Castlemaine's not a bad spot for riding either.
Headed up there for a family weekend, but the fortunately the definition of "family members" nowadays extends to the bike.
Out early on Sunday morning for a 75km loop through Maldon, Baringhup, Moolort, and Newstead. Mt Tarrengower in Maldon is a b#&^$ of a climb, 1.9km at 10%+. Felt like throwing up after the 15% bit near the top. It must be a few years since the Sun Tour came through here if the "Go Stevo"s and "Pedro Delgado"s painted on the road are any indication.
Don't worry if you've never heard of Moolort, nobody else on earth has either. This would be a mind-f(*& of a stretch into a southerly headwind, about 20km of dead straight dead flat road through absolutely nowhere, no wonder Raimond Gaita's dad Romulus went bonkers living out here. But it does have a certain stark beauty.
Refuelled at Newstead General Store amongst a few seven foot six country lads hoeing into meat pies which seemed to be the hangover cure of choice. Thank god I'm an honorary Dave and don't shave my legs, I felt effete enough dressed in orange lycra sipping on a chocolate milk (the hunger flat preventative of choice).
Back to Castlemaine in time to check out the field for the "NAB Champions" crit unexpectedly (to me) being run in the centre of town. I'm sure the family thought this was all a plot but I swear I knew nothing about it `til we arrived. "Maybe I'll stay in the HCC gear and have a crack at the Masters event" I thought. Sidled up to the desk and glanced at the entry sheet; all ages in together and out of the 15 starters even a nuff-nuff like me recognised names like Sean Finning (Comm Games track gold and Melb-Warrnambool winner) and Tim Dekker (another Melb-`bool winner). First prize of $500 down to $50 for fourth, surprising there weren't a few more entries.
Definitely safer and less embarrassing on the spectators side of the fence – I'd be dropped before the first corner of the 600m hotdog circuit, so I positioned myself and the kids near one end of the course and confidently predicted there would be at least one crash in the first 5 laps on the horribly off-camber 180 degree turn. As it was there were about 3 crashes, and a couple of others at the far end as well. After going down in lap one and then narrowly avoiding the fifth crash, Finning decided to clear out from the carnage, quickly opened a 100m gap, then spent the next 40 minutes on a solo pursuit reeling in the back of the half-dozen riders remaining in the race. Additional interest was added by random pedestrians sporadically deciding to cross the course oblivious to the rapid approach of the bunch. Finning made the catch with about 5 minutes to go, I guess $500 for less than an hour's work (or training) is nice if you can get it.
Rounded off the day's cycling by hopping on CycleSport's TACX simulator and setting second best time of the day for the virtual 1.5km timetrial!! I think the next oldest contestant up to that point was about 14 years old, but wtf I'll take any placing I can get.
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