It was a last-minute decision for Mark O’Brien to line up for the Powercor Melbourne to Warrnambool in 2024 and after 13 years of trying to move up a step following his second place in 2010, it just happened to be the edition where the pieces of the puzzle all fell together at the 269km race that started more than a century ago.
Even though 2024 was the year O’Brien had started to pull back a little from cycling, with the priority more focussed on work and family, that breakthrough victory has now made it even harder to skip the race which runs on February 8 and 9 and in 2025 will be part of the new ProVelo Super League.
“No one asks a fisherman if he’s going to retire” was a line O’Brien earlier this year told Cyclingnews was one of his favourite responses when asked if he was going to stop racing and call it quits, because after all why would you stop doing something that clearly delivers so much enjoyment and is so entrenched in the rider's DNA. That line came in handy again this week as the rider stepped up at the 2025 race launch as the defending champion.
“I think I first watched the Warrny when I was 8. I remember being there when Dave McKenzie won, when Simon Gerrans won, Jamie Drew, I’ve been there many many times," said O'Brien at the launch of the next edition of the Melbourne to Warrnambool at the DISC Velodrome this week.
"Then of course I started doing it myself, got my head kicked in a couple of times, I was second in 2010 and then I go righto, 'I’m going to win it the next year. This is it I’m going to go back' and I just kept trying and trying ... it's just a huge event to me, something I’ve always watched and I’ve seen a lot of my friends win it and go to the top tier," said the 2024 solo winner.
"It’s not about that for me, it's more just a thing I love to do and I love challenging myself on those hard races where everyone starts falling apart and to finally get my name on the honour roll I was over the moon.”
The 37-year-old hobby cyclist now often uses the commute to and from work to try and help rack up his 16-18 hours a week of training on the bike and his evenings to catch up with his coaching clients, many of who he'll be riding alongside at the Melbourne to Warrnambool.
But despite the training time constraints, the rider will not be waiting until the last minute to sign up in 2025, having already committed, as he looks forward to making the most of the experience of lining up as the defending champion.
“That will be a real novelty actually," said O'Brien. "For a rider of my type, I don’t win that frequently so I’m really excited to be going there with the number one on my back. For the stars to align I’d probably have to wait another 13 years but I’ll go back as fit as I can be and see what I can do.”
O'Brien, who also won the first edition of the Sutton Grange Winery Uncorked Gravel in February of this year, said that being the most recent winner of the Melbourne to Warrnambool wouldn't change the way he rode much given he was already targeted as a good rider to follow given sprinting isn't exactly his strong suit.
"They know they’ll beat me at the finish if they get away with me," he said, adding that it would be easy to tell if he was in with a chance in 2025 once the race got underway.
"If I’ve got good legs you’ll know about it - I’ll try to attack and get away and if I’m not solo then I’ve already lost,” he laughed.
The Melbourne to Warrnambool will deliver the second round of racing in the ProVelo Super League, following on from the three-stage South Australia opener from January 18 to 20. The race finishing on Raglan Parade in Warrnambool will be the first of the one-day Classics nestled in among the four three-day stage races.
