^th place, with Nathan Page 25^th, Chris Jenkins 29^th and Nathan R further down the pack having done some very good domestique work for the team.

In B Grade Dave Whyman rode extremely well as usual to finish 6^th overall without any fellow team members to work with.

In D Grade, Todd Spokes placed 3^rd overall and this was a very good effort as he has only been back in the saddle for a short while. James Dalton was further down the field but came away from the meet with some very hard kilometres in his legs.

Lisa Norden rode extremely well especially considering she has done very few road races and not previoulsy entered a cycling Tour event. She placed 3^rd in the Womens A behind Amanda Spratt, World Under 19 Champion. Laura Bortolozzi placed 10^th overall and really looks like her form is returning after her little incident and time off the bike.

And last but not least, Tanya Newton finished 4^th overall in the Womens B Grade, having finished in the lead bunch in all 3 of her races. Since getting serious about her training this diminutive rider has just kept on improving.

On Sunday afternoon, as everyone packed up and headed back to Sydney there were tired but very satisfied looks on their faces. This is an extremely well run tour, and the roads are very challenging. A special thanks must go to the Canberra Cycling Club for staging such a big event. All our riders will mark this tour as one of the main events of their road season next year. Talk to them about it then pencil it into your diaries and start hill training early.

Here's RBCC member Shaun Higgerson's report on behalf of the MG X Power- Bigpond

Canberra 3 day Tour (Milkrace)

As per usual Canberra tour was to kick off with a 7km prologue on the Friday. Although being a member of Randwick Botany and a former member of FRF I was to ride for my new team MG X Power- Bigpond, and with a squad of seven we were looking for a good result. Richard Moffat managed to clock the fastest time some 17 seconds fastest than myself and team mate Troy Glennan. 10 points time keeper!

Saturday morning was 2 circuits of the tough 37km loop consisting of 2 climbs each lap. Attacks were constant however our team manage to always have a man in each of them and no right combination managed to form and a bunch kick seemed destined to take place. The team pull our big man Rob McLaughlan up there but unfortunately pulled his foot in the sprint and was forced to settle with 2^nd place.

The Afternoon would see A grade once again doing 2 circuits but this time the opposite direction ( possibly the harder direction…..not to say the other way was easy). Early breaks went and a two man break was away with our Team mate Nic Brown up amongst it all, however on the second lap just after the 2^nd climb a small group with the myself and Rob managed to escape. It was now on until the finish with attacks going on both sides of the road!!! Rob gave me the word and I was to lead the sprint out for the big man and this time with foot help tight into pedal he rolled across for 1^st and myself cruised in 3^rd just off the pace.

Sunday…….what can I say…..148km…..Fitz’s Hill……last stage Canberra tour = a real lot of suffering. With a lot of tired legs there once again Nice Brown managed to escape early with another bloke and start the early Break. With Rob in Yellow the team sat on the front all day, Troy Glennan, Tony Mann, Stu Shaw and Marky Williams all set solid tempo ALL day. The poor buggers were yo yo-ing off and on the back every time an attack went or the vertical atrocities become just too tough. Towards the end the boys were spent with a job very well done, it was now up to me to look after the big man and close down breaks for him in the final k’s. Many attacks went but with 1km to go I found myself on the Front with the Big man in my ear on the radio saying “ Step on it”. With 200 to go both Big Rob Mc and Dave McKenzie came screaming past me and this time Rob taking the minor place and once again I cruised over for 3^rd.

All and all our team claimed

1^st overall GC

4^th overall GC

1^st KOM

1 stage win

3 2^nd places

3 3^rd places

---- Higgo