I didn’t anticipate this scenario. I’m lining up for the road race, already having won gold in the time trial 3 days ago. To some degree the pressure’s off, I’m leaving town as a World Champion whatever happens today. Would be very nice to win again though!
The road race course will be a tricky one for me, to win at least. 130kms with 1900m of climbing. A 10km ‘power climb’ straight from the start, followed by lots of flat terrain. From kilometre 58 to 75 it will climb in steps followed by a 10km descent to the coast. The final 40kms of the course will be on the spectacular Great Ocean Road back to Lorne, flattish with a few 3 minute hills thrown in. A hard course to get away from other riders. Previous races on this course always end up in big groups at the finish.
I have the luxury of a ‘priority start number’ due to winning my qualifying event in France. This means I can warm up and do a bit of recon before I come to the start at the last minute and slip in at the front of the field.
That early climb will require warmed up legs so I head up the first section of it to wake the legs up. Then I turn around and head back to Lorne to have a look at the finish area. I ride the final kilometre of the course a couple of times. The finish itself is hidden from view until you are less than 100m from it. I memorise everything in that last section so that if I come to finish in a bunch it will help me know when to go. An arched tree, above the road about 80m from the finish is visible from 400m out, that will be a useful marker.
I line up 5 minutes before my time. Carolyn’s there for me to drop off my jacket and other stuff I can discard for the race. Matthew Keenan is there commentating. I’d spoken with him lots in the last few days and he very much knew my story. He spots me on the line. ‘Welcome to John Thomas! Born in the UK, now French and married to a girl in Port Fairy! John won the time trial on Thursday so there’s a wheel to follow! Put your hand up John so people can see who you are’.
I’m cringing and reluctantly raise my arm. I’m now well and truly a marked man to the 174 riders behind me!
Off we go and I go on the front to make sure I’m first to the climb that starts in about 500m. All good, no one comes around me, that’s fine.
This climb is 10kms at a fairly consistent 4% gradient. I was primed for a hard effort up here with some likeminded and likelegged riders and hopefully going over the top in a small group.
I was expecting riders to come around and have a go, but nothing. One big guy pushes up the road in a semi attack but I gently reel him in with everyone else still behind me. Then there’s a strong move from Ben Arnott, although I didn’t realise until later that it was him. Ben grabbed the silver in the TT on Thursday. Ben shot up the road but no one was interested in chasing. I certainly wasn’t going to pull everyone back to him so I just carried on at my solid and sustainable pace.
About 4 kms up the climb and I’m frustrated. Ben is about 30 seconds up the road now. I’m talking to the guys behind me. ‘C’mon fellas, let’s do this together’. I deliberately slow down and force riders to come around me. Each rider at the front makes a feeble effort and no one wants to contribute. I’m back on the front, carting 173 riders up the road.
7kms and still the same, I’m doing all the work. I’m not overly worried about Ben who is now nearly a minute up the road, I know we’ll reel him in later. He won’t survive on his own. The problem for me is that I’m about to go over the top with too many other riders.
There are some strong riders there but they are just not working. Maybe things would be different if I hadn’t been called out at the start. If a few of us stronger riders had pushed harder up here we could have gone over as a small group but it wasn’t to be as we rolled over the top as a group of at least 25 riders.
A bit of rolling terrain at the top and then the descent to Dean’s Marsh. Now we’d have about 30kms of fairly flat terrain ahead of us. We soon catch up with Ben and as we do I realise it was him. Once Ben is caught the pace is very relaxed, no urgency at all. I sit in there and try to be patient. I take a bit of shelter near the back of the group and get to see how even more riders are joining us from behind. 45kms into the race and I reckon there’s about 50 of us in the front group. Not good. The most selective climb in the race is already behind us and I’m still stuck with 50 other riders. My mental rehearsals for this race were all about being down to less than 20 riders here and hopefully less.
54kms in and back into some climbing. The next 20kms will go up in steps, never for very long but maybe enough to split things up if the pace at the front was high enough. Ben Arnott is looking very strong, always nudging the pace along when the road goes up a bit. I come along side him at the front. ‘Come on Ben, let’s stretch this, we need to lose people’. And so we did.
Ben and I, along with 2 or 3 other riders cranked the pace up, especially on steeper sections. We pushed hard, knowing that if we were getting closer to our limits then it would be too much for some of the riders behind. Occasional glances back confirmed a strung out line of riders with splits happening.
The problem for the likes of Ben and I was that as we gained time and created splits on those short climbs, there would then be sections of flat and respite where many of the riders would get back on board. We tried and tried. At one point near 75km we were down to 5 riders. For a while it looked like we could get away.
80kms in, one small rise and then the 10km descent to negotiate. Over the crest, I’m 3rd rider. A Japanese rider, Hiroshi Yamakazi, comes past and turns into me. His rear wheel takes my front. I’m being taken down, I’m convinced it’s all over. In a bizarre sequence of events I’m thrown forward of mfy saddle and collapse onto my top tube, my feet are now scraping on the ground and I’ve been shunted into by someone behind me. I’m still upright though and still moving forwards….somehow. I’m so lucky to be upright and so fucking angry! .
I get organised, check everything on the move, my chain’s off but eventually I coax it back on whilst still moving. Clipped in, back on the saddle. All this has cost me about 20 seconds and, as I’d discover later, a very sore knee and a gashed bike. I need to catch the guys I started the descent with. I see other riders struggling and a couple of big crashes. Very big, gusty crosswinds are causing havoc. That helps me though, riders are clearly slowing down to survive the conditions which gives me a better chance to catch up. I can see my little group now, 20 seconds or so, with 7kms of descent left. I gain on them, it becomes clear I’ll be back with them before the bottom. Panic over.
As we complete the descent we turn left for the final leg along the Great Ocean Road. There are just 8 of us leading the race. The guys ask if I’m ok as most of them had seen it all happen. All good, feeling lucky.
‘Come on guys let’s do this together and get the result we all deserve’ says one of the Aussies in the group. We start to work together by rotating and taking short turns on the front. ‘At this tempo pace they won’t catch us from behind’ said the same, optimistic rider.
But catch us they did, with a little over 30kms to go we had swelled to a group of about 25. Frustrating but inevitable, just such a hard course to get away and stay away.
We had three little climbs between now and the finish, each lasting a kilometre or so. The first 2 passed without anything happening, Ben and I at or near the front all the time. The third climb topped out at about 9kms to the finish. Yamakazi, who’d nearly taken me out earlier, attacked and beckoned for Ben and I to come with him. He was never going to survive away on his own for 9kms but maybe a small group could. He needed us and we obliged. For a few seconds there was some hope but the group behind was on the case and we were all rapidly absorbed back into one group.
The final stretch to the finish was quite relaxed, no attacks, everyone resigned to the fact that it would be a group sprint for the line. 2kms to go, I’m feeling fine but realistic too, there are plenty of strong looking blokes here that will have some good sprints on them. 1km to go and things get congested as everyone fights for position and the pace gently rises. I’m on the left edge and a bit boxed in, no panic there’s still space and time to get this right.
The pace is slower that I would have expected, I can see my arched tree in the distance. As I get closer to it something tells me to go, I stamp on the pedals, around the left of the whole group and for a split second I think I’ve timed this perfectly for glory.
I’m on the front…and I’ve picked the wrong fucking arched tree as a marker! I find myself with 300m left to the finish when I though I’d have 100m. I’ve gone too early and wasted my chance. All the riders behind me unleash their sprints and I’m swamped by them and wilt over the line in a disappointing 17th.
Even with a better timed sprint I could never have won this thing but I should certainly have been deeper into the top 10. That mistimed sprint is my only real mistake in the race. I rode well and gave myself a chance. It’s very easy to think what might have been. Maybe I could have ridden with Ben on the first climb and the 2 of us could have stayed away? Maybe if I’d not been hung out to dry by the commentator on the start line I could have stayed more anonymous and the race would have run differently. I’m lucky to have finished in one piece and still pleased and proud with how I rode.
Ben and I dictated so much of that race, and to finish 15th and 17th respectively is frustrating but understandable too. None of our little group that crested the final climb together got on the podium. The podium places were filled by riders who caught us on the final stretch. Many congratulations to Alan Evans taking the win for Australia. He won the qualifying event last year in Lorne too so clearly someone who knows how to ride this course.
And so I leave Lorne as a World Champion! Before I came I would have been over the moon with a medal in either of the 2 events. To win a gold is a dream come true. It’s been a wonderful experience. The friendliness of the staff from UCI and O2 events created such a good atmosphere for this event. Matt Keenan, especially, has been fantastic too, helping create a very professional, informative and exciting environment for everyone there. I can’t wait to watch it all on the telly on SBS on Sunday!
Thankyou Lorne 2025 for giving me so many fantastic and indelible memories!