The Cunningham Classic is regarded as the most important road race on the Queensland calendar. It has been running for a long time now and it still manages to attract some quality fields. This year was especially significant for me, as it was twenty years since the first of my two Elite A wins in 1997 (and then again in 1998). After the good legs I had at the Charles Coin Memorial, I actually considered riding Elite A. 171km though, is very different to the 126km at the Charles Coin, so I opted for the 96km Masters A race instead.
Almost fifty riders lined up in Masters A. I went in with a rough game plan of 'see what happens after the climb - and hopefully there will be crosswinds'. I felt reasonable at the start and I could feel my legs improving as the race went on. I stayed out of trouble early and didn't really get too involved. I went up the main climb no problem, cresting over the top in (I think) fourth spot.
After the climb things started to get interesting. The cross wind wasn't too bad, but it was certainly enough to make things difficult. This is where I decided to get active and make sure I was in every move that looked like it had potential (which turned out to be most of them).
I lost count of how many breaks I was in, but at 18km to go, I escaped with Ian Johnston (Hamilton Cycling Club). Ian is a very solid rider, but I knew he had a much stronger sprint than me. We worked very hard together and managed to get a lead, which by the look of it, never went much above thirty seconds or so. Coming into the finish the bunch was closing fast and with about two kilometres to go Jack Brumpton (Lifecycle Cycling Club) managed to get across to us. We manged to hold the bunch off (by about nine seconds) which was just enough for Ian to take a well deserved win, with me in second and Jack in third. I also managed to pick up the 'Most Impressive Rider' award, after being so active in the second half of the race.
Rob Walker (CyclingTex) helped out on the day and put together one of his vlogs. It is worth a look:
No comments:
Post a Comment