Australian Championship

So, the new season has finally arrived. After long days of inactivity all our riders came back with no form whatsoever and with few kilos more. Additionally some of them has lost the feeling of the bike to such extent that they managed to get injured on their first training ride. Yes, I speak about you, Tony Marsh. And you supposed to be in shape for coming Australian Championship!

On the paper the route is not of his liking either. As a Nothern classics specialist, the lumpy parcour is not exactly his cup of tea. and the race takes place in a wrong hemisphere too (for a pave enthusiast).

This year we have decided to leave Rowe, our GC star, at home due to his extremely busy schedule. Every unnecessary day off the bike will be much needed to conquer all three grand tours within a year.
So yes. Tony is our only hope in this race.
The lineup is rather strong as well. with the guys such as Michael Matthews, Rohan Dennis, Cameron Mayer and Caleb Ewan in the mix. Thankfully the biggest favourites to this race are without support, so I think we have a chance to get something from it by getting ourselves into a break, hoping that the peleton will keep arguing who supposed to keep the break in check. 

From the start we've decived to put our plan to action. With a success! The first attempt has proven to stick. 

Our fellow excapade has been L. Stick, a promising bardeur riding for Belgian outfit Atilo Artois. Just like Tony Marsh for us, he is their only hope to get something from the race, so we can expect a seamless cooperation between these two riders.
Looking at the stats of Artilo rider, he seems to be better on flats and descends than Tony, while our rider has an upper hand on hilly sections and in sprint. I think we will be happy to cooperate with him and will try to win the title in the sprint, if we will manage to stay away from the peleton, that is. To maximise our chances our director sportiff asked Tony to keep pushing a little on the upper sections, hoping that this will sap the energy off our rival.

 
The good news is that (surprisingly) our rider seem to be on form, having the form arrow pointing upward. This might prove to be decisive, since the weather condition does not favour our plan to push on climbs, having 30kph headwing on this section...
The steeper part of the climb itself is 2km long with over 4% average and max 8.9% gradient, so not too difficult, but should be enough for the peleton to shed pure sprinters, but more importantly: will it be enough to get rid of Stick?

Meanwhile in the peleton Sky Dive Dubai, Orica, and Avanti Racing decided to start cooperate a bit. Fortunately at the snail-like pace, the aforementioned teams unwilling to bring the big favourites back to the game without their participation in the chase, so with 80 km to go our advantage rose to 8:40. Yes indeed, the peleton is still on holidays, and most likely our escape will manage to reach the finish line!

With this in mind, we've decided to work on our rival on uphill sections a bit more, pushing at 70 effort. Unfortunately to us, Mr. Stick keeps himself well. We'll need to change the plan and try a sneak attacks on remained loops.

The first attack came with 35k to the finish line. Just before the ascent Tony surged from behind, trying to surprise his escapee colleague. After initial shock, the Stick has begun to chase back, having difficulties to claw back the ground on uphill sections, but finally managing to get back to Marsh at the plateau near the top of the climb. It seems that this plan might just work, if we'll be able to repeat it a couple of times.

After this treason, the Atillo Artois rider refused to cooperate, so we were forced to keep the pace high enough to reduce Stick's chances to fully recover. Yet, after another 5 kilometers he decided to contribute again, to his peril, since Tony only waited for such situation to launch another attack

This time Stick has been more alert, not getting Marsch to create a gap easily, but after prolonged attack, he managed to go clear.  The second attempt has been closed as well, but with bigger difficulties, again using his superior skills on flat sections to close the gap.
From this moment, Marsh kept the pace even higher, which proven to take the toll on the Stick. He started to show a clear signs of fatigue. Seeing it, Tony did not hesitate and decided to launch an attack for the third time, not even waiting for the climb. 

The Artilo Arois has nothing left to respond, he kept figthing though, rocking heavily on his bike. 
at the top of the hill, with 6 k to go, Tony managed to create over a minute gap between himself and the rival. It was clear, that nothing will stop him from winning the national title.

Few minutes later, he reached the finish line, greeting non-present crowds of spectators. Meanwhile, the peleton keept stopping by on mushroom picking/toilet breaks/having a nap.

Twelve minutes later a small group of favourites arrived, predecessed by lone M. Matthews, who has decided to attack on the last climb and bring back home bronze medal.

And that's it, the new Australian champion is an underdog riding for polish outfit. A rather unexpected conclusion of the first race of the season. 
Thank you for reading and see you soon! The Tour Down Under starts in a few weeks time, with the new crowned National Champion taking well deserved spot in ActionJet team!