Ben Griffin Classic

Apparently this is the 7th annual Ben Griffin Classic, but only my 2nd (previous report).  Still recovering for Saturday's Bayside KOM (only 4 days ago), I didn't really rate my chances.

There had been a lot of trash talking on Facebook before the event, mostly directed towards Clint and how his days of dominance were at an end.  Tom, who had just earnt his Triathlon Pro licence this year was particular vocal - all in jest of course.

Like usual I rode from my house and joined the ride when I spotted them approaching. I figured it would be very easy to recognise the group on Christmas Eve (a work day), but was still surprised by the size of the group. I'd estimate at least 80 riders in the peleton, possibly more.

Seaford Sprint

I'm not a good sprinter at the best of times, but with my legs still feeling dead I knew I was no hope. However even without being a chance for a win, it is hard not to join in the fun, so I took off with the lead pack on the first sprint. I saw Tom tucked in nicely behind Clint and told him I would act as his lead-out man. Unfortunately I misread the pace of the pack and ended up at the front way too early. Jason and I were riding side by side out front knowing full well our efforts would die well before the line. Seems like my lead-out abilities are almost as bad as my sprinting.

Predictably Clint won the first sprint, Tom came in second and I'm not sure who scored 3rd place.

Oliver's Hill KOM

Legs still feeling crap, but like usual I decided to race the KOM anyway. Half way up what is a short but very steep hill, it was obviously not happening for me, so I cruised up the rest of the hill.

Stephen won the KOM. I'm not sure, but he looked very much like last year's Red Rider, but on a new bike - he certainly rode up hills just as fast. Young Martin was second and Andrew third (note that this is a different Andrew to the one that dominated the Bayside KOM).

Balcombe Hill KOM

There is a fair gap between Oliver's and Balcombe and my legs were starting to loosen up. I was always going to race the hill, but now I felt I had a whisker of chance to score points.

It started out unusually slow. I don't think Clint had any intention of contesting the climb (he was concentrating on the sprints), but the slow pace seemed to annoy him so he jumped on the front to pick things up. As soon as Clint backed off a few riders made big attacks near the bottom of the hill.

At 2.4km, Balcombe Hill is reasonably long and has two sections with a small false flat in the middle. It is very common to see riders go way too hard in the first half and completely die way before the end. With this in mind the lead pack let to attacking riders go and set on a nice tempo pace for the first half of the climb. Andrew (from the Bayside KOM) set the pace out front. It was not particularly fast, but e was conveniently protecting the rest of us from head wind, so we were more than happy to sit on his wheel.

Once passed the false flat Tom took over the lead and I jumped on his wheel. Another rider followed by Andrew dropped away. We quickly rounded up the attacking riders, the last of whom was Stephen who actually seemed to wait for us (probably catching his breath before the final onslaught).

Looking who I was riding with, I felt I was outgunned and would not win a final sprint up the climb. With this in mind I attacked early about 200m before the summit. Unfortunately the fatigue in my legs meant my attack was no where near as powerful as I wanted, but was good enough to dislodge one of the riders. This left Stephen, Tom and myself. Predictably Stephen and Tom rode away from me with Stephen claiming the full points whilst I held on for 3rd.

Dromana Sprint

Starting from the Dromana Drive-in and ending under the Freeway overpass, I once more decided to continue my futile efforts at winning a sprint.

Sitting 4 wheels from the front, I felt I was in perfect position. Unbenownst to me, the two riders in front had decided not to contest the sprint, so when everybody shot off I found myself completely boxed in. Once I had manoeuvred my out I tried to catch back up, but to no avail.

Clint picked up another Sprint win followed by Tom in second (no idea who came third).

Sorrento Sprint

The Sorrento Sprint has a steep uphill finish. Maybe this would help overcome my pathetic sprinting talents. Unfortunately the start point was over 1km before the end and I was badly positioned when the pack took off at a very rapid pace. I would surge to catch up, but each time the rider in front would drop off requiring me to surge again. After happening a few times, I backed off and saved my legs.

Maybe it was the uphill finish, but this time Tom prevailed over Clint with Andrew (from the Oliver's Hill KOM) scoring another 3rd place.

Once at Sorrento we stopped for a toilet break, refilling of water bottles and to allow all of the riders to regroup. At the stop Clint announced a change to the Beleura Hill KOM. The start point was moved from Main St to the Mt Martha tunnel - so the racing section of the KOM had increased from 1km to 11.5km.

Beleura Hill KOM

The new extended KOM now included the twisting and undulating roads through Mt Martha. This is one of my favourite bits of road and usually a section of road where I would do well. But my legs were not feeling good, plus I would have 100km in legs before hitting this section.

I knew the exit from the tunnel would be a critical piece of road. It is extremely steep and I usually suffer greatly on this small section of road. Moving to front before the tunnel and then pushing very hard on the exit I successfully lodged myself within the lead pack. Once the Mt Martha twisties the pace was hard and fast. I locked onto the back of Clint's wheel and hung on for dear life.

The twisty, undulating section along the Esplanade between the tunnel and round-a-bout is 6km long. About 5kms in, a few riders managed to extend a gap to Clint. I waited for a bit to see if Clint would close it down but nothing happened. Suspecting he may be suffering I jumped out front to share to pull a turn. Unfortunately my power left me when we started to climb the next hill and Clint and Ben flew past leaving me in their wake. Knowing I was on a good time for one of my favourite Strava segments I continued to push the pace to the round-a-bout and smashed my PB by 1m40s for the 6km segment (only 90s off the overall KOM).

The leaders were still in sight but I was feeling very flat and just cruised along the Esplanade towards Mornington. Previously dropped riders flew past, but I wasn't tempted to jump on until a small pack of 6 or so riders came past that included Jason and Brent. They were riding well and were slowing picking  up the riders ahead. Starting to feel better and jumped on the front and pulled a few turns as we maintained a good pace into Mornington. In fact the pace was so good that when we crested the final Beleura Hill the leaders were just ahead of us. Even more impressive, I have placed 7th overall on the 38km Strava segment from Sorrento to Mornington - this includes me stopping at Rye to fix my chain and the few kilometres along the Esplanade where I stopped trying.

Once again Stephen won the KOM - 3 out 3 making him King of the Mountain. I don't know who got 2nd, but Tom snuck in for third.

By this stage I felt terrible, but Tom looked even worse. The ride was to regroup at the Frankston BP and we both got dropped along the way.

Seaford Sprint

After regrouping at Frankston, the next Sprint starts almost immediately and you need your wits about you to get into position early enough. Knowing this, Ray launched a massive attack and quickly established what looked like an insurmountable lead. James headed off with the intention of securing 2nd and I sat on wheel planning to jump him just before the line. Stephen flew past an incredible speed in chase of Ray, leaving James and I to fight out for 3rd place.

I knew I had nothing left in my legs, but I figured if I sat in James draft all to the way to finish it should be pretty simple to overrun him at the end. With about 300m to go several other riders started to pass on the outside. Thinking they would easily outride James (and therefore me), I gave up and cruised to the line. Surprisingly James maintained his lead and took 3rd (surprising because he rode so far solo, not because I doubt his ability). Even more surprising, Stephen caught and passed Ray for the win.

At 140km I ended my ride completely exhausted. This has been my longest ride since Ironman in March 2012 (20 months ago). Initially I was a little disappointed in my efforts, but after looking at the Strava results I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I post big PBs on nearly all the segments between Sorrento and Mornington, I also scored a PB on the Balcombe Hill climb.

Last Two Sprints

As I'd already left the ride, I didn't see any of the last 2 sprints. Parkers Rd Sprint was won by Daniel, followed by Clint and Laurence. And the Overall winner (final sprint) was won by Clint, followed by Swanny and then Dave. King of the Mountain went to Stephen and Clint won the Sprint points.

Bayside KOM

Another special ride event added to the calendar by Clint. This one is purely climbing focused, hence the KOM (King of the Mountains) in the name. It takes place up in the Dandenongs, involving the '1-in-20', Perrins Creek Rd, The Wall and Inverness to Olinda. Of my athletes only Stef and Elaine were missing. Stef had scheduled a hangover for Saturday morning after her work's Christmas Party on Friday night and Elaine was too tired and instead chose a flat ride to Port Melbourne and back.

The official ride started on the corner of Dorset Rd and Mountain Hwy, but most club members decided to set off from GESAC and make the total ride over 140km. I was much kinder to my athletes and had them start a kilometre before Dorset Rd as it had more convenient parking and the extra kilometre of warmup riding would be beneficial before the first climb. Plus I didn't want anybody holding back their efforts on the climbs because they were worried about the long ride home - I tend to keep my long ride and hilly rides separate. If I did decide to do a long hilly ride, the climbs would be taken much easier than normal.

All up there must have been around 50 riders as we gathered at the Basin listening to Clint's instruction.

1-in-20

The first climb was the '1-in-20' - Mountain Hwy from the Basin to the Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd, about 7km long at a fairly constant 5% gradient (thus the name 1-in-20) with a small false flat in the middle.

Andrew immediately rode off the front, but there no reaction from the other contenders, in particular Clint, Griff and Swanny. So I settled in behind them and bided my time thinking that someone would eventually make a move to close the gap. It was a reasonably easy tempo for the first section of the climb, Andrew increased the gap out front but never really got out of sight. Clint jumped out front on the false flat and picked up the pace, which dropped about 10 riders off the chase pack leaving just Clint, Griff, Swanny and myself. The gap to Andrew was reduced to less than 50 metres, but as soon as the false flat finished, Clint relinquished the lead and left it to me to close the gap.

Pulling back 50m with about 2.5km left to climb was not a huge task, but I was reluctant to dig too deep this early into the ride. Andrew looked to be riding very well and if I did pull back the gap, the others would simply ride past when we got close to the top. This would mean expending a lot of energy with no benefit to me, plus the 4 points for first across the top would be better with Andrew than Clint (Clint wins everything). So I maintained a reasonably fast but comfortable pace and Andrew slowly edged further ahead. With the others all wanting somebody else to do the work, nobody volunteered to take the initiative and Andrew slipped away to a relative easy win on the first climb. As we neared the top I could hear Clint changing gears in preparation of a sprint for 2nd place. I decided to charge early with 150m to go hoping this would discourage Griff and Swanny from contesting (nothing was going stop Clint). I held the lead for a while, but Clint timed his effort well and surged past with 50m to go. Looking across I could see Swanny on his wheel and decided I would just cruise the last 50m and finish in 4th place (no points for 4th) with Griff doing the same in 5th.

Once at the top we took it easy down the Tourist Rd and The Crescent to let other riders catch back up. By the time we reached the bottom of the Perrins Creek Rd climb, we had a group of about 15 riders. I've only ridden Perrins Creek Rd once, about 10 years ago. I was fairly new to riding then and the climb was so difficult I think it mentally scarred me. Now it was time to see how much I have improved.

Perrins Creek Rd

It didn't take long for Andrew to ride off the front again and once more nobody else made an effort to follow. Not wanting to fall into the same trap, I attacked from the main pack and rode straight past Andrew when I caught him. He immediately jumped onto my wheel and stayed there for the whole climbs. There were a few sections where I could sense him starting to falter, but he never drifted more than a few metres and was always pretty quickly back on my wheel.

The total climb is about 2.5km long with an average gradient of about 8%. I've always thought it was similar to Arthur's Seat in Dromana, but having now ridden it a second time, I've found it keeps a much steadier gradient than Arthurs Seat and also doesn't have any hairpin corners (Arthurs Seat is all hairpin corners). With about 1km to go, we had ridden out of sight of the chase pack, so I knew the winner was going to be out of Andrew and me. By this stage I was feeling terrible, but I was sensing Andrew was not feeling great either so this gave me hope. The last 100m was an all out effort (I won't say sprint because at 8% gradient it was not very fast). I just held off Andrew across the line, who then told me he wasn't going to pass me after I led the whole way up, but going by how much effort he gave and how hard he pushed me, I'm not sure I believe him.

Behind us, Clint made an attack to secure 3rd place, but unfortunately his timing was not so good. He thought he was closer to the top and died well before the end allowing Swanny to grab third place.

Along the Tourist Road and down The Crescent we once again allowed the group to reform. This time the numbers swelled to about 20 riders before we reached the base of The Wall. My efforts up Perrins Creek Rd had burnt a lot of matches. My legs felt like jelly and I didn't really hold much hope for any more decent climbing efforts.

The Wall

Swanny was leading the pack as we approached The Wall, but unfortunately he missed the turn and had to double back which disadvantaged him a little. True to form, Andrew once again took off straight away, so I immediately rode up to his wheel but this time I didn't pass. Still feeling crap I thought I was no chance up the hill, but if we got away there was a possibility the others would not bother chasing us and instead fight between themselves for the 3rd spot. Unfortunately Clint was soon on our wheels and now the lead pack was 3 riders big.

The Wall is just over 5kms long and has a few steep pinches. The rest of the climb is still pretty steep, it is just that the pinches are even steeper. Once we reached the steep pinch in the middle, Clint started to drop off the back. Sensing weakness I immediately moved to the front to try and open a gap. At this stage I passed Mark (who on my instructions had skipped the Perrins Creek loop) and was feeling surprisingly good. Andrew and I worked together through the steep sections, but once the gradient eased off a little Clint was soon back on our wheels. With Clint back in the picture my motivation dropped a little and I again realised how crap I felt, so I dropped off the back and let Andrew and Clint fight it out between them.

I kept a steady tempo for the rest of the climb feeling confident I had 3rd place (1 point) sewn up. Every now and again I checked behind to make sure no one was creeping up, but each time the gap to 4th place was significant enough to not bother me. As we approached the final stages of the climb I must have become complacent, because when I checked behind there was Swanny making a late charge (he was previously not the rider in 4th place). I immediately changed up a gear and tried to surge, but was instantly treated to a massive cramp in my left calf - no doubt the legacy of my efforts up Perrins Creek Rd. So I watched Swanny fly past to score his hat-trick of 3rd places and later discovered that Clint had just pipped Andrew for the win (they were completely out of sight by then).

With 3 climbs down and 1 to go, each climb had been won by a different rider. The leaderboard saw Andrew out in front with 8 points (4+2+2), Clint in second with 6 points (2+0+4), myself in third with 4 points (0+4+0) and Swanny in fourth with 3 points (1+1+1). Nobody else has troubled the scoreboard. Griff (the reigning King of the Mountain) had been near the action all day, but hadn't actually fired shot. He was complaining about problems with his new bike, but I suspect he was keeping his powder dry to improve his chances in the 150km Ben Giffin Classic (named after him) scheduled for the Tuesday (4 days away).

After The Wall we descended down the Tourist Rd to Montrose, one of my favourite descents. There we waited for 10 or 15 minutes to let the group rebuild to close to over 30 riders. During this break I didn't really know how I felt. I was quite sore in parts, but the easy descent followed by a decent break has restored some of my energy.

Montrose to Olinda via Inverness Rd

I've ridden up the Tourist Rd back to Olinda which is a relative long but not overly steep climb. However I've never been on Inverness Rd before, something I was about to experience. Inverness Road sort of undulates upwards ranging from mildly to very steep, although the severity of the gradient seemed to increase with each undulation. Each time the gradient eased off I started to feel good and thought I was still a chance, but sensing my arrogance the gradient would quickly start to steepen and bring me back to reality.

The steep sections soon narrowed the riders down to a select few. Griff was missing this time, but Ray joined the party hoping to snare the final climb. I suspect Ray had been taking it easy up till now hoping we would all tire ourselves out and then planned to jump in fresh and ride away from us on the final climb. Andrew and Ray led the group up Inverness Rd, both looking very strong. Clint, Swanny and myself started to struggle each time the gradient got steep (we are talking around 15%). Both Clint and Swanny had 39-23 as their lowest gear, I had 39-25, I'm not sure what gearing Ray had, but Andrew's 34-27 gearing was definitely giving him a huge advantage through this section (a good tradesman brings the right tools). I knew the gradient would ease off once we got back on the Tourist Rd and could see it just up ahead - 'up' being the operative word, as while it seemed very close, it was worryingly much higher up. Looking up at the road felt looking up at a bridge that you were about to sail under in a boat. My fears were well founded as the gradient in the last 250m continually rose in sections to over 20%. With my legs feeling every the affects of every pedal stroke from the previous 3 climbs I was finally gone. But the mental relief of giving up on the race was spoilt somewhat by the fact I still had to finish riding up the 20% gradient to get back on the Tourist Road.

Andrew, Ray, Clint and Swanny soon rode out of sight, whilst I sauntered along at a leisurely pace. At one point I saw two riders ahead and thinking some of the guys had blown I picked up the pace to fight for third spot only to discover they were different riders not part of our group. Mentally and physically flat I laboured my way up the hill until riders from the chase pack (that included Queen of the Mountain, Naomi) caught up with me and we rode the rest of the way together.

Unlike the previous climbs, this last one ended with a few kilometres of rolling hills. Clint described it as 'being like the finish in one of the Spring Classics'. This type of finish would definitely suit Clint, which is no surprise seeing as he decided upon the course. As good as Andrew had been riding, I was convinced he would be suffering from the efforts of the last 3 climbs. Clint himself would have been very confident of taking the win, but like the other climbs, Andrew simply rode away and the others could not catch him. Clint was counting on support from the other riders to help in the chase, but one by one they dropped off with fatigue.

To put Andrew's effort in perspective, not only did he ride away from all the other riders. Even with what must have been extremely fatigued legs, he still posted an overall top 10 Strava finish on the last climb (Inverness to Olinda - 9.9km). To get a Stava top 10 on a popular climb in Dandenongs is almost impossible, to get it near the end of a particularly hard ride is unbelievable (I suspect Clint still cannot believe he lost).

I don't know who picked up 3rd on the final climb, so I'll just assume it was Swanny. This means the Final standings were: Andrew 12 pts (4+2+2+4), Clint 8pts (2+0+4+2), me 4 pts (0+4+0+0) and Swanny also on 4 pts (1+1+1+1). I believe I beat Swanny in a countback - a win supersedes 4 x 3rd place (it's my blog, so my rules).

Mick, Laurie, Merryn, Jen and Mark all did extremely well. There instructions were to hammer it up the hills - I wanted to see high heart rate averages for each climb, and that is what I saw (happy coach). Mark conveniently forgot his Garmin and had to use the Strava app on his phone which meant no heart rate data. But the speed and derived power figures indicate he pushed pretty hard on all hills with the possible exception of the ridiculously steep section of Inverness Rd where he averaged only 3.7kph. Possible walking involved there, but he would not have been the only one as others admitted to me that they had to walk sections. In fairness, if I had previously ridden that section I would have not have asked any of them to ride up it (it was truly brutal). And finally a special mention to Merryn who not only rode well on this ride, but then raced at the Western Suburbs Tri Club Sprint Triathlon the next day and finished as 2nd female overall - outstanding. This follows Jen's age group win at the Canberra Half Ironman the weekend before.

Back Online

It has been a long time since my last blog post.  One week after Noosa, I injured my back and had 10 days of no training. After 5 physio and 3 chiropractor appointments I am now back to full training, but a lot of fitness and conditioning has been lost in the meantime.

Elaine has also been out of action due to a skin cancer removal procedure performed the day we got back from Noosa. Amazingly the scar is already invisible but she still cannot swim for another week because the goggles would press on the exact spot where the skin cancer removed from. She also missed over a week of riding and running to avoid sweat getting into the wound. While she is back to full running and riding now,  the break has certainly put her fitness back.

Another reason for the break in posts is that I now have 6 athletes in my stable (8 if you include Elaine and me). I am definitely at capacity in this regard and it makes it hard to find time for other things such as updating blogs (I'm currently writing this on the train using my new Samsung Galaxy S III phone).

Last weekend Elaine and I along with Mark and Stef completed the Kinglake ride. When I signed up I had very ambitious notions of posting the fastest time up the Will Walker Climb and being first rider to complete  the 115km distance. Disappointingly my body was not up to the challenge. Even on the smaller undulations before the main climb my heart rate was spiking much higher than expected. Once on the Will Walker climb my perceived effort was telling me it was easy, but a heart rate of 170bpm was indicating otherwise. I resisted the urge to charge off the front scared that I would blow up after 2 minutes and just look silly. sure enough, even sitting in the pack I soon found myself struggling and dropped off the pack after only 2.5km of climbing (the hill was 7.5km long). With 6 riders in the lead pack I ended up only being 7th rider up the climb. After the climb I regrouped with a second pack of 4 riders, with 2 or 3 riders in the lead pack ahead of us. With the pace my group was setting, it seemed like they were determined to catch back up. This was eventually too much for me and at 70km mark I dropped off and continued on riding solo. S couple of riders from behind caught and passed me with only a few kilometres to go, so I am guessing I finished in about 10th place (out of 800 or so riders). At first I was very disappointed in how much fitness I had lost, but overall my effort was not too bad. After being completely wiped out for the rest of the day, it was fairly obvious I gave it all I could.


Elaine did well in the shorter 66km event even with the break in training, with Strava showing it was her fastest ride on that route. Although like me, she was wasted for the rest of the day. We both went to bed early and had a rare sleep in on Sunday morning. Mark (115km ride) and Stef (66km ride), both did very well. I didn't see Stef on the day, but Mark had a very big smile on his face as he rode down the finish shute. I'll write more about each of my athletes progress and season goals in a future post.