Well done to everyone who raced, I hope I wasn't the only one who found it pretty tough out there!
The rumours I heard about the DQs were that they were for crossing double lines, I also heard that there were fines handed out for tossing bottles, this is all second hand info though so who knows.
I saw some pretty crazy driving on the Hotham descent, cars overtaking riders on the wrong side of the road on blind corners while there were still riders heading up, I saw a couple of very close calls and heard some very colourful language from those who were almost cleaned up.
Derny Driver wrote:jules21 wrote:
...everyone said the competition this year was a step up from years before - it's getting harder, it seems...
When I did ToB it was 4 stages in 2 days, and in May. One could argue that 3 stages in 3 days in spring / summer is relatively soft.
My last ToB was about 1998 or 9. It rained for the Saturday morning TT and was about 5 degrees in the village. The Saturday afternoon consisted of the Gaps loop, WITH the descent into Bright to the finish. Black ice on the ascent and descent of Tawonga.
Sunday morning was a loop around Porepunkah and the 23km climb up Mt Buffalo, it was snowing at the top. After coming back down we had a criterium around the shops using that back road they have the sprint eliminator on. It was drizzling and slippery and to add to the mayhem there was sprints every 10 laps for cases of alcohol (Bundaberg Rum).
Everything was always harder / better in the old days
Looking at the amount and quality of riders in the NSW Grand Prix this weekend, the A grade ToB was not really that strong apart form the top 10 or 15 blokes. Its a stupid time of year to have a Tour because the road season has finished. Most guys are already doing track racing.
But I take your point. Its very hard to get a placing in any grade, no matter how good you are and prepared you are.
I was reading about the early days of the race and it did sound pretty brutal... having the descent down Tawonga and a Criterium definitely would have suited me better, my descending is a lot better than my climbing and my crits aren't too bad either, but 4 stages in 2 days would have nearly killed me.
I'm not sure what I'll do next year, I'll race because the riding was really nice, but I don't know if I can fit in enough training to be competitive. I'll probably enter masters, I only did C grade because most of the guys I ride with were doing it. Maybe I'll go for the sprint jersey or something, I might actually have a chance at winning that!
