The day before the race was pretty low key: a quick spin in the morning with my girlfriend, a casual meeting with my search2retain teammates and coach (former World Jnr TT Champ and adopted Ballarat local) Josh Collingwood at a local cafe, before a relaxing dinner ("pasta again!" complains Jane my girlfriend) and a movie. Pretty boring really. It can be difficult sometimes to restrain yourself from wasting energy by mowing that lawn, cleaning that mess in the garage, but hopefully a day on the couch will reap benefits come race day.

After a quick blast on the ergo to open the pipes in preparation of a quick start to the race, and some breakfast (more pasta!), it was out to the course to meet my teammates at our feed station halfway up the climb. Search2retain had Neil Van der Ploeg and Cal Britten to support myself, with Paul Van der Ploeg representing Felt to also offer support on the road. These guys are all experienced international mountain bikers and so we were quietly confident that we could be part of this race. While stuffing my pockets with Balance Nutrition gels and my secret power foods (a couple of jelly beans and Mars Bars!!) before the race start, friends and family began to arrive. All hands were on deck: some were tuning into race radio, while others filled bidons with Coke and worked out where to stand, spread out along the road so none of us riders missed a bottle on what was brewing to be a hot and gusty day.

With a tailwind up the 4km climb, it was always going to be a fast first lap, but a record lap of 14mins was 1min faster than the previous best set last year. Anyone keen should trek out to Buningyong and attempt just 1 lap at this pace, just to get an impression for themselves, then contemplate doing another 15laps! It was no wonder I later heard reports that riders were shelled out the back on that 1st lap, with numbers in the vicinity of 450-500w being murmured in hushed tones. With the 16 strong Green Edge team driving the tempo, signs were ominous that today would be hard and fast. "At least we would be home for dinner at a reasonable hour," I thought. Early on I tried to sneak into a move off the front so as to give myself a buffer on the pro guys before they chose to turn on the gas and I succeeded in sneaking away with 2 motorbikes in the form of O'Grady and Bobridge. Knowing that the remaining Green Edge riders would be protecting our lead I was positive about this move, however it lasted less than a lap before the next attack countered.

With the exception of Cam Meyer flying away off the front solo for an extended period, the race behind him was typified by riders in turn surging up the climb with the wind at their backs, before regrouping in the crosswinds across the top of the course to assess the damage. It was relentless with no exaggeration. Matt Lloyd was certainly the main protagonist, with Richie Porte also inflicting much pain. Green Edge had so many cards to play that they just put a different rider up the road at every opportunity forcing the rest of us to chase. It was very much a battle of Green Edge Vs everyone else! Mark O'Brien had the strength to attack and get a gap late in the race and I also played my hand with 3-4 laps to go in the hope that the pro's might let a 'nobody' a bit of breathing space. Every lap this went on, but as the bell chimed for the final ascent it was gruppo compacto with some 20 riders from an original 165 left to battle it out.

Before the road even tilted upwards I noticed Richie Porte shifting down a few gears so I readied myself to react to his every twitch. He launched along with Matt Lloyd at the very base of the climb. I went with this move with what little I had left but those guys are just at another level and I blew to pieces after holding their wheel for only 500m. With that some riders bridged and went past me in a blur, while others suffered a similar fate, as I tried to compose myself to limit my loses in the vain hope that those in front would slow in a tactically game of cat and mouse. It was not to be however as the power of Simon Gerrans took the race up the road and I was left to ride the final half a lap with likes of Mick Rogers and Luke Roberts - not bad company, but I was already counting the little amateur errors I had made earlier in the day.... 2013 preparations had quietly begun :)

Stats:

distance: 161km

time: 4hrs 9mins

avg speed: 39kmh

max speed: 78kmh

avg hr: 154bpm

max hr: 187bpm

avg power: 338w

max power: 1224w

number of Mars Bars: 2

Jay

The Melbourne to Warrnambool is a beast to say the least. 262km, enough said. To even consider racing it commands respect within cycling circles.

My specific preparation for this race started after the Tour of Tasmania a month earlier. This included some big solo rides of up to 220km. For those interested, I did most of these long rides snaking my way around Cape Otway. The roads of Lorne, Forrest, Lavers Hill and Apollo Bay are simply spectacular for cycling and provided a valuable distraction during those long days in the saddle. Nutrition is such an important factor for The Warni and I used these long rides to practice what I would eat and drink on race day. In the days preceeding the race it was a matter of sharpening up on the bike while loading the body with carbohydrates. It was amazing how much I had to actually eat to load properly. 

Race morning was up at 430am and pasta for breakfast. Not exactly a life of luxury but it gets the job done. It was wet and windy - perfect! Simply, you can discount many riders in dull conditions as they turn to survival instead of racing. Our search2retain team managers had a spread of Balance Nutrition products in the back of the truck for us to stuff our pockets with - bars and gels, along with some secret sports food - jelly beans and Mars Bars. A short meeting with the boys to confirm our plans for the day before a quick kiss goodbye to loved ones and I was off to warmup and open the pipes before the start. It would be a good 8hrs on the road today.

The start was relatively civilised, the block headwind somewhat containing any hot heads. It would be suicide to expect to be able to push into such a wind for the entire distance. The narrow back roads through Little River and around the outskirts of Geelong did provide some intermittent excitement however, as every 90* corner was a potential opportunity for the wind to cross across the road, push riders into the gutter and split the race into echelons. There was no major split at the front, only those poorly positioned blew out the back of the race. Search2retain was particularly attentive during this first 50km, always near the front but never on the front. The race could not be won here, but it could certainly be lost. I dont think I ever felt the wind on my face so I tucked in and used this time to continue to fuel up for the race to come.

A break of 4 riders finally pushed forward just before the first feed zone at Inverleigh and immediately the peleton slowed for a nature break - these riders were unlikely to ride away from a 100 strong peleton, into a headwind with more than 200km to race. During the 70km from Inverleigh to Lismore the racing was quite negative. The block headwind did not invite anyone to lift the pace. Importantly, I spent all this time in the small chainring to save my legs. Search2retain still used 1 rider on the front, our 'Diesel' Tom Donald, just to ensure that the pace was kept respectable. As a result, the break never got more than 4mins up the rode - not a threat at all (for example, last year, a larger break had 15mins at Lismore, in similar conditions, yet the energy they used to forge ahead meant it took less than 40km to reel them in.) Again, I used this time to continually top up on food and drink, knowing that the race would begin at the feed in Lismore where the road turns south and we would have some 100km (!) of crosswinds.  As we caught the breakaway coming into Lismore I dropped back to our Search2retain team car to stock up on full bottles before the feed, just in case some sneaky cats decided to attack through the feed.

As predicted, Genesys put the race into the gutter immediately as we turned south. You could see and hear many riders panic as they dropped off the road into the gravel, touched wheels or hit a pothole with that familiar sound of cracking carbon! Within minutes the peleton fractured into multiple echelons stretching across the full width of the road. I was relaxed, still in the front echelon with 2 of my teammates, still out of the wind, the race was going according to plan. The reason I was safely protected from the wind was I was trailing Kyle Marwood, arguably one of the strongest guys in the race and he is a hell of a lot bigger than me. As a testament to how strong Kyle is, he unfortunately broke a chain, right in front of me, immediately losing all his momentum. I was now less relaxed! This filtered me back to no-man's land off the back of the first echelon. No worries, the next echelon was not far behind. However, the following echelon was was not running smoothly, with many riders reluctant, or unable to pull through. I was one of them, I had teammates up front so I had no reason to work. I gambled that others could brings things back together, or at least hold the deficit.

Coming into Camperdown, the race crests the only 2 hills on the course. As those rolling turns began to really sweat, suffer and generally look ragged, I knew I had to cross to the front here or my race would be over. There was a little protection from the wind on the successive climbs so I gave myself the challenge that I had to reach the front before the top of the 2nd climb, otherwise I would waste too much energy in the wind. Luckily, I had Mark Obrien to share turns with so that we caught the front just as they crested the 2nd climb and my teammate, Charles Howlett ran 3rd in the Vic 200km Champs. Of the 15 or so riders in that 2nd echelon, only Matt Lloyd was able to sit on and cross the gap with Mark and I.   

60km to go, 25 riders in the race, and I gave my search2retain teammates a pat on the back to let them know that with 3 of us, we had a strong position. Only Genesys with 4 riders had more. This group rolled turns fairly evenly for some 15km to consolidate our position and to again top up with food such as Mars Bars and Coke. As the rain began to fall solidly, it was both literally and metaphorically, the calm before the storm. With 40km to go, riders started eyeballing to suss out each others level of fatigue. I remember seeing Pat Shaw do the biggest power spew I have seem, while other riders locked up with full body cramps. From here, attacks were launched off the front repeatedly for some 25km. 50kmh - 20kmh - 50kmh - 20kmh. It was like a crit race! As the kms ticked off, the gaps were getting larger and larger, while fewer riders were actually racing, most were just hanging on the back, relying on others to do the work. Each time a Genesys rider scratched their nose, a search2retain rider pounced, and vice versa. Initially I just followed wheels, hoping that others would run themselves into the ground. Search2retain rider, Luke Fetch was getting tired after earlier commenting that he had never ridden more than 210km! I gave the young apprentice a shove as I told him that others were worse off than him (the spewing etc was continuing) - it was the perfect time to attack...properly! Fetchy launched with an aggressive move and was away into the mist. Only 1 rider was prepared and able to go with him, previous winner Joel Pearson. If they chase Luke, I would attack. If they chase me, Charles had the sprint power. Our plan was unfolding as prepared.

Some tried to reel Fetchy back, but each time they looked over their shoulder for some help with the effort, they sunk as they saw our search2retain jersey right on their wheel. It was a good position to be in. Nearing the finish, Fetchy unfortunately began to lock up and lost Pearson's wheel. Others would not know, but each time I stopped for a toilet break, Fetchy broke the wind for me on the way back. Or if I wanted food, Fetchy got me a drink. He probably ended up covering an extra 10km! Pearson went on to win his 2nd Warni, but for Fetchy to hold onto 3rd, knowing all the extra work he did, deserves huge praise. Nathan Haas pipped Fetch for 2nd after attacking 4km from home with Sam Davis from PlanB. Back in the main group, less than 30secs behind, I rode the final 2km on the front to lead out Charles in the sprint for the minor places where he finished just outside the top 10. With 3 of search2retain in the top 20 and Steve Robb leading the 2nd bunch over the line, only a few minutes down, we had done enough to place 2nd, behind the professional Genesys team, on Teams Class. Along with Fetchy's 3rd in his first Warni, this was a huge result for the team considering we only started with 5 rider when other teams had a full roster of 8. 

Race stats:

Dist- 260km

Time- 7hr 25mins

Avg Speed- 35kmh

Max Speed- 73kmh

Avg power- 270w

Max power- 1334w

Work- 7817kJ

Big Day!

A big thanks has to go to our support crew: 

- Chris Steffanoni and Mark Isaacs in the team car calling the shots and handing out precious bananas and Coke.

- Our feed crew of team owner Peter Shandon, young gun on the team Jake K, and the gorgeous Jane. All the crew gets up at 4am and has a long day, just like the riders. It would be cool to hear their version of events or get a video of their day as I hear of alot of rally car driving and silly stories at feed zones waiting for the riders to come through.

- our sponsors search2retain, Balance Nutrition, Felt, Kask, Salice and Diadora 

If anyone is interested in supporting search2retain to go Continental in 2012, please consider our proposal: http://www.search2retain.com.au/files/80SN9RH2OP/search2race_PartnerSponsor.pdf

Jay