Did you take the family? If so, are you inflicting cycling on your kids, or are they too young to know what's going on? :p

You're forgetting that Sunderland suffered a serious head injury about 10 years ago and obviously has not fully recovered based on his stupid comments.

He's right, it is too early in the season but there are only two dates where they can squeeze it in and get the euros to ride - mid-late October or January. I'd prefer to see it held in October or after the TDU. If its held any other time nobody will ride (as jono said) and we will likely see seppomadness become Aussie road champ.

No. My little bloke and missus hate it. Went with the old man.

McConnell has one of the most fugly positions on a bike I've ever seen. It hurt my eyes it was so horrible

That's what happens when you're a MTBer..

He also has a fugly hairstyle. Sort of a permed mullet thing from what I could tell. That might be more a Bairnsdale thing.

Yeh, it's usually the women sporting those hair-do's down your way:p

I would still DNF on that course in a one man race! :)

You'd still get the (ridiculously worthless, hollow, ill-thought out and just plain stupid) KOM and sprint prizes

Did you go up there today?

Three blokes got dropped on the first lap. One of them was nearly as fat as me. I reckon they should have some minimum requirement, like you have to be at minimum an A grade rider at state level, endorsed by the state federation.

Tom Southam would disagree. How much $$$ do you reckon he scored today? He finished the race too.

BTW, he was one of the pommie blokes who was told he'd never ride for GB again after working for the Italians at the worlds in 05.

And he'll go down in the history books for that momumental victory.

There are plenty of other races to scab some cash. The National Champs is not s'posed to be some cheesy spectacle where whoever ends up doing a turn at the right tme gets to stand on stage with some massive mars bar tooling around like bearded lady at the Moe RSL. Deep breaths.

Wtf is with that mars bar business anyway? Talk about ways to make your premier national bike race a tacky bogan-fest :rolleyes:

I was training mate. Only 125kays but ( I think i popped over 800 this week though as I was playing catch up after spending something like 15 days off the bike). Pretty laid back day in the saddle to be honest.

How many was there??? I feel so sad for the sport to be honest. I saw the footage on telly and it just pains me.

I agree you should be a regular A grader and 'invited' by the state fed. No invite no ride.

I feel for the top guys too. They deserve a big day with a big crowd and some genuine recognition.

I actually debated about jumping on the bike and riding up watching the race and riding back (its all downhill) but I left home too late in the end. Maybe next year.

I would never disrespect the nationals by entering.

Top of the Hill was chockers. It's getting bigger and better each year

Mars Bar? WTF? I didn't hang around for the presentation.

To be fair to Southam, he was towing them up the climb nearly every lap. And he won more cash than you, so probably reckons you can sit on his mars bar.

Also, I reckon the course needs rejigging. It needs 3-4 flat kms tacked on, or change the course. It's too hard as it is and you don't see any devestating attacks. Its just attrition, attrition, attrition then someone goes and its all over. You can still have a toughmans course without having a friggin huge mountain every lap.

There were more up there the first couple of years, before it had the brief sojourn over in ghey cereal killa church territory. I didn't think there were that many at all this year. We were about 50m before the last steep bit started, maybe 200-250 from the KOM. They are stricter on the course access now and its harder to get through. Last year we had to do some real fast talking to get the car on the hill. This year we got there about 9.30am to be sure.

Didn't go to the town or feed zone so dunno how many were they. There seemed to be a few cars on the hill on the midland hwy but we didn't head down the hill, we went home.

I was having flashbacks coz we drove over part of the old Melbourne to Ballarat route when they ran it off the hwy from Ballan. :D

Ride it next year. You'll step up heaps by then.

I wonder if they could try down portsea/sorento/cape schank way? It would still be 'out of the way' but in an area where most of melb could take a look?

Few decent rollers down that way. Nothing too devastating though.

They ran a Melbourne to Sorrento race for a couple of years. O'Grady won the first one and Snorrason the second one IIRC. Ballarat is actually a shorter drive timewise from melbourne CBD than Portsea (although easier to get to portsea for the eastern burbs population, where all the people are centred).

The open road title was held at Portarlington for a couple of years before it moved to Ballarat. I didn't mind the course to be honest, though some of the pros reckoned it wasn't hard enough. I reckon they were pulling themselves as there weren't any bunch sprints. More a hardman course than a climbers course.

:roflmao: Jebus I dont even know if i have a clean set of jocks for tomorrow :p let alone what i will be doing in 12 months time!

Nothing agaisnt Southam, he's an animal plain and simple. It's the ''cheesification'' of the national champs that ****s me. It's like having primes in the Olympic road race.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...allery-AORC081

have a look in there to see what I'm on about..

What's this ''cheesification''? i thought it was 'marswh*reation':p

But its an excellent idea . The IOC have ho'ed themselves so much they might as well get Mars Bars to sponsor a KOM during the road race. You should be a baby eater like exy IMO.

I take it all back. That sucks balls. First they fark up the jersey and turn it from possibly the prettiest national champs jersey to the cheapest and fugliest looking. Then they make the placegetters look like chocy *****es. I'd have farkin refused to put that mars bar thing on. Disgraceful.

Deadset, I might send them a letter complaining. The hoes.