Tour of Bright

Daccordi Rider
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Daccordi Rider » Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:32 pm

Tawonga Gap is 7.5 km long and climbs 476 meters, very similar to Greenhill Rd, its a pretty steady gradient.

On Hotham The Meg is 300m at 10% (according to Strava) but I think its a bit longer than that. CRB hill is 1.6 km at 9% and then the last bit to the summit is 2.1 km at 9%. That last bit is pretty hard, you are starting to get up a bit so there is a bit less oxygen and it is often pretty windy up there, plus you've been climbing for quite a while by then.

Good luck all, love to do it one year.
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cpical
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby cpical » Tue Nov 04, 2014 5:10 pm

Masters is what? 30 yo, right. :roll:

macca33
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby macca33 » Tue Nov 04, 2014 7:11 pm

cpical wrote:Masters is what? 30 yo, right. :roll:
I believe it is 35+yo
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dalai47
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby dalai47 » Tue Nov 04, 2014 7:24 pm

macca33 wrote:
cpical wrote:Masters is what? 30 yo, right. :roll:
I believe it is 35+yo
MMAS1 is 30+

ironhanglider
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby ironhanglider » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:32 pm

macca33 wrote:
cpical wrote:Masters is what? 30 yo, right. :roll:
I believe it is 35+yo
Sort of...

CA classifies Masters as 30+ which covers most racing in Australia. To be a Veteran however and race with an AVCC affiliated club you have to be at least 34, unless you're female in which case you have to be at least 29.

Cheers,

Cameron

Cul
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Cul » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:47 pm

ironhanglider wrote:
macca33 wrote:
cpical wrote:Masters is what? 30 yo, right. :roll:
I believe it is 35+yo
Sort of...

CA classifies Masters as 30+ which covers most racing in Australia. To be a Veteran however and race with an AVCC affiliated club you have to be at least 34, unless you're female in which case you have to be at least 29.

Cheers,

Cameron
And if you race mountain bikes (AT) national level (governed by CA), the opposite is true :roll:
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NeillS
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby NeillS » Thu Nov 06, 2014 9:58 am

I raced open C last year and got smashed (cramped before tawonga) in the second stage, but did pretty well up hotham all things considered. It was my first race ever so I wasn't expecting much. This year I've got another 30 watts on my 20 minute power, and a 3kg lighter bike (which helps when you're 62kg!). The goal is to finish top 10 this year, I'll be stoked with top five but I'll lose time in the TT so not sure how that will pan out. The pace is ridiculous, and the times up hotham are spastic for what is supposed to be a C-grade race LOL

Tarquin
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Tarquin » Sun Nov 09, 2014 9:12 pm

I'm racing open C, race A grade at our club.

Don't the organisers ask your club for your CNSW grading which for me is C+...

I don't have a TT bike so will lose time there! Just going for the experience and I don't expect to disgrace myself too much!

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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby ironhanglider » Sun Nov 09, 2014 9:47 pm

Tarquin wrote:I'm racing open C, race A grade at our club.

Don't the organisers ask your club for your CNSW grading which for me is C+...

I don't have a TT bike so will lose time there! Just going for the experience and I don't expect to disgrace myself too much!
How long is the time trial? It was only 10km or so when I last rode it years ago. I don't know how much time you expect to save with a TT bike, but it is only in the order of seconds rather than minutes. Unless you finish within 1 minute of the winner then it wasn't the lack of a TT bike that cost you.

The last time I rode I took my training bike for the TT with clip-ons, bolted on my track front wheel for the deep section, and used my track tyres to reduce rolling resistance. I then proceeded to finish within a minue in the TT and then lost many minutes in the road stages, but I did finish with the bunch in the criterium.

Cheers,

Cameron

nailsaslegs
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby nailsaslegs » Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:14 am

TT is now only 13.5ks long. Two years ago it was closer to 18ks on a different course.

They used to run a criterium? That would be fantastic. They have a sprint eliminator now, I entered last year, up against a former World Champ and was smoked.

Open C and you race A. Sand bag much? Why not race B grade?

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Derny Driver
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Derny Driver » Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:02 pm

[quote="nailsaslegs"]

They used to run a criterium? That would be fantastic. [quote]

yes mate that was a long time ago ..I did a couple of ToBs in the late 90's when it was held in MAY :shock:
11k TT and Gaps loop on Saturday.
Buffalo Sunday morning and crit around town in the arvo.
Presentation straight after the crit at that memorial on the big roundabout at the shops.

A bit of black ice on the Tawonga descent (yes that stage used to finish in town near the swimming hole) and snow for the last few km at the top of Buffalo never hurt anyone. Actually, a few guys were hurt, that why they changed it to December.

nailsaslegs
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby nailsaslegs » Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:19 pm

Derny Driver wrote:A bit of black ice on the Tawonga descent (yes that stage used to finish in town near the swimming hole) and snow for the last few km at the top of Buffalo never hurt anyone. Actually, a few guys were hurt, that why they changed it to December.
They still hurt themselves on the descent and not even racing :P Two years ago multiple ambos, riders on the wrong side of the road and into a rock wall. :shock: :oops:

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jules21
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby jules21 » Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:34 pm

nailsaslegs wrote:They still hurt themselves on the descent and not even racing :P Two years ago multiple ambos, riders on the wrong side of the road and into a rock wall. :shock: :oops:
one of the things i've noticed is that of all the road cycling skills, descending is the one that varies the most in club racers. you need to be so careful about trusting who you follow down a descent..

Tarquin
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Tarquin » Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:46 pm

nailsaslegs wrote:TT is now only 13.5ks long. Two years ago it was closer to 18ks on a different course.

They used to run a criterium? That would be fantastic. They have a sprint eliminator now, I entered last year, up against a former World Champ and was smoked.

Open C and you race A. Sand bag much? Why not race B grade?
I asked someone who raced masters B last year who recommended open C to me.

Can't say I see it as sandbagging, I've never ridden such an event before! and surely if Cycling NSW have me graded as C+ then that's right.... :?:

One of the other riders from our club did the grafton to inverell, he's rated B and raced B grade there and finished top 20 so I'd say it's pretty right!

NeillS
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby NeillS » Thu Nov 13, 2014 8:36 pm

Who knows really. I know some club level A grade riders who I would murder up hotham and tawonga, but who would kill me in a flat race. So it's really a race for the climbers, there's a lot of variation in people's ability to push up a giant hill for 1.5 hours!

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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby ironhanglider » Thu Nov 13, 2014 11:26 pm

Derny Driver wrote:
nailsaslegs wrote:
They used to run a criterium? That would be fantastic.

yes mate that was a long time ago ..I did a couple of ToBs in the late 90's when it was held in MAY :shock:
11k TT and Gaps loop on Saturday.
Buffalo Sunday morning and crit around town in the arvo.
Presentation straight after the crit at that memorial on the big roundabout at the shops.

A bit of black ice on the Tawonga descent (yes that stage used to finish in town near the swimming hole) and snow for the last few km at the top of Buffalo never hurt anyone. Actually, a few guys were hurt, that why they changed it to December.
One memorable year for me was when they ran the Gaps loop anticlockwise. Got dropped in the rain in the first 10km, made up a lot of time on the Tawonga descent to a couple of riders, caught up to one bloke who was going hypothermic and had to strenuously persuade him to pull out, because a mate and I were convinced that he was heading for death's door, and then finally had my front derailleur cable bolt work loose and fall off leaving me with a top gear of about 39/15 (no trim ability) from Ovens to Bright with a tail wind.

The crit was good fun with 80 odd riders in C grade. Fortunately most seemed to be good bike handlers.

Cheers,

Cameron

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Derny Driver
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Derny Driver » Thu Nov 13, 2014 11:33 pm

ironhanglider wrote:
One memorable year for me was when they ran the Gaps loop anticlockwise. Got dropped in the rain in the first 10km, made up a lot of time on the Tawonga descent to a couple of riders, caught up to one bloke who was going hypothermic and had to strenuously persuade him to pull out, because a mate and I were convinced that he was heading for death's door, and then finally had my front derailleur cable bolt work loose and fall off leaving me with a top gear of about 39/15 (no trim ability) from Ovens to Bright with a tail wind.

The crit was good fun with 80 odd riders in C grade. Fortunately most seemed to be good bike handlers.

Cheers,

Cameron
I think I raced C grade that year, I remember it raining too. The morning TT was pouring rain.... I went about 5 km down the road on the Gaps stage and had a mechanical at the base of Tawonga and had to borrow a screwdriver off a car driver to get going again (I still have it). I was off the back in among all the cars ....overtook about 40 blokes up the shallow side of the climb and settled into a small group of about 6 for the rest of the stage. The leaders were well gone.
It rained for the crit too, that was fun. There was a 6 pack of Bundy rum on for the sprint primes which were every 10 laps. Dodgy stuff :)

Tarquin
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Tarquin » Fri Nov 21, 2014 9:53 pm

Wimped out and ordered a 12-28 cassette to replace the 11-26 on there.

Extra gear to bail onto if required!

fixedlegs2012
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby fixedlegs2012 » Sat Nov 22, 2014 7:09 am

I bought a new set of Schnell 38mm singles for Hotham at 1200g. With a new Red 11-28 block. Hoping to buy some speed!

Had a day off yesterday. Felt good actually. Today is 2.5hrs and tomorrow is the Club Champs then Im into a big week next week before Bright. Then the taper begins.

Hows your going?

Tarquin
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Tarquin » Sat Nov 22, 2014 9:50 am

I just bought a force as it was $200 cheaper!

Gotta glue a new rear tyre on, left it a bit late, so hope it arrives this week.

I did a charity ride last Sunday which was plenty of climbing and distance. Went pretty good, work keeps interrupting my riding so making progress is difficult. I hope to have a couple of 250km weeks before Bright which will do me right.

Frisky11
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Frisky11 » Sun Nov 23, 2014 5:12 pm

Jumping into this thread here.

I'm heading down for TOB this year as well and looking forward to it. As the climber amongst everyone I ride with I went down last year with high hopes and ended up about 20th in C grade, not used to racing up climbs quite so aggressively. I kept a standard crank with a 28 tooth cassette and that was perfect for almost everything except CRB hill where just not quite low enough.

This year, got some more experience, got another year of racing hard in the legs, and I've actually got a vague idea of how to TT instead of just make faces for 20 minutes. I'm in B grade this year instead of C so should be interesting to see how it goes. The graphs are all lining up nicely, just have to get out there and suffer like anything to see where I can place this time, can't wait :)

fixedlegs2012
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby fixedlegs2012 » Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:20 am

Just over a week to go. 1 more week of training then taper leading to the TT. Lots of climbing this week including Mt Wellington summit. If the weather holds out around 400ks and 4000m vertical.

michaelten
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby michaelten » Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:37 pm

I think I am finally coming around. Crashed in a crit a few weeks back, ribs still sore but all my skin is now healed at least. I had a fairly big week, 430km and 8,500m's of climbing. I had 2 races on the weekend, 100km road race followed by a crit on Sunday averaging 45km/h!
Last week of training, got some climbing and a bit more climbing to do as well as a TT on the weekend. Got myself a TT bike so first ride this weekend. Fingers crossed no colds or flu before Bright.

Tarquin
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby Tarquin » Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:12 pm

michaelten wrote:I think I am finally coming around. Crashed in a crit a few weeks back, ribs still sore but all my skin is now healed at least. I had a fairly big week, 430km and 8,500m's of climbing. I had 2 races on the weekend, 100km road race followed by a crit on Sunday averaging 45km/h!
Last week of training, got some climbing and a bit more climbing to do as well as a TT on the weekend. Got myself a TT bike so first ride this weekend. Fingers crossed no colds or flu before Bright.
Wow, that's a pretty serious week and a lot of hills! You'll be flying!

michaelten
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Re: Tour of Bright

Postby michaelten » Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:34 pm

Not sure about flying, another couple of weeks training would be nice. Going to try and back it up this week and then taper the following week.

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