The Charles Coin is arguably one of the most important races on the Queensland calendar. It is a race I have always enjoyed as the course suits me pretty well.
Funnily enough, this was only the fourth time I have ever done a Masters A road race. I know that sounds incorrect, but I was largely racing Elite A until July 2014, and due to a lot of the things that prevented me from racing at the end of 2014 and for most of 2015, there were not many Masters A road races completed. So to the race...
Thirty-five or so of us headed off on a windy afternoon in Mulgowie to complete six laps of the eighteen kilometre circuit The first two laps I stayed very quiet, trying to hide as much as possible. A crash on the third lap caused a split. Luckily I was in the right spot by the end of all that mess, but between riders being dropped early, the handful who crashed and the other handful who missed the split, we were down to between twenty and twenty-five riders.
On the fourth lap, a pretty serious break formed. Tim Hoy from the Gold Coast, Ben Manson from the University Club, another University rider and me, managed to get away and very quickly built up a good lead. The problem with this break was that the three teams with big numbers in this race (Mainline, Tineli p/b Crazy Lemon and QSM) all missed that break. They worked hard and pulled us back about fifteen kilometres later.
In the middle of the fifth lap, I had been staying near the front and keeping both Tim and Ben close. Tim had been very active at this point. About halfway through the lap I thought that the bunch looked very tired, so on a small downhill section when everyone was sitting up, I bolted off the front. I had a fifteen second gap pretty quickly. Tim Hoy came across to me and we worked together absolutely flat out on the difficult end section of that lap.
Tim and I worked very well together and by the middle of the last lap had over a minute lead. Tim is a current Australian Masters (MMAS4) champion and he was in great form. I was worried about him on the last hill of the race, less than two kilometers from the finish. He hit me very hard on that spot and I couldn't stay with him. We stayed like that to the finish with Tim winning by about ten or fifteen seconds. Ben Manson managed to escape the bunch and finish third on his own, over a minute behind.
So all in all, a performance and a result I am very pleased with. I have had a long period of time now with no crashes, surgery, injury or anything more than a sniffle and I think the benefits of that consistent time on the bike is starting to show.
(Credit Michael Owen for all the photos)
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