The Mt William Grampians race is the first of the final 3 road races for the year and brought with it one of the first warm days of the summer. Preparation was good for this race, the training complete. The race itself was longer by 20ks this year (making it 102ks) because of road works on the first climb, this meant a new longer climb of 14ks, before tackling the final 12k climb to the summit of Mt William.
The race started and the bunch ambled out of town through the first initial undulations. An Ararat club member attacked after a short while which didn't worry anyone, and he was soon a long way out of sight. The course was flat from this point til Halls Gap with one sprint about 10k before Halls Gap. The bunch eventually thought it was time to bring the suicide move back in and eventually every person in the group was contributing to the chase, something you don't see that often. It took quite a while to catch the Ararat rider, he was motoring! He was caught before the sprint at Pomonal, but still had enough in the tank for a quick recovery to take the sprint out!
After this point the pace really eased off, with only a handful of riders going anywhere near the front, as most were thinking of the 14k climb about to start. I stayed near the front, even doing some soft turns so I could keep a good position. At Halls Gap, the climb started and I was sitting second wheel, there was a little bit of surging as the bunch was sorting itself out. Some guys were being dropped straight away, but the front group stayed intact. Then 1 guy attacked and dragged 2 more with him (including strong Ararat guy), this eventually left myself and 3 others chasing, as this moved shelled everyone else. Our group worked with each other to stay together and have a better chance of catching the leaders. The climb seemed to take forever, the false flat sections on the climb didn't provide much relief as we only cranked the pace up faster. Towards the turn around point at the top there was a series of sharp pinches. Our group stayed together through this, but I had a problem. I was watching the level of my drink bottle. I stupidly only brought 1 bottle, thinking to save weight, but not thinking about the 102km I had to race in warm conditions. I was rationing it out thinking do I have enough for the last climb?
As we approached the KOM, the leaders passed us on their way back down. We soon turned, and started chasing again down the mountain. Then I had another problem. As soon as I stopped pedaling, I was getting an extremely loud grinding noise coming from the bike. I couldn't work it out at first but then I realized the free wheel hub wasn't doing it's thing and was continuing to turn after I stopped pedaling, this was making the cassette grind through my stationary chain making the noise. I had to pedal through the corners to prevent this from happening, and it meant I lost contact with the rest of my group. This issue meant I forgot about eating on the descent as I had planned, and when I eventually got to the bottom and the 10k flat section to the final climb, I realized I was physically in a bad way. Not enough fluid and no food yet and i was struggling to ride at a decent pace. I scoffed an energy bar, sipped on a drink but was really struggling. A guy eventually caught me and I couldn't even sit on his wheel. The climb was yet to come.
I got to the start of the climb and thought I would have my gel and last drink on the false flat section about 5k up so that I could finish, because I was having doubts about even getting up the final 2k section which is the hardest part. I was creeping at about 12-13kph, it seemed so slow. Eventually other riders starting passing me which was frustrating because I knew I should have got a higher result. I got to the false flat, and fueled up. From there it was about another 3k to the car park, I still felt terrible. I got to the car park and was looking for the car. I was going to step off the bike and call it a day. I couldn't see the car, so I kept going. I hit the (sealed) goat track and the 12-20% ramps. Now I was going really slow, after 100m I passed the kids who were cheering me on. Had to finish now! A bit further on the 20% corner approached. I had to stop. I walked/pushed through this corner, this seemed to be what I needed to get the legs going again. I got back on, with difficulty, and then seemed to have renewed energy. Maybe the gel had finally kicked in. The climb seemed a whole lot easier now, I eventually passed 3 riders who had passed me earlier on the lower slopes and crossed the line 9th.
Earlier on, the guy on the suicide break at the start, ended up winning the race by 5mins! Of the guys in my initial chase group, 1 finished 2nd, 1 came 5th and the other flatted and DNF'd - he was coming 2nd with 3k to go.
Summary - I stuffed up, I needed 2 bottles. I did have a mechanical problem as well, which made me lose focus on my eating/drinking, but I still didn't have enough to drink going up the first climb anyway. Lesson - drink, drink, drink. Try and have someone with a drink bottle at the drink station just in case.
It's a bloody long trip home. Didn't get home till 11pm. If I do this race next year I think we'll stay up there the night.
