Enduro magazine Timor coverage

Issue 20 of Enduro magazine has some great coverage from some of the biggest MTB events from the last few months around Australia and of course East Timor. It features a headlining article from Paul van der Ploeg with the perspective of an elite rider on the winning team of the third edition of the Tour de Timor. And then a few words about our little Ballarat campaign from the point of view of some weekend warriors giving it a good crack!

Not sure why they chose to publish the photo of me inadvertantly gazing on the presidential jewels, but hey, whatever sells magazines!

'Major Pain' final round of the Vic Enduro Series

Site laps of a mountain bike course can normally induce one of two emotional responses. You can feel that you can approach all trail features and obstacles with confidence and ride comfortably within your ability, or you can be left feeling that the next day will surely produce carnage and bloodshed all over the side of the hill on a scale not seen since William Wallace led the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.

Our site lap of Mount Major the day before the race left Craig and I feeling ample doses of both. The course and the tracks were fantastic but six hours of racing around them was going to require total physical and mental focus. We searched every pharmacy in Shepparton but couldn’t find where to buy this anywhere.

Allow me to paint a picture: Mount Major is a treeless grassy mound rising 200m above the race village set up at the bottom. It is clad in long grass and rocks and several telecommunications towers crown the summit. It is windy and barren, and home to free ranging flocks of sheep, goannas and snakes. World Trails have laid out a network of single track that drapes over the hill like a spider web and takes in all the natural features and contours. Some tracks were as simple as a strip of grass that had been poisoned along the contour of the hillside producing the mother of all off-camber corners which were initially covered in loose dead grass until a line had been worn in after a couple of laps.

There was 300m of climbing per 10km lap, (at 11 laps for the winner, you do the math) with around a dozen technical rock gardens to negotiate in an uphill fashion. The main descent was named ‘roller coaster’ which either followed the contour in an off-camber manner or plummeted straight down before bottoming out on a sharp turn and shooting you back up the hill again. Speeds of up to 50kmph were claimed here, and with each lap that was safely completed one could become more brazen with their speed each time, letting gravity do the work and saving the legs as much as possible for the long climb back up the hill. Check out the crazy course map on the Garmin file: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/125171437

Phil flying down the "Roller Coaster"

It was a unique course in that you could see large sections of the track in front and behind which meant riders that you were trying to catch or gap were often well within site, creating psychological gameplays. Either that or it just meant that Craig and I could wave to each other, or we could see how long it would be until Phil lapped us. And it was damn quickly! The young man put in as good a performance as any for the year, in spite of it being the final 6 hour race in what has been a very long year of big races. And Craig’s perseverance finally paid off as well, celebrating his 20^th consecutive enduro round with his first win in the 40+ category. Will Geor also put in a customary solid ride, looking strong throughout the day, but relieved like the rest of us when it was all over.

Will

So now a three month hiatus before the series resumes again with Ballarat to host the first round. With the home ground advantage we should all be out there in Canadian getting to know every inch of the course and getting ready to tear it up!

Mens Open

Phil Orr 1^st place 11 laps 6:22:01
Will Geor 5^th place 9 laps 5:59:17
Matt Turner 6^th place 8 laps 6:01:34

Mens 40+

Craig Sinclair 1^st place 8 laps 6:20:57


Mens Open Solo podium



2/3rds of the 40+ Solo podium



We worked hard, played hard - some photos to prove it

Its been two weeks already since we got back from East Timor, concluding our successful racing week with a few days R & R on Atauro Island to regenerate. Is it just me or does the sky seem a little bit brighter, people a bit more friendlier, the grass a little bit greener (and in need of a mow).
In some form or another, we are going to let you all know just how great this event and the whole Timor experience was.

Rest assured, BSCC was represented in the diplomatic and respectable manner it deserves, and just to prove it you can view most of our photos with hardly any of them being censored or withheld from public viewing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bscctimor/

A summary of results here:

Ballarat Sebastopol Cycling Club finished 10th in the Team Open Mens category and 12th overall.
Full results can be found at http://www.tourdetimor.com/

Guy



Phil



Jedi

Matt

Jezza

Joel

Stage 6 (85kms), Friday, finishing back at Dili,

The final day of the 2011 event, covering 85 km, was no walk in the park. After only a few hours of interrupted sleep, lying on a concrete slab in a school classroom, the Ballarat riders were all running on a combination of adrenalin and sugary gels.

It was a sombre start at dawn with the riders led out in a neutral rolling start by team members of the international security force who had lost a colleague in the road accident the day before.

It wasn't long before the pace lifted and the top 60 riders scrambled for a place in the lead bunch to get a good draft to the first climb. Matt Turner describes how he 'had to burn a few remaining matches’ to bridge over to the next group and hang on the end of the pack until the road started to go skywards. Matt was quickly dropped and considered waiting for the guys behind, but decided to persevere and go it alone. Finally on the twisty coastal descent he caught a small group in front. There’s a bit of a trend here of the Ballarat guys making big gains on the long downhill runs.

Riders covered some similar roads to those used on the first day and Matt, now in a group of 20 riders, was able to settle in for a fast paced peloton ride for the next 50km. The infamous Timor potholes in otherwise undulating relatively smooth tarmac, made for some very amusing hand signals to warn rearward riders of oncoming hazards!

The next climb was a monster and was totally exposed to the burning sun. The group took it easy up the monolith with sweat filling their eye sockets. Matt went for it, and broke away from the group (attacking Contador-style) and dropped everyone in the group knowing that on the other side Dili awaited. Unfortunately by the time Matt caught some riders ahead, they were too blown to work and Matt, running on sheer willpower and hope of the finish line approaching, dug deep and bridged over to a local hotshot rider. They worked together until he fell off Matt’s wheel on a rutted back road through the ‘Wendouree West’ of Dili.

President Ramos-Horta had declared a complete shutdown of Dili for the morning of Friday 16 September. This helped to create a spectacle of peace and celebration for the entire city and all Tour de Timor riders, as they made their way through the suburbs of Dili.

The ‘highlight’ was a 6.5km downhill MTB gauntlet run through the dry Comoro River. The dry riverbed was described as ‘dusty loose hell hole’ by Matt who had maxed himself out. At this point Guy Falla came cruising past looking completely unphased, and enjoying the riverbed ride. And only minutes later another Ballarat rider, Shane Cody, came blasting past, popping another wheelie to rub it in, enjoying the riverbed as well. Matt struggled through to the finish, happy that he had emptied the tank on the final day.

The finish line was at the Palacio Presidente. There was a deafening, and quite overwhelming welcome from the local spectators. All six Ballarat riders finished pretty close together today, and no one bothered to check the results, just happy to have finished. All riders were ushered straight into the grounds of the presidential palace, to recover on the grass and exchange stories of fortunes and adventures for the day. And time for some humble luxuries and much needed physical and mental recovery. Yes, that means laying down drinking some Bintang beer and eating oreos.

Well done guys, six gruelling days, and a taste of the life of a cycling professional. Sounds like a lifestyle they could live with, if only someone was happy to pay them to do it.

Stage 6 Results (and Overall Result)

Phil Orr - 23 (16)

Jeremy Doolan - 39 (25)

Joel Hossack - 57 (92)

Guy Falla - 61 (54)

Shane Cody - 62 (53)

Matt Turner - 68 (50)

Tragedy at Tour De Timor: Aussie soldier dies

The News is reporting this morning that a member of the Australian Army reserve has been killed in a truck accident yesterday. Also 2 members of an ANZAC crew have been seriously injured.

We believe this is one of the support trucks for the Tour de Timor.

No further details on this incident or our Ballarat riders

Stage 5 (142km) - Longest stage and too knackered to call!

Stage 5 Update, our guys all made it through, well done.
Phil Orr 21st
Jeremy Doolan 27th
Matt Turner 39th
Joel Hossack 53rd
Guy Falla 57^th
Shane Cody 100th

Our guys are doing great, considering there are still around 300 competitors completing this stage. With 4.30 to 5.30 hrs in the saddle for our riders, it was another long day.

previous text;
Too knackered to call!
No word on how our riders went today, and the official website is also lacking info. Phil Orr and Jeremy Doolan were spotted during an early section, powering along in the second main group on the road. I assume our guys are just too knackered to call with an update today. NGE.

Today is the start of the return to Dili, along the North Coast, on mainly fast, flat roads. With a few bridges out and some long difficult mountain climbs, our riders will be kept on their toes.

The main climb of the day is a long, drawn out affair starting at 75km and goes on for about 20 km!! With weary legs, an ascent speed around 10 km/hr is expected, so that 2 hrs of climbing!

After this lazy 20km of climbs our riders finally take on the downhill, back to the coast. After all that, our riders still face the final 40km of the 2011 Tour de Timor’s longest day.

The route opens out so it will be hot, fast finish. The road heads inland temporarily, and goes through parched salt plains before leading riders back to the coast and to the finish at Manatuto town.

If I hear anymore, I'll update this post

Stage 4 (79kms) - Tonight we talk with Phil Orr about todays stage

Phil Orr, although finishing well yesterday on stage 3, was feeling quite drained, with no energy and power in his legs, (hopefully he hasn’t dug too deep in those early stages) and went to bed last night suffering with stomach cramps. So Stage 4 was going to be interesting, hopefully all those gains Phil has made over the last 3 days weren’t going to be lost today.

With all riders in the camp resting up for another long day on the bike, everyone was woken early with the chilling and echoing sounds of dogs fighting at 3am in the morning. (It was probably just monkeys playing.....I'm sure foreign tourists say similar things when they hear koalas for the first time screeching in the Aussie bush...'do you think someone was just murdered'?...) At this point everyone was awake, and before you knew it, everyone was up and about, packing up gear. So much for that thing called sleep, try again later tonight.

From the gun today, riders were straight into the action with a major climb to wake their legs for the 4^th consecutive day in the saddle. After a fairly flat stage yesterday, the organisers wanted to remind the riders this is what Tour de Timor is all about: mountain climbs, rough and uneven and rocky surfaces, and some fast descents.

After the ‘warm-up’ climb and long fast decent, the riders hit the first King of the Mountain (KOM) at the 21km mark. Phil Orr lost contact with the leaders on this first climb of the day and was happy to settle into his own tempo and ride into a good position.

The hilly roads were over after about 40kms, however our riders were then faced with open/exposed ‘wind swept’ roads. This went on for about 30 kms and Phil Orr found himself on his own. Phil had a plan to ride along at a decent pace, keeping a bit in reserve, just in case (fingers crossed) a group would come by, and Phil could hitch a ride through to the finish. Well…..with a few kms left, a group of 2 rides finally came by and 2 became 3.

The last 4 kms of the stage, can only be described as a viciously steep and hazardous downhill into the Com Resort on the NE coast. Phil knew this sort of section would suite him. On the way down one of the riders (fearing for his life no doubt) dropped off, leaving Phil and the other rider, Andrew Bell to race down toward the finish. Both riders (Phil and Andrew) ran wide on a loose sketchy bend and ran out of road. Andrew Bell went down, Phil somehow stayed up. They both got going again, however Andrew was a bit shaken up and lost some confidence, and fell again soon after. So at this point Phil had a comfortable gap, and was able to roll over the line in front of another huge crowd in 15^th place for today’s stage.

All our Ballarat riders made it through Stage 4, although not totally unscathed this time. Sounds like Guy Falla had a crash, but still got through in a competitive time. Shane Cody was spotted popping wheelies for the crowd, so those legs are still holding up OK, and Jeremy Doolan was spotted on camera at the start line, trying to psych out his competitors.

Phil Orr 15th
Jeremy Doolan 24th
Shane Cody 38th
Guy Falla 60^th and a crash
Matt Turner 71st
Joel Hossack 154th

Tomorrows Stage 5 is a giant 142km, hopefully knowing they will be heading back toward Dili now, will motivate them enough to keep on pedalling. Stay tuned for more updates