The Lakes Oil Tour of Gippsland is a National series road tour held in South East Victoria, Australia. This year the tour consisted of 9 stages over 5days. 4road races and 5criteriums. All super fast as is usually the case at these National series events. These tours are usually exclusively the domain of pro/ pro-am roadies. This year a solid contingent of MTB’ers turned up on the start list. Ever strong Jblood (Chris Jongeward) riding for Jayco/2XU, an entire team of young XC racers represented by the MTBA road team, myself cameoing for the Parramatta race team and the two eventual key protagonists of the race were also one time MTB hero’s in Nathan Haas and Steele Von Hoff from Genesys/Praties.
The strategies involved in road tour racing vary dramatically from how one would ride an MTB race. MTB races are usually on from the gun, with the strongest, most able rider usually taking the win. Road racing demands rather more contribution from one’s head. Bunch positioning, points of attack and time management are all crucial in the execution of a successful road race. Our MTBers seem to be picking this up well with Haas taking the overall win quite convincingly. This tour is usually renowned for its absolutely putrid weather. This year was actually a pleasant exception. Sunny skies greeted competitors each day. And apart from day 2 which was blown to smitherens by 60km/h cross winds, the conditions played little impact on the racing. Crowds were subsequently out in force to support the tour and after the recent Cadel tour win, every town seemed very welcoming and excited about having the tour in their town regardless of the endless road closures and toilet clogging associated with hosting a large bike race.
Mountain-biking is often regarded as an ‘extreme’ sport whilst road racing as a bit more civilised. However actually engaging in these races makes you realise road racing is far more dangerous and ‘extreme’. The short fast crits average nearly 50km/h, all while you spend the whole race merely centimetres from your fellow racers, leaving a very small margin for error. In fact stage 2, an 80km road race averaged 60km/h for the first 30 mins. When this margin is challenged it is often situation critical. My mates Geoff Strauby and Aaron Donnelley were both withdrawn from the tour with broken shoulders after mid race bunch pile ups. Falling off on the MTB is often quite pleasant compared to hitting hard tarmac at 50km/h.
One aspect I love about MTB racing is, disregarding mechanicals, the race is really up to you and your ability. There are much fewer excuses for poor performance. In road racing one is constantly at the mercy of those around them for their own safety as well as sometimes for their race result. It is therefore a great oppurtunity I have to be able to do both. Being on tour is great fun, travelling with team Bikebug.com was awesome as we relished in the victories of their sprinter The ‘Taree Terrior’ Phil Grenfell. Some wonderful scenery was observed from my box seat in the bunch as we raced through the Gippsland countryside, my MTB mind often wandered as ‘sweet as’ dirt roads and MTB parks were seen around this area. It was a great feeling to finish the tour and now my attention turns to the MTB Husky 100 next weekend, and training miles and miles for October’s Crocodile trophy in Queensland.