Matt takes Silver at State Criterium Championships

The 2012 Queensland State Criterium Championships were held at the fantastic Luke Harrop Memorial criterium circuit at Runaway Bay. State titles are always a hard fought race, and with the wind sweeping across the open circuit, this race was always going to be selective.

As the race started, the first few laps were sedate, as everyone eyed each other off, however this was soon interrupted by the first flurry of attacks. For several laps, attacks and counter attacks were making the race hard, until there was a brief lull. At this point Matt attacked hard in the cross wind section of the course and drove it hard in the gutter hoping to cause a split in the bunch. Matt soon found himself alone off the front and continued to drive it hard.

After half a lap by himself, Matt was soon joined by Chris Williams, where the two quickly started working together to open the gap between the bunch. For more than 20 minutes, the two worked hard to establish the gap, but the bunch didn't give up and started to chase.

As the two up front pushed hard, the bunch behind was breaking up as two riders worked hard to get across to the front. Matt and Chris knew riders were trying to come across, which motivated them to work harder and eventually they broke the chasing pair.

With 10 minutes to go, it was starting to become obvious the two off the front would stay away, however they continued to work all the way to the finish to make sure of it.

With 3 laps to go, it was only then that the pace slackened, however Matt knew Chris wouldn't let the pace drop. In the final lap, Chris attacked hard and broke away. After starting the winning move and spending more than 50 minutes in the break, Matt didn't have enough to respond to the attack and had to settle for the silver medal.

Condy 2nd at UCI World Tour Championships

Condy has continued his amazing year with a second place at the UCI World Tour Championships in South Africa. Yes, Condy was disappointed at not getting first place and the coveted world champions rainbow jersey, but second in the world for his age group is fantastic.

On the day, it was a strong italian rider who rode away solo from the group, with Condy taking the sprint from the small chase group.

Regardless, it was great to see him out there in the green and gold representing his adopted homeland. We know there are plenty of proud Aussie and Irish fans out there wishing you well. Meanwhile, the team looks forward to having him back and working towards making him State criterium champion in a few weeks time.

Matt third at Charles Coin Memorial race

The last days of winter greeted the team for the annual Charles Coin Memorial road race held by the University Cycling Club. This race holds much tradition in the Queensland cycling calendar and is always a race the team seeks to do well in.

With perfect racing conditions and a full strength team, everything was set for the 130km road race.

With a strong and motivated team, the team knew pressure would be on them to dictate how the race would be. As such, Steve and Aidan took the race on and were very active early, which resulted in Steve getting into the big early break of the day.

For about 60km, Steve was in a break of 5 riders, who gained up 1 minute at times. This great work allowed the rest of the team to sit in the wings and wait for the catch. As the other teams slowly brought back the break, the counter moves were getting ready, which saw Matt and Aidan getting into some small breaks that didn't last. Then Steve countered again, and was away for another 20 odd kilometres in the second big break of the day.

As this break was brought back Matt again followed some big moves, which with 30km left to race, saw the winning move get away. With 5 committed riders in the break, the gaps grew out to as much as 3 minutes.

In the final 20km, Matt started attacking the group in the hope to reduce the numbers, which resulted in just 4 riders left with 10km to go. At this point, the cat and mouse started as riders played out their tactics.

Over the final climb, further big attacks began, but it was clear a 4 man sprint was to occur. Matt waited until the sprint began to try and move around, but was unable to get past the 2 stronger riders and had to settle for third place.

Well done to Correy Edmed for a good win.

Cunningham Classic 2012

The Cunningham is the one day race in Queensland and is always a priority for the team. With perfect conditions awaiting the riders for the 170km test, a good result was always expected.

In the first 20km, the race was relatively sedate until an unfortunate accident saw team rider James Miller crash out after hitting something on the road. After a brief stint in the Gatton Hospital, Jimmy will recover to fight another day.

The race then continued on as the riders prepared for the KOM. As the group approached the bottom, the tension grew, as finally the attacks began at the bottom of the climb. The pace was high all the way from the bottom, which dropped many riders. Still, all the contenders were present in the front and the cross winds to Leyburn were to start.

The race was setting a steady tempo for sometime, until the turn back to home was made. With 60km to go, the real attacks began. For more than 20km it was attack after attack, until finally, on one of the long drags a group of eleven riders got away.

Matt was able to get himself into the break and it was clear that this was the race winning move. Unfortunately Matt was outnumbered by other teams, so he was forced to play it smart and allow the teams with multiple riders in the break to do most of the work.

As the break proceeded to gain time, Matt looked after himself to ensure he was ready for the finale until a crash brought down seven of the eleven riders in the break. Matt came down but was able to remount and began to chase the four riders up the road who didn't crash.

For 5km, Matt rode solo until a loan rider bridged across. For another 5km the two worked together until Condy bridged across with three other riders. Meanwhile, the four riders ahead were going to win.

Matt and Condy then worked together to ensure they got 5th place was wrapped up, with Condy taking the sprint for 5th, while Matt took 8th.

Teams Series Round 4

Kingaroy hosted the latest round of the Queensland Teams Series, where the team looked to make sure Condy held onto the lead of the Masters category.
Day 1
Saturday was a 120km road race around Maidenwell, which included three laps of a hilly circuit. The boys were fresh and ready to go and hoped to get amongst it.

After the usual hectic start, finally a break of up to 8 riders got away after about 25kms. With still almost 100km to race, the peleton did not panic and let the group gain over 2:30 minutes. The main pack set a steady tempo and managed to keep the break in check. Despite this, the break was clearly setting a high tempo up front, as the gap wasn't coming down.

With a lap to go, Matt and Michael started to get into some moves, hoping that they might be able to get across to the break, but the effort was not rewared. Instead, Matt and Jimmy went to the front to try and reduce the gap.

Into the finale, it was clear the break would have their day, and so the team worked to set Condy up for the sprint, where he was able to get second in the bunch sprint and take a top ten result for the day.

Day 2
With 144km around Kingaroy over a very hard course, some nervous legs came to the start line. Over the first lap and up the main climb of the day, the bunch split in two. Condy was feeling the efforts of day one, and was caught behind the front group. Matt managed to get condy onto his wheel and ride him back up to the front group.

After a brief rest, Matt then followed a move off the front and managed to get himself into the early break of the day. At one point, Matt and his two break away companions gained almost three minutes advantage over the bunch, however the testing course took it's toll and after 50km's of being in the break, what was left of the main bunch caught up.

Counter attacks started, and Matt then finished himself off by setting tempo on the front to bring the leaders back and allow the rest of the team to wait for the finale.

Condy was still suffering to stay witht e front, but managed to hold on and contest the finale. Two riders broke away with only a few kilometres to go, however Condy managed to get another top ten result, which will hopefully allow the team to move up in the standings.

Condy should now win the Masters jersey

Tour of Toowoomba

This years Tour of Toowoomba was the second National Series (NRS) event for 2012, and was a four day event, including five stages. The weather compared to last year was much more favourable, with the gale force winds noticeably absent this year. This didn't mean the racing would be any less difficult, with all of the major National Series Teams present to contest the event.

Stage One saw Condy get himself into the top twenty, after a break of ten riders took the win. This was a good result for Condy given his recent illness and knee problems that have caused him problems for a few days.

Stage Two was a spectacular mountain top finish, atop the Bunya Mountains. With gradients well over 20% at times, it was a real suffer fest. Bad luck plagued the team, with punctures and crashes halting any ambition of a good result. The boys just did what they could to get to the finish.

Stage Three was a Team Time Trial. Given the team would not feature in the overall classification, it was decided to ride tempo for the TTT and save the legs for the following stages.

Stage Four was a windy and rolling course out the back of Oakey, which saw the race really explode in the cross winds. There was plenty of "gutter action" as the strong NRS teams drove the pace to break the race through the windy sections. The team didn't fare too well, but did what they could to get to the finish so they could contest the final criterium on Stage Five. Darren Rolf took a great solo victory for the RBS Morgan team. Very impressive.

Stage Five was the traditional criterium finish around Queens Park in Toowoomba. Following Steve's win in the support event, the team was keen for more success. The pace was on from the beginning, with much of the field dropping off in the relentless pace setting. All of the boys finished, but no result was possible after the previous hard days.

The team represented the sponsors very well over the tour and were all happy to have finished and to have gained further experience at the top level of Australian cycling.

Steve wins the Queens Park Criterium (Toowoomba)

The Queens Park Criterium is a great support event to the Tour of Toowoomba. For several of the team riders not racing the Tour, the Queens Park Criterium proved to be a great event, with Steve Handreck taking the Teams first win for the season.

With Jimmy and Matt supporting Steve, the race started out with the usual flurry of attacks. some small breaks got away early, however the team was patient and waited for these moves to come back. Steve then played a classic counter attack move just before the first prime and created a gap from the field.

Steve and two others forged ahead, with Steve taking the first Prime. They then set about creating a nice margin between themselves and the chasing pack. Matt and Jimmy did well to marshal any pretenders hoping to get across to the move, which allowed Steve and co to increase their lead.

With two laps to go, the break away started attacking each other, which caused Steve and a companion to ride the final lap together. Steve then patiently waited for the sprint, knowing he would have the measure of his rival, where he took a great win.

Steve also won the first Prime, and the Most Aggressive Rider prize. It was a great day for the team.

Teams Series Round 3

Gatton hosted the third round of the teams series, which included a time trial and two road races.

Time Trial

The team doesn't have any renowned time trialers, so the team's hope was for someone to post a time that would place one of the riders in the top 30. Andy and Condy got close to a top 30 time trial, but still missed out. This wasn't so bad for the team, who were focused on getting some better results in the next road races.

Road Race 1

The 105km road race was held over the same rolling course as the TT. The pace was very fast from the beginning, with the race averaging over 46kph. This meant it was very hard for any breaks to get away. Jimmy did a great job of following the early moves, but the high pace wasn't letting anything go. In the finale, Aidan and Matt tried to get into some late breaks, but again, the bunch didn't want to see anything go.

The race was looking like a bunch sprint, with a big group coming into the finale 2km, however with 1.5km to go the bunch hesitated as a small group of 7 riders eased off the front and gained a small gap. The very late break held on until the line. Condy got third in the bunch sprint to take 10th place.

Road Race 2

Sunday's course included several steep climbs over 110km, which was likely to result in some breaks. The pace was somewhat sedate for the first half of the race, with the real action not happening until the final 20km. Going over the final King of the Mountains, a small break got away with 7 km to go. The bunch chased hard to bring them back, but was too late. Condy was well placed to get second in the bunch kick to take another top ten result. This meant he increased his lead in the Masters Jersey and improves his overall position. Jimmy, Aidan and Matt finished in the same group.