Elite Qld State Champs

The Elite race was the following Sunday after the Masters race, and Condy backed up from his win to support the team. The weather was perfect and the team was ready for the 150km championship race.

The team were well prepared and marked the early moves. The first break was a solo effort from Tinelli racing, who gained a 4:30min lead. The team worked with others to bring this back, and after 3 laps the break was caught and the real racing began.

Matt was very active and at the halfway point the race split over the big climb of the day, with Matt in the front group. The chasers caught back on after 5km and more moves started to go up the road, with Matt being present in each group that formed. Meanwhile Callum, Tom and Condy waited in the wings patrolling the chasers. Despite Matt's efforts, the group was always brought back and with 30km to go it was evident nothing was going to get away. Callum and Tom set a great tempo to bring back some small breaks in the hope Condy had his sprinting legs back after his win on Saturday.

With 15km to go a small crash split the bunch, with Matt and Condy having to chase back to the front group, after which the steady tempo brought the group into the finale. The last 5km were spent at a high pace, with Tom and Callum pushing the tempo. With 700m to go Matt attacked but couldn't get away. Condy waited for the sprint and got boxed in and managed to get 5th. Not bad after his earlier win.

Condy Wins Queensland Masters State Championship

Condy is the newest member of the team, but also the one with the most experience and on Saturday he lined up for the ultra competitive Masters Queensland State Championship in Warwick. This race was a part of his steady come back to competitive cycling and it ended with a great result.

The weather in Warwick was atrocious with heavy rain and strong wind pelting the course. The race was going to be a race of attrition, with the winner being one who could tolerate the bad weather the best. Luckily Condy is a good Irish lad and knows a thing or too about cold, wet and windy bike racing.

After the first windy section of the race a selection of 15 riders had already been made, with Condy being comfortably in the front group. The weather slowly took its toll and as the laps went by, the front group dwindled until only three were left.

On the last lap the front three watched each other as the sprint finish came closer, however Condy has been showing good for in sprints of late and was confident he could get past the other two. With 200m to go, the sprint opened up and and Condy quickly got a gap and won the state Title with ease.

Well done Condy. Next stop the World Championships in Austria next year!!

Warwick - Teams Series 5

Warwick was looking on paper to be a pretty straight forward event. The course only had a few small climbs in it, with most of the course being flat. However, as the morning progressed, the wind slowly built up and by the time the race reached the back part of the course, strong cross winds were causing problems with the pelton.

From the start, the team was looking to get into some early moves, however Tinelli and Budget were controlling the bunch for the Sprint and KOM. After 25km, the race turned left and the cross winds cut through the field. For those not strong enough to be in the front group, the race was already over, as a group of 10 riders went off the front, with another group of 10 riders chasing. The rest of the peleton were already minutes down.

Thankfully Condy made it into the front group with Matt making it into the second group.

Matt's group chased for 40km and finally made across to the front group. However, Condy became sick during the race and had to abandon.

Matt was left in the group of 20 riders and knew as the group approached the cross winds, that someone would drop the hammer. Knowing this Matt moved up to the front of the group as they sprinted into the left hand corner. Unfortunately Matt had burnt allot matches to get across to the front group and couldn't hold the pace. He came in a few minutes down on the winning group.

Budget again took the top three positions.

Cunningham Classic

The Cunningham Classic is probably the one race of the year which a rider wants to win. It’s the hardest, longest and oldest race on the calendar with a win in this race being a very prestigious inclusion on anyone’s palmares.

Conditions this year were perfect and the team was well prepared to take on the challenge.

As per usual, early breaks went to try and get the KOM prize that come up early in this 176km race. After 40km, the KOM was contested once the early break was caught on the lower slopes of the climb. A counter attack saw a small group ease off the front, with the bunch setting an even tempo up the climb. With about 750m to the top, more attacks occurred and another break away formed off the front. This round of attacks also saw a large part of the peleton get dropped from the race and the first selection was made.

On the decent the groups consolidated at the front again and the next climb at Pilton came upon the group. It was here in this more exposed and steeper climb, that a big attack saw another group break away and gain some time.

For almost 50km this break was kept in sight and no one in the group was panicking. However, at the turn at Leyburn it was apparent the gap had blown out to more than 2 minutes. Still no one panicked.

On the run into the second feed, the group became more animated and a chase began. Coming into the second feed the gap was more than 3 minutes. This was not good news for the chasers.

For the final 40km the chase was on, but the front group had too big a lead and were not brought back. Pete Thompson took the win.

The team did well to stay in the chase group, with Condy taking the group sprint for a top ten result after Matt and Brendo tried to break away.