Reece Tucknott – U19, Perth, Western Australia.
This trip was a little different to the other trips east that I have gone on this year, mainly because it was on a road bike and not a mountain bike. The other difference being is that dad didn’t travel with me, while travelling by myself is good and I like being self-sufficient, but having the moral support from dad is a big bonus.
I did however travel in a group with 2 parents, a coach and 10 athletes, which created a good atmosphere within the accommodation. Flying to Tasmania is always a reasonable effort for anyone but especially coming from Western Australia. Losing a day to travel on Tuesday from flights through to car trips we were only able to build our bikes before it got dark. Stacey Riedal (our guest from South Aus) and I shared the van with Darryl travelling up to Launceston, which was quite an experience to say the least.
To our surprise the first ride on Wednesday morning wasn’t as cold as we had expected and the nice weather led us to go for a 90km recon ride over Gunns Plains and the Time Trial (TT) course. If you are ever told that Tassie doesn’t have steep climbs, only long, you should call bullshit because when your Garmin says 30% gradient you are going up a solid berg. Bullshit is the name of the card game we came accustom to playing during our boredom at our very basic accommodation in which you shout bullshit if a player is lying. On the note of accommodation, the dorm style rooms were good for accommodating our bikes and clothes but the kitchen situation was a little inconvenient. A big thank you went out to Sue McRedmond and Cathy Mawby who went above and beyond to cook and supply food for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner majority of days that we were there. They were awesome.
After TT recon and efforts on Friday it was time to insert the race wheels and give the bike the final tune up, borrowing a rear disk from Darryl made my Specialized Tarmac Pro SL4 look slick with its lack of bottle cages and super low setup. As usual the coast road put on a good show with a strong head wind on the way out and a super quick tail wind on the way back in. I felt like I had a good ride but could only put myself into 19th position, however taking into consideration that the top 20 were within one minute of each other I wasn’t too gutted.
The race organisation and national selectors made the decision to not class the U19 event as a “tour” but instead made it three separate selection races. Therefore I had nothing to lose during the first road race out at Sheffield, not going with the early break however turned out to be a bit of a mistake. Not positioning well on lap two led to a big chase after the climb along with fellow MTB riders Ben Bradley and Scott Bowden. Re-joining the peloton before the descent allowed a bit of a rest before I went off the front with two other WA riders, Jai Hindley and Blake Smith. This was after a controversial stop during the race where the peloton had to wait for a train to cross the road. This allowed the
two lead riders to gain an extra minute on our chasing bunch. Our little escape was short lived being caught at the top of the climb by an extra five riders making a bunch of 9. Miscommunication and team tactics led to the downfall of the chasing bunch causing a re-group and smash fest up the last three bergs where I couldn’t quite hold the main group rolling through in 21st out of 59 starters with one of the breakaway riders staying away for the win.
Recovering from feeling completely spent is a hard task but a task that I have become accustomed to from my efforts at Tour de Perth and also the National MTB races throughout the start of this year. Day three was the big day heading through Gunns Plains, being very aggressive at the start was going well for me but nothing was working out. Going to sit mid-bunch for a slight recovery was a fatal mistake as it was at this point that the breakaway group road off the front. With majority of states having a representative in the break it suddenly became a very negative race.
I figured I might as well use it as a training day and started to roll turns on the front with Ben Bradley and Gerald Evans. Making no headway into the time gap of the lead group I figured I would go and save it for Gunns Plains where I knew it would get turned on. Having a rad descent before the climb allowed me to pass numerous riders and put a smile on my dial. The block wind before Gunns took it straight back off however and then Gunns itself just added salt to the wound. I soul searched however and was able to stay in contact with the peloton, or what was left of it with two groups of breakaway riders up the road. A big chase effort from Jackson Mawby and Theo Yates brought another group on to the back of our group with around 10kms to go leading to a bunch kick in which I was lucky to hold onto, placing in 28th for the day. I was disappointed with the actual result on paper but was super happy with how I rode and what I did during the stage.
It was now time to pack up our bikes, but not before a shower, which was quite possibly the best shower I have ever had! Packing my bike was a quick job and once everyone had finished and the van was packed ready for the morning it was time for a well deserved feed with a McFlurry afterwards. Not many final night shenanigans happened as everyone was pretty smashed although a few rounds of Bullshit were completed.
A relatively quick car ride back to Launceston gave us a long wait at the airport and with a quick transfer in Melbourne I was home by 3pm on Monday afternoon. I was fortunate enough to fly Qantas on the way back, using my credit from Track Nationals (of which I was unable to attend due to my collarbone); along with Tim Sellar and Sue McRedmond and avoiding the 5 hour delay the others received due to mechanical issues flying Virgin.
A big thank you goes out to Darryl Benson for all his hard work as a coach and for organizing the logistics of this trip, it is much appreciated. I would also like to thank John Carney and the boys from Wembley’s, Specialized Bikes, Troy from Shimano, Dion from “4 Shaw” and Adidas Eyewear, and Big Daz from “Shotz” for their help.
WA riders, Sam, Blake and Lawson at the top of Gunns Plains on the Wednesday before the races started. (photo by Reece Tucknott)
oneonereece 