Townsville Great Northern Tour 2019

Stage 1:

There was movement at the transition, as the word got around, that the old boy from Mackay Brendon Brauer was keen to set a cracking pace. The morning was crisp, the air was dry and riders were complaining that their legs felt dead. The cold snap had reached Townsville, as riders lined up for the ITT up Castle Hill. Consisting of 2.5kms, riders were on the limit from the word go. Alex Bogna was first to be released with Brendon Brauer stomping the house down 1 minute later. As Brendon stated, he was out of the saddle for the first 2 minutes pushing 500+ watts. As Brendon reached the top Tim Ffrost, Hunter McGovern, Scott Manning, Kyle Marwood, Jarrod Sampson and Michael Sleeman were being released at 1-minute intervals. Each rider was gasping for air as they reached the top. Riders would be on tender-hooks, as the results were not released until later due to one of the commissaries going AWOL. Results: Brendon Brauer recorded the fastest time with 7.15, Alex Bogna 7 minutes and 50 seconds (4th) and Kyle Marwood 6th in a time of 7.57.

Stage 2:

Riders made their way out to High Range Road at Harvey Range. In a landscape reminiscent of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, the team discussed race tactics for the 80km race. As the whistle blew riders settled into a steady rhythm with some early attacks. These proved futile, as they were quickly brought back as the course was not challenging enough to put anyone under any real pressure. Kyle Marwood took the first KOM points before Tim Ffrost broke away in a group of 3 riders, taking the KOM points at the 60k mark. Tim was awarded the coveted position of third place and Kyle crossed the line in 4th place with Brendon taking 7th.

Stage 3:

The third and final stage had MCDT riders in contention for overall honours. Webb Estate provided the perfect place to hold the criterium with Kyle Marwood going into the final stage in 2nd place and Brendon Brauer in 3rd on GC. The course was fast and flowing with no technical difficulties to unnerve the riders . Kyle set the pace from the start with the team sitting up as he broke away with Matt Hutchinson who led the GC. This meant that Shane Marcus, the Rubach brothers and Jaroslaw Makowski had to do the chasing. Marwood set it up to take the first sprint points before the pair were caught with 10 minutes to go. This meant he was on equal points with Matt and the tour would come down to the final sprint. Matt managed to put in a mammoth effort and came out triumphant with Kyle coming in 2nd. Brauer secured 3rd place overall as he finished towards the top. The riders averaged over 43kms per hour for the final stage of the tour.

The team would like to thank the support of our sponsors:
Clearcut Mining Solutions
Jet Engineering
Komatsu Construction & Utility Queensland
Mackay Cycles

A final congratulations to team sponsor Aram Drake from Clearcut Mining who decided to enter A grade to get the opportunity to race with the team. Aram Drake showed true guts and determination over the weekend even throwing out some attacks during the road race.

 

Alex Bogna

Brendon Brauer 

Final 'A' Grade Podium

Women's final overall Podium - go Trace!