National Road Race, TT and Crit this week ...who's your tip?

[Derny Driver]

Who's your tip for the tough Buningong circuit this year? You need a big engine and good legs up that climb
Not talking about the old folks Gran Fondo lol .... Elite men and women, U19 and U23.
I'll post my thoughts shortly

[Alex Simmons/RST]

No tips but I'll get a good look at how the race unfolds as this year I'm in the Chief Comm's vehicle.

[MichaelB]

Is the route considered harder this year now that they have changed it a bit, or just as hard, but will be raced differently ?

BMC vs MS show, or will there be some good wildcards ?

[Alex Simmons/RST]

It's 1.4km longer but not much different.

The section that changes is the descent down Fisken Rd has been replaced by a route around the Federation University (they are a major sponsor this year). The new section is a bit more technical with more corners.

It means slightly fewer laps (and hence climbs) for each race, with 1 less lap for the women and U23 races and 2 fewer laps for the elite men. I'm not sure the technical section will make all that much difference as it ends nearly 2.5km from the finish line.

2 fewer laps will mean a little less fatigue as there are now ~2 minutes more time between climbs and it also means a longer distance after the final climb to the finish meaning a late break attempt on the final climb has to survive for an extra 2-minutes or the chasers have an extra 1.4km to catch a late break.

That tips the event in favour of sprinters a little but to be frank, the race is often not overly predictable given the form of the pros at this time of year can be quite variable.

[Derny Driver]

Start times and start lists here
http://www.roadnationals.org.au/uploads ... forweb.pdf

[Derny Driver]

u19 Criterium tomorrow. I'll pick track riders for the win. Luke Wight, Jensen Plowright and Zac Marshall in that order. Harry Askew as an outsider.
I dont see Zac Gilmore on the start list nor Mitch Wright. Mitch is down for the Road Race and the Time Trial - he was 1st and 3rd in those last year. Zac is a great rider too. Wonder if they will ride it?
u23 crit ... Toby Orchard has a reputation as a sprinter and is now signed with the ACA and may have Sam Welsford, Cam Scott and Aiden Kampers riding for him. Or the ACA may make Cam Scott the pea, which is the way I would go. Cam Scott to win. Hes a track rider, has experience and knows how to win, and he won the recent St Kilda Shimano supercrit.
Elite men criterium - hard to go past Caleb Ewan or Scott Sunderland. Caleb should win easily.
In the Womens crit Im going to pick a smokey - Ash Ankudinoff is a track pursuiter but I watched her win the Supercrit 2 weeks ago ..she's in good shape and can win this.

[Derny Driver]

Cam Scott wins the u23 crit Welsford and Orchard 3rd and 4th. ACA are strong.
Stephen Cuff won the u19

[silentC]

Will be barracking for Toby Stewart in the elite men's crit. He's a local lad.

[Derny Driver]

Caleb wins easily. Love how the other contenders were "queueing up on his wheel for the sprint". And finished in that order. Do they really think they can come off his wheel and beat him?

[march83]

Stephen Cuff won the u19

This kid wins the crits at Penrith every week just for fun, he's a weapon. Bright future ahead I think, I hope he can apply his strengths to the longer formats and go on to bigger and better things. If he can't I've got another ~10 years of A-grade to enjoy getting whipped by him

[find_bruce]

A great ride from one of our members gretaboy, to win his category in the mens para-cycling timetrial

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Program change for Saturday.

The fire and emergency services have declared conditions are expected to be catastrophic and so the gran fondo has been cancelled and the U19 M & W and U23 road races have been brought forward to start very early so we'll be finished about lunchtime or a bit after to avoid the worst of the conditions. The fire services in particular are on high alert.

Fortunately the forecast for Sunday is OK.

[Strawburger]

A great ride from one of our members gretaboy, to win his category in the mens para-cycling timetrial

And Vander scoring a silver medal in his category!

Congrats both.

[foo on patrol]

Woohoo!

Foo

[Strawburger]

Milostic, what a rider. Doesn't matter if he finishes today, to be in the breakaway in the elite race is awesome

[stevecassidy]

Not just in the break but contributing well, that last climb almost killed him though! Amazing ride.

Steve

[cyclotaur]

Well .... after being outrageously ill last night I spent a pleasant day propped in front the telly snapping 'tween the cricket and the NRCCs at Buninyong - caught up on all the results and watched two really interesting races with worthy winners in Malseed and Edmondson.

Good signs also from bigger names early in the year, especially RPorte returning to racing well, but spare a thought for big Durbo who went down hard when trying to animate the race for MTScott on second last lap. Broken collarbone I believe.

He will have to take advice from Mat Hayman to get back for the early Classics. Make him a long range tip for one of them !!

[Derny Driver]

... spare a thought for big Durbo who went down hard ....

Same old rubbish negative riding from Durbridge, he was quite obviously physically exhausted from his incessant chasing of everything that moved and that was the reason he fell. After that point we got some decent racing happening. Edmondson is dumb, why you would try to drop the guy you need to swap turns with you to get to the finish when you still have 20km to go is beyond me. Alex was extremely lucky that Harper, after being worked over by Edmonson, decided to rejoin the turn swapping business - I wouldn't have. Even with the 2 of them swapping turns he only won by a bike length - and he thought he could ride the final lap and a bit solo and win? In your dreams. He was very lucky to win.
I spoke to my young mate Mitch Wright about the u19 race - he was so heavily marked as last years winner, that he couldnt even scratch himself. Yet they let Tyler Lindorf ride away early (he was 2nd in the TT) and they never saw him again. For the power nerds Mitch was holding 420 watts up the climb on each of the last 4 laps.
Sarah Gigante who won all three u19 races is something special I reckon.

[fat and old]

Women’s elite was great. Young girl that won really upset the commentators more than she did Garfoot I think

Keenan’s post race interview was painful to watch. What a doofus.

[Chuck]

Same old rubbish negative riding from Durbridge

Yeah he should have told the people paying his wage to get stuffed and rode his own race.

Edmondson is dumb, why you would try to drop the guy you need to swap turns with you to get to the finish when you still have 20km to go is beyond me. Alex was extremely lucky that Harper, after being worked over by Edmonson, decided to rejoin the turn swapping business - I wouldn't have. Even with the 2 of them swapping turns he only won by a bike length - and he thought he could ride the final lap and a bit solo and win? In your dreams. He was very lucky to win.

He won, he's the national champ, you're in the peanut gallery with the rest of us.

[cyclotaur]

Same old rubbish negative riding from Durbridge

Yeah he should have told the people paying his wage to get stuffed and rode his own race.

Edmondson is dumb, why you would try to drop the guy you need to swap turns with you to get to the finish when you still have 20km to go is beyond me. Alex was extremely lucky that Harper, after being worked over by Edmonson, decided to rejoin the turn swapping business - I wouldn't have. Even with the 2 of them swapping turns he only won by a bike length - and he thought he could ride the final lap and a bit solo and win? In your dreams. He was very lucky to win.

He won, he's the national champ, you're in the peanut gallery with the rest of us.

Well said Chuck !!

When the big guns don't make it back at the finish there's always a 'surprise' winner, A few seconds more and Edmondson's teammate Ewan would have flashed past for the win which seemed to be the Plan A. Ewan seemed to sit up a little in the end when it was clear the team had a Plan B winner in Edmondson. I'd say MTS would have been pretty happy with the outcome.

Edmondson and Harper are pals and seemed happy to help each other stay out front as long as possible - one of them was going to lose in the end if they stayed away. I don't think Edmondson was going for the win 20km out, he would have been trying to set up the team for a big finish and just be in the final mix if the sprinters didn't get back. Mission accomplished.