The Australian Unity Tour de Brisbane was held recently and showcases Brisbane as an international cycling destination for anyone on a bike, from elite riders to weekend warriors, and families. The event is headlined by the UCI Gran Fondo World Series which is part of the internationally sanctioned series held all over the world.
The Tour de Brisbane is designed to bring the community together on two wheels to share some of the city’s iconic landmarks. The unique, closed road, inner-city course is offered over five distances and attracts participants of all abilities from all over Australia, Asia, and Europe.
The Tour de Brisbane Gran Fondo 110kms starts in the heart of Brisbane at Gregory Terrace and the Brisbane Showgrounds, and begins with a loop through the city, crossing the Brisbane River. The first part of the race goes south out of the city which is totally flat on major roads, before heading for the main difficulty of the race, Mount Coot-Tha, with a 2km climb at 9% with only 16kms before the finish.
Josh Hopwood from MMBCC made the trek north to Brisbane to test his form after a great summer of training and racing in other events. The Tour de Brisbane is a qualifying event for the World Amateur Championships to be held later this year in Italy. The focus for Hopwood would be to qualify for the World Championships and represent Australia. Everything was on track until Qantas lost his bike bag and it was pretty much impossible to get any information out of Qantas. As the time ticked by, its was now less than 10 hours until the start of the race. We did hear a few rumours that Hopwood was now enjoying his time in Brisbane with his wife and knocking back a few gins until hotel reception called with good news, “your bike has arrived”.
The mad rush had begun to build his bike and get to the start line for a 6.30am start. Generally, a warmup is key to any race, however with over 160 other racers, it would be a balancing act to get a warmup and get to the start line and be within the first few rows. The start was hectic, with traffic furniture and tight bends for riders to negotiate, this would ease off once the race got out on open roads. Many attacks would go off the front without any luck, the peloton was setting everything up for the climb of Mount Coot-Tha. Hopwood was riding a smart race, being near the front to avoid crashes and to jump on any attacks that might occur.
After 95kms of racing, the real race was about to kick off, the race started climbing Mount Coot-Tha and it was only the strong riders pushing to the front. Lucky for Hopwood, he was used to riding in the hills as he made the front group of 6 climbing Mount Coot-Tha where the racing was hot, one rider got off the front and ended up staying away to win the race, for the rest it was a sprint to the finish line. The last 500m was mainly downhill with a little kicker to the finish line, Hopwood came across the line in 5th place missing 2nd by 1 second. After a crazy 24hrs it was a fantastic achievement by Hopwood and now the big question would remain, would the stars align to race in Italy in September.
We look forward to part 2 of the Tour de Brisbane with Talia Appleton's race report!!