Round 1 – Sizzling Summer Series

Round 1 of the Sizzling summer Series kicked off the 3 race criterium series this weekend. The race was held late on Sunday afternoon, which meant the heat was going to be a big factor. The team was looking to get one of us into a break and try to avoid a bunch sprint.

From the start there were numerous attempts to cause a break, however with many teams wanting a bunch sprint, it was hard for a break to get away. Despite this, at about half way through the race, the field split in two, with a large 25-30 man group riding off the front.
This type of thing is unusual and before the remaining 30 riders in the back group realised it, the front group had caused a big gap and were away. The back group tried to get across but was too late.

In the end, this large front group contested a bunch sprint, which saw Jon Cantwell take another fine victory.

Next week the team is looking to have a full compliment and really make a go of the race. Stay tuned for an update.

Pimpama Road Race

On Sunday was the Pimpama Road Race, which is run by the Gold Coast CATS club. This race always proves popular and is a great race for a club event. The circuit is a 10km loop (done 7 times) with several small power climbs across the course, which always make for hard yet fun racing. This is very much like the belgian kermis style of racing with not quite as much distance.

From the gun Taylor attacked and had one other rider to help him. This early break lasted for about 10 or so km's until it was brought back. More break were made and more breaks were brought back. All of the team was active today, with each break having a Campos rider in it. This made it easy for the rest of the team to sit and counter attack once these breaks were brought back.

Late in the race both Doug and Tom were very active in trying to break the race up, however there was little luck.

With 2 laps to go, a small group formed, which included Jono Cantwell, Brendan Brooks, Pete Thompson and Brad Nightingale among others. This group looked dangerous and with 2km to go, Matt attacked the peleton and rode across to this powerful front group. At the foot of the final climb with 1km to go, Matt attacked the front group and was away solo. Matt quickly got 100m with less than 1km to go. However, with the head wind and large peleton remaining, he was reeled in at the top of the final climb.

Taylor was then well positioned on Cantwells wheel to try to contest the final sprint but was unable to come around some of the more powerful sprinters.

Pete Thompson took the win in front of Cantwell. Not bad for someone who hasn't got any form yet.

Oakey Kermis

Last weekend was the first open road race of the year for the team, which was the Oakey Kermis. Oakey is a small town 2 hours west of Brisbane and has been running the Oakey Kermis for many years. This race is traditionally the season opening road race and always proves to be a hard race. The course has a small 600m long climb in it that averages about 5-6%, so after doing this climb 10 times, it tends to get harder and harder each time, especially when riding over it at close to 40 kph. The back side of the course is always exposed to the wind, with cross winds pushing people into the gutter and breaking the field up. The race is 10 laps of a 6.7km course, so the 67km covered doesn’t seem like much, but is very intense.

The team was super motivated for a good result and we knew that it would be on from the gun. As the race headed out of town for the first time, Ruben Donati attacked hard up the climb, and caused a group of 8 riders to break away early. Our man Callum O’Sullivan was strong enough to work his way into this quality group and settled in for a long day in the saddle.

The rest of the team covered all attempts to bridge across to the break and made sure that we were ready should the break come back.

Roughly half way into the race Callum and several other riders in the break were unable to stay with the front group, and as such, the team had to chase and/or try and bridge across to the front group.

Matt Murray spent a large proportion of the race at the front trying to reduce the gap and set up Sam Volkers for the finale. Unfortunately the break was over 2 minutes up the road and was therefore too far ahead for the chase to make much of an impact. It became clear with about 3 laps to go, that the break will have its day and the rest of us in the group were racing for 5th.

Given the teams hard chase, there was little energy left for us to go for 5th, which wasn’t paying any money anyway, so we did what we could to be at the front and roll in with the group.

Fly V Australia professional rider and state Time Trial Champion, Darren Rolfe, won the race easily with an impressive solo victory.

All in all, it was a good day for the team as we learnt a few lessons about how a race unfolds and realise how a race can sometimes be decided from the first break of the day, which is highly unusual.

Sam does it again at Synergy Park

Following on from the previous post, we just want to congratulate Sam for another great result over the weekend with his 3rd place at Synergy Park criterium. Sam was in the money on both Saturday (4th Nundah) and on Sundays race.

Good work Sam.

More team success

This weekend has proven to be another successful weekend of racing for the team...all thanks to Sam. On Saturday the team turned up to Nundah for the local club crit, where the team raced really aggressively. From the gun, Taylor attacked and took a small group with him. This was brought back soon, but from that point on it was attack after attack.
Matt was active through the whole race, always forcing the pace and softening the pack up so that Sam could then get himself into a break at the end of the race.

Sam got himself into a good working break in the finale, and put in some more of his famous big turns at the front and made sure his break stayed away. For the last 10minutes of the race, the break worked well together and with the rest of the team monitoring any moves that might try to get across, it looked good for a result.

Sam's group stayed away until the finish, but with not the strongest sprint, Sam came in for fourth place, so the Campos Coffee was on him.

To back this great effort up, Sam raced out at Synergy Park Criterium on the following Sunday and managed to get himself 3rd place.

With the Oakey Kermis next week, it's clear Sam has plenty of form.

Twilight Series Finale

Wednesday evening was the final round of the annual and popular Twilight Series held at Nundah. Following on from Callum's 4th place the previous week, the team was confident in getting a better result this week.

It was a hot evening, yet the field was really big. Nundah is infamous for being a windy circuit, which always results in a hard race. Tonight was to be no exception. The boys put in a great effort, with Sam marking all of the early moves. Several times Sam got himself into in a break with Malcolm Rudolf (Jayco-Skins rider and u23 National Rep), yet the two combined was too much of a risk for the pelton, who brought these dangerous moves back each time.

With no successful break being able to get away, the race was coming down to a bunch sprint. Dougie then started to organise a lead out train for Callum, and proceeded to put in massive turns to keep the pace high. Unfortunately there were too good a sprinters in the field, with Matt Ryan taking the win. There's always next week.