Last weekend’s Ride for Robbie Division 3 race was held on a 70 kilometre out-and-back course starting and finishing at the HMAS Albatross Air Centre, just outside of Nowra.
It was my first State Open since April and my longest race since last year’s National Capital Tour, so I knew it would be a real challenge of fitness and tactics.
The route trended generally uphill for 30 kilometres to the first turnaround, then trended downhill all the way back past the intersection of the Air Centre, before taking on an extra couple of kilometres, doing a second u-turn, and finishing back inside Air Centre. I knew that it would be difficult to break away on the long downhill section, so my aim was to try to make a difference on the early uphill sections. However, the pace was so quick from the start that I didn’t have the legs to make a split early on, despite joining several other riders in a few attempts.
Out of the 34 starters, two riders from Manly-Warringah CC finally broke away in the early stages, and maintained a small gap heading into the first turnaround point. Watch the video below to see how the rest of the race went.