Avanti - TFM Road Team

Wow! Does it ever stop??!! What a huge few months- and this is only the beginning! As we wave goodbye to summer and the crit season, we welcome the time of the 'hard man'-road racing and of course training through winter!

BUT, it would not be right to leave acknowledgements to the end...First, AVANTI! What an absolute beautiful ride. Not one of the guys can complain- the bike sticks like glue to the road. The BORAS are amazing- rolling with ease and like we are riding on a cloud. The geometry is just right, making it the most comfortable, stiffest bike we have ever ridden.

The second thumbs up goes out to: Chris, Darius, Justin, Konrad and Kane. The kit, the race prep and the level of service performed on the bikes is always above and beyond the standard. Absolutely fantastic guys.

The third and final thumbs up goes out to Chris, Danny, Pikey and Stu. The mateship, the respect and the support is unbelievable. It really makes it easy to get up at 4:30am and ride in sub zero temperatures to meet up with these guys!

Watch out road season 2009...

Baw Baw Classic

The 18th of April saw Tristan, Danny and Stu embark on an adventure of soul searching and straight out PAIN! Yes, it was that time of the year- a 93km undulating road race from Warragul, finishing with a 6km climb to the top of Baw Baw (averaging 13% with the steepest section being 23.5%). (L'Alpe d'Huez is 7.9%!!). Stu attacked A grade and was riding well, until being forced to retire with a mechanical (2nd year in a row- man that hill is gunna pay!). Dan and Tristan rode B grade: Tristan managed to breakaway, getting caught by 2 riders at the base of Baw Baw, finishing 4th (only 50m behind third) while Dan blew the bunch off his wheel on Baw Baw, coming through in 13th. Nice work guys! (Thanks to Nyssa and Hana-what a support crew!!)

Tristan with 200 metres to go

Phillip Island 100km Teams Race

Paul Richards and Stuart Payne away in the break

Stuart Payne in no man's land between the main field and the break

Tristan and Matt both suffering towards the end of the race

The Tour of the Southern Grampians

The first outing for the team was on a frosty weekend in south-west Victoria- the Tour of the Southern Grampians, held in Coleraine on the 4th and 5th of April. Everyone rode well, with Pikey and Tristan placing 15th and 16th, while Danny 29th and Chris 38th. It was a very tough three stage race, with huge cross winds (hang on to Danny), big hill climbs and on the Sunday, torrential rains. All in all the guys rode well and approved of the mammoth efforts made by Chris 'diesel locomotive' Newman in closing breaks and keeping the boys in touch with GC!

Danny finds the power halfway up Baw Baw!

Tour of Canberra

Well done to Stu who raced A grade at the Tour of Canberra on the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of May. It was a gutsy effort by Stu, especially considering he was up against some top teams- Drapac Porsche, Praties, Savings and Loans and the winner of the tour of Malaysia!! Stu rode like a true pro, finishing 21st- only 2mins 56secs down on GC. Awesome job Stu- it was a national road event!

Phillip Island 100km Teams Race

It was going to be a busy day at Phillip Island with a massive 177 riders on the starting list. That's more than the Tour De France, nuts! Anyway Freedom Machine had three teams racing, 1 x A grade and 2 x B grade and all on the course at the same time. We knew that it was going to be a hard day in the saddle when on the neutral lap we were doing 53kph down the back straight (The race hadn't even started yet!). Second lap in and it was low 60's. To make matters worse, the lap keeper wasn't doing their job, I'm sure I saw the 18 lap board on 3 separate laps.

The attrition rate in the first few laps was huge and the speed did not let up. There were a number of breaks early in the race but they all managed to get caught. There was a lull around the 10 lap mark and for a little while I thought I might make the end of the race, that dillusion was not going to last long. By lap 13 we were back in the 60s down the back straight and the leaders were still powering up the short sharp rise near the end of each lap.

At the end of lap 13 according to the officials and lap 15 according to the Garmin, my run came to an abrupt end while trying to climb that hill a final time. The legs gave out, the heart started to palpitate and the vision was becoming a little blurred. Fortunately we still had many riders still in the race.

Up the front of the race Paul Richards, Stuart Payne, Andrew Pike and Nathan Wise were mixing it with some of the best riders in the country. Everything seemed to settle down until about 8 laps to go where a break developed and at one stage had more than a minute and a half on the main bunch. The only one of our riders in the break was Paul Richards but in a magnificent effort Stuart Payne along with 2 others bridged across to the break.

And after all that with 2 laps to go the break just sat up, more worried about each other than the main field and let the main bunch make up nearly a minute in two laps to culminate in a sprint finish.

In the end our A team finish 16th overall and the Avanti B team finished 4th in B grade while the second B team secumbed to the pressure with only Matt Curnow making it to the end. And the 100km race well it turned out to be 130km because of the disastrous lap scoring.

Andrew Pike finishing the race mid field