Brunswick Cycling Club

With a brilliant forecast on the horizon, all of about 4 degrees or so, Miners rest was the host for the Vic Club TTT champs. As
Brunswick #1 warmed up (or at least attempted to) they endured the somewhat average climate under their club tent, thankfully erected by early arriving members. If not for the early birds, the task ahead of them would have been just that bit tougher without the tent screen blocking a rather tasty northerly.

A call was made by Mr. Bushell (A.K.A Commissioner Gordon on the Bat phone) in the closing hour before the due roll out time to find Dylan Newell. Newell reassured he was coming and on his way. Newell also keeping his trademark arrival time intact. With the team captain now present, Brunswick #1 made the start line and was ready to rock. The line up included; an in-form, Nathan Elliot; Sam McGregor, a new arrival to A-grade club racing; the always and ever reliable, Jake Sutherland (A solid time trialer most days of the week); and last but certainly not least, to lead the Brunswick quartet, Dylan Newell, immensely strong and a superb IRTT rider.

Lap one was executed in a solid yet conservative manner due to the increased and lengthy 69km course. Conditions only deteriorated as the riders smashed out the kms. Wind chill was later reported at below zero as ambient temps were a wicked 2.5 Celsius; this was topped off with some steady rain just to spice it up a little.

Lap two was where the authority was stamped down. The race appeared to be a done deal (to the time keepers at this point anyway) this being due to Dylan’s strong and at times lengthy turns on the front, accompanied by his well balanced team. However, the high paced second lap almost started to fray at the seam as Newell was unaware that the TTT was a 3 lap event not 2 like in previous years. Sutherland alerting Newell to this fact was then graciously allowed to back the speed off to a high 40’s km/h, not the 50 kp/h plus finishing pace experienced moments before.

By lap 3, fatigue and lactic acid was well on its way to filling the legs of team BCC1. Fingers and knee caps were feeling more like ice cubes (Sutherland later revealing that he could barely shift gears by the end). Sam McGregor later succumbed to the elements and fatigue pulled the ejection chord and departed in the closing 10 kms or so. Compliments go to Sam for his smooth and consistent turns.

This left a now cold but confident trio to wind up the race, only to find the highly paced turns performed by Newell in the earlier laps had taken their toll on his legs. Without panic, Sutherland and Elliot towed their normally number 1 up the final climb, allowing Newell some brief recovery time. Elliot then proceeded to drive it home to the finish line without sparing the 11 on the somewhat tricky and slick decent.

After crossing the line, BBC1 were then found to be victorious. With a winning margin of over a minute and a respectable 43.3km/h average, not bad considering the race was in hard man’s conditions, “The weather was just plain S@#T-HOUSE!” To add, Noah’s Ark was seen floating past presentations as the heavens had well and truly opened up.

Congratulations go to the team for their hard, strong performance, Nathan, Sam, Jake and Dylan. Thank you also to all members and supporters who braved the tough conditions and riders that donned their BBC skin suits.

Jake Sutherland

This entry was posted by J. Sutherland on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Reports, Road.