Club club president Shane Stiles has taken his recent string of success in masters road racing events to the next level by netting the 2009 Victorian Masters 2 Road Championship title.  Shane won the Master 2 race in the same time as the Masters 1 winner Shane MIller who during round 4 of the Masters ITT series, held the previous day, won the A grade race.  The winning time was 02:16:30 for the 90km race, or 39.6kph.

Shane explains how the race unfolded...

By the way, congratulations to Big Jim and Joustra who won Silver in M5 and M4 respectively!

Our race was 90km, 3 laps of a 30km circuit.  I had time to drive the course before the race to check out the climbs and the wind on the flatter sections.  There were 3 proper climbs on the circuit and a few other bumps in the way.  The hills were obvious break-away points, but the strong winds would be difficult to tackle alone.

I found myself at the front of the bunch early in the race, a good place to follow any moves.  Several attacks in the first 10km saw riders go clear up the road, none appeared to give it a serious go as the bunch pulled them back with little effort.  I put myself into one of the moves and attempted to pull it clear with a big turn, I think I was on a few watch lists as the bunch responded quickly to shut me down.  Chessum was getting involved in the action and had managed to go clear up the road with another rider before one of the climbs.  The break-away tempo was too high for the other rider and Chessum found himself out the front alone, he continued his effort until noticeably giving up on the next climb.  The bunch saw the surrender out front and stalled on the steepest part of the climb.  15km into the race this is where I made decisive move.  As always ready in the big ring, I dropped it in a big gear and forced my way through the middle of the pack and collected Chessum on the way over the top.  After an initial one sided effort, we started working strong turns and had the bunch strung out chasing just a few hundred meters behind.  The gap widened over the next few km and we were almost out sight when Miller and Stephens attacked the field and attempted to make it across the gap.  Chessum wanted to keep the pressure on and make our potential break-away allies earn their place, I had recognised one of the riders as Miller and so had other ideas; a time trial specialist was going to add needed power to the break, so I eased the pace to ensure he could get on.

We now had a four man break and 70km to go.  All four riders proved their caliber and expertise taking smooth track turns to easily pull clear of the chasing bunch.  In my usual over stimulated style, I pulled more than my share of turns and tried to motivate the others to keep the pressure on.  With four medals in the break, three M2 and Miller in M1, I thought I had plenty to sell when encouraging my allies.  Despite my efforts, the break did not continue to drive at top speed, fatigue from the hills or Crystal Cranking I’m not sure.  We were working very smoothly but just not at a fast enough pace.  On lap 2 the bunch were so close that riders started attacking and attempting to bridge to the break, I had other ideas.  My break-away buddies will agree that this is where I earnt some respect as a contender for the title, a couple of individual pursuit style turns at full effort pulled us clear of danger once again.  Much to my disappointment the bunch managed to get within sight at the same point on lap 3.  I repeated my earlier efforts, this time I pushed a little too hard and lost a gel, half a biddon and a few other fluids.  We were now out of sight again and looking good to make the finish.

Stephens confirmed my suspicions of Crystal Cranking when he started picking up the efforts with 15km and a two climbs to go.  I started to fear I had wrongly discounted this guy, he was upping the pace and doing it with ease.  Stephens dropped his chain at the top of the final climb, unsure of what etiquette should apply, the break stalled to decide, meanwhile Stephens had stopped to fix his chain.  Miller stated his intentions not to contribute to the break with Stephens chasing, Chessum and I didn't want to wait too long, we couldnt risk our race with 10km to go.  I started to work with Chessum but found him failing to hold the pace, Stephens was coming back strong and I wasn’t prepared to do the work alone, so I started doing soft turns until Stephens made it back on.  Stephens was riding so strong now I suspect he actually thought we had waited for him and went straight to the front to do turns.

The gloves came off to fight for the finish with about 5km to go.  Stephens Threw the first punch with an attack up a small rise that Chessum chased down with me then Miller in tow.  Stephens continued to attack from the front and Chessum getting tired of responding waived me through.  With 2km to go I was locked onto Stephens with a National Track Champion dangerously perched in my draft, Miller was last wheel sitting out of the sprint content with his ever so imminent M1 Gold medal.  Poor Stephens was in a bad position being strung out to dry by two sprinters on his tail.  Stephens had earnt my respect as a quality rider now, he hurt us in the closing stages but didn't have enough left to skake us from his wheel.